Pardon my confusion, but I’ve been wondering: Where does the American left stand on the many courtesies Columbia University is extending to Mahmoud Ahmadenijad?  And what do America’s progressives have to say, if anything, about the even more disgusting idea that Ahmadenijad pay a gloating visit to Ground Zero?

The questions are more than rhetorical.  To date, the silence from the American left on these matters has been deafening. Unless I’ve missed something, the doyenne of American liberalism and the house organ for the Democratic Party, the Grey Lady herself, has uttered nary a peep on the matter.  But who’s kidding who?  The New York Times doesn’t set anyone’s agenda these days.  The Democratic Party responds much more eagerly to the whims and desires of creatures like the Daily Kos and Moveon.org.

Moveon.org is obviously too busy sliming four-star generals to wade into this fray.  But what of the bloggers?  Oddly, not  a single Daily Kos front pager has addressed the matter.  But hey – that’s just one blog and they like to focus on politics.  What’s really unnerving is, to the best of my knowledge, not a single prominent left wing blogger has addressed the Mahdi’s forthcoming visit and Columbia’s moral obtuseness.

Again, you’ve got to wonder why.  The facile explanation would be that the American left so thoroughly despises George W. Bush that it instinctively empathizes with anyone hostile to Bush, not bothering to ponder whether any such figure may bear ill-will not only for George W. Bush but for all Americans.  Some of us remember when the Mahdi appeared on “60 Minutes” and the Daily Kos inmates gushed over his “intelligence” and “saviness”, with one commenter even bluntly declaring, “I like the guy.”  Unfortunately, that commenter didn’t elaborate whether what he liked most about Ahmadenijad was his plan for annihilating Israel or making homosexual dalliances a capital offense.

To get the true answer, you’ve got to dig a little deeper.  MSNBC commentator and former congressman Joe Scarborough is a conservative guy (sort of), and also a smart one (double that previous “sort of”).  In a blog post for today’s Puffington Host addressing the fact that Moveon.org is becoming a Democratic albatross, Scarborough wrote:

“Come on. This really shouldn't be that hard. The White House is the Democrats' to lose.

“The president and his war are overwhelmingly unpopular.”

I don’t know whether Scarborough meant the last part rhetorically, but regardless he has picked up and extended a critical meme of modern liberal thinking – it’s President Bush’s war.  This couldn’t be more wrong, both factually and morally.  Regardless who started it and how it began, it is now an American war.  Those aren’t Republican soldiers fighting in Iraq.  They are American soldiers.  And the Jihadists like Ahmadenijad won’t target a “Republican city” for their next terrorist attack.  They will target an American city.

Why have American liberals been silent regarding Ahmadenijad doing Manhattan?  Because they have forgotten that he is America’s enemy, and that they are part of America even though they didn’t vote for the current Oval Office occupant.

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