2. A great deal of political hypocrisy is involved because one side postulates that it has the noble cause and the other side should not have the right to answer back because it is not morally equivalent. Herbert Marcuse of the New Left and Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson of the Enlightenment were founders of this political tradition. Woodrow Wilson succeeded in achieving what his predecessors failed to achieve—persecute and jail his political opponents for his noble causes. During World War I opponents of the war and draft were jailed including the Socialist candidate for president. After the war, the Palm Raids then hurt liberals and radicals. Senator Harry Read continues their tradition of slime. Legend claims that Voltaire was willing to defend other people’s opinions even if he disagreed with them. In reality, he excluded Jews and Roman Catholics from this umbrella of thought. In public, Thomas Jefferson proclaimed his love for liberty of the press over that of government. However, he tried shut down the opposition press through libel suits. Marcuse originated the modern theory that there is no moral equivalence and only one side, his side, the left side, could possibly be right. George Washington and John Adams cautioned Marquis de Lafayette on the course of the French Revolution because it offered no protection for minority opinions. Jefferson celebrated the bloodshed of the French Revolution but to admit two decades later that George and John had been right.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 05:50:08 +0000
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