The Right believes that not labeling such regimes ‘evil’ is a sign of moral confusion and appeasement.
The Left is preoccupied with health. Leftist parents are more likely to believe that it is preferable that their teenager cheat on a test than smoke.
Parents on the Right are more likely to believe that it is better that their teenager smoke than cheat.
The Left believes that just as America and the Soviet Union were equally responsible for the Cold War, Israel and the Palestinians are equally responsible for Middle East violence.
The Right believes that just as the Soviets were responsible for the Cold War, the Arab enemies of Israel are responsible for Middle East violence.
The Left believes that criticism of Christianity is important and that criticism of Islam is bigoted.
The Right believes that criticism of Islam is important and that most criticism of Christianity is bigoted.
Added together, the differences suggest people who live in different worlds that are on a collision course.
I am well aware that not everyone on the Left agrees with every leftist position and not everyone on the Right agrees with every rightist one. Nat Hentoff is a leftist who doesn’t support abortion rights; Pat Buchanan is a rightist who doesn’t support Israel. But the existence of individual exceptions does not negate the fact that all the positions listed here as Left or Right are correctly labeled.
The fact is that this country is profoundly divided on virtually every major social, personal and political issue. We are in the midst of the Second American Civil War. Who wins it will determine the nature of this country as much as the winner of the first did.
