Goldberg interview
Posted by Richard on July 6, 2005
Be sure to read Captain Ed’s two-part interview with Bernard Goldberg (part 1, part 2) regarding Goldberg’s new book, The 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (And Al Franken Is #37). Fascinating. I’ve seen Goldberg described as having moved from strongly liberal to libertarian/conservative. Captain Ed asked him if he considers himself more conservative now:
BG: Yeah, that’s a good question. The answer is yes, because liberals have made it really difficult for a lot of us to be liberals. What I said was that I was a liberal in the old-fashioned sense. I was a liberal the way Hubert Humphrey and John Kennedy were liberals. But I am not — underline not — a liberal the way Al Franken and Michael Moore are liberals. They have made it more and more difficult. I’ll tell you, I think most liberals in this country are decent people. They go to jobs, they work hard, they support their families, they care about their mother, their kids, their wives, their husbands – that’s not the issue.
The issue is the people who speak loudest for the liberals, the voice of Liberal America. They are the ones doing a lot of harm to this culture. …
…
… I’ll tell you what, and this is really important. Even when I agree with liberals on this issue or that issue, I no longer want to be associated with them, because they’re elitist snobs. Again, these are the ones who speak for liberalism in America, the ones who speak the loudest. They’re liberal snobs, and I’m with Tom Wolfe, who recently said, “I want it registered that I’m not one of them.” …
I can relate to that sentiment. In the wake of 9/11 and leading up to the Iraq invasion, I spent a lot of time learning about Islam and terrorist organizations, reading widely, and rethinking some long-held beliefs. I was very much in doubt about a lot of things, but there was one thing about which I quickly became certain: even if I concluded that the Bush doctrine was wrong, I’d be embarrassed to be associated with the people on the left who shared that belief.
(BTW, the book link is copied from Captain’s Quarters; I’m not an Amazon affiliate, but he is, so buy the book using his link to thank him for the interview.)
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