Bidinotto:Reflections on the Republican betrayal of individualism

Reflections on the Republican betrayal of individualism is a must read (emphasis added):

With the recent gasoline price crisis, congressional Republicans had a matchless opportunity to rally public opinion in order to steamroll radical environmentalists, and, at long last, open taboo regions -- such as the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, and offshore regions in the Pacific -- to fossil fuel exploration.

But no. Once again, in the face of moral opposition -- and just as they did after their 1994 "Republican Revolution" against "big government" -- the congressional Republicans have blinked, and backed down. As a result, they have now guaranteed that those vital resources will remain undeveloped for the foreseeable future -- and thus have also guaranteed our continuing dependence on the anti-American Muslim world for our energy needs...a dependency that is directly causing the deaths and crippling of thousands of brave young American soldiers.

Okay, I have had it.

Not a damned thing distinguishes the Republicans from the Democrats anymore...not a damned thing...

...To the Left, government should whip individuals into collective lockstep regarding its PC-egalitarian agenda on such issues as smoking, diets, guns, cars, nature-worship, land use, political speech and rhetoric, equality of income and "access" to things that don't belong to you, drafting kids for "national service," using schools to push PC propaganda, etc.

To the Right, government should whip individuals into collective lockstep regarding its traditional moral agenda, including abortion, sex, Darwin, cultural speech and rhetoric, marriage, national demographic purity, drafting kids for military service, using schools to push religious values, etc. Neither side wants a
government of limited powers, and rejects the initiation of force against others.

Neither side respects individual rights, and rejects using the "fearful" power of government to compel the independent individual to toe its party line. Neither side recognizes property rights, and rejects the redistributionist welfare state.

More fundamentally, neither side rejects the cannibalistic "morality" of sacrificing the individual to the group.

Left and Right both agree that the individual is their private plaything, a sacrificial lamb for their respective pet causes. The only thing that they really disagree about is which individuals they are going to sacrifice, for whose benefit, and in the name of what cause...

Hat Tip: Coyote Blog