No longer a brain-dead liberal

Hat Tip to Save The GOP for pointing out a column in The Village Voice by David Mamet, a self-desribed liberal who finally came to his senses.

In "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'" Mamet admits that the "liberal" view of the world he has held since the 1960s was all wrong.

This is very long (and rambling) article but it's worth reading.

Mamet writes:

"And, I wondered, how could I have spent decades thinking that I thought everything was always wrong at the same time that I thought I thought that people were basically good at heart? Which was it? I began to question what I actually thought and found that I do not think that people are basically good at heart; indeed, that view of human nature has both prompted and informed my writing for the last 40 years. I think that people, in circumstances of stress, can behave like swine, and that this, indeed, is not only a fit subject, but the only subject, of drama."

The part where he compares the Bush presidency to the Kennedy administration is sure to send left-wingers over the edge:

"Bush got us into Iraq, JFK into Vietnam. Bush stole the election in Florida; Kennedy stole his in Chicago. Bush outed a CIA agent; Kennedy left hundreds of them to die in the surf at the Bay of Pigs. Bush lied about his military service; Kennedy accepted a Pulitzer Prize for a book written by Ted Sorenson. Bush was in bed with the Saudis, Kennedy with the Mafia. Oh."

In the end, Mamet realizes that government is never the answer for any problems:

"What about the role of government? Well, in the abstract, coming from my time and background, I thought it was a rather good thing, but tallying up the ledger in those things which affect me and in those things I observe, I am hard-pressed to see an instance where the intervention of the government led to much beyond sorrow. But if the government is not to intervene, how will we, mere human beings, work it all out? I wondered and read, and it occurred to me that I knew the answer, and here it is: We just seem to."

Something for every American to think about as we prepare to pick the next president. The choice is one of two Democrats who want to expand the government's role in your life and a Republican who wants less government.