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The New York Times makes a late April Fool's joke [1]

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Date: 2023-04-11  

Boy, this is just sad.

The Times has printed an editorial piece from conservative Bret Stephens that’s headlined: “Liberals Have a Blind Spot on Defense.”

But when you actually read Stephens’ piece, all he does is cite Democrats’ support of arming Ukraine.

Go ahead, read the damn thing.

In January, a Pew Research survey found that 63 percent of Democrats thought that U.S. support for Ukraine was either “about right” or “not enough.” Just 15 percent thought it was too much. By contrast, just 41 percent of Republicans thought that Washington’s support for Ukraine was either adequate or insufficient. A nearly equal share, 40 percent, thought it was too much. [***] The impulses contained in Donald Trump’s America First rhetoric — skeptical of foreign entanglements, parsimonious with taxpayer dollars — echo those of Robert Taft and Calvin Coolidge. By contrast, the instinct to arm Ukraine arises from the sort of moral convictions that also animated Franklin Roosevelt’s support for Britain in 1941 and Harry Truman’s stand in Berlin in 1948: a matter of keeping faith with democratic underdogs squaring off against aggressive tyrants.

OK then. Is there something Democrats did wrong here?

Wait, Stephens cites … comedian Jon Stewart, as espousing what (I guess) Stephens deems as liberal hypocrisy.

Liberals and progressives tend to be reflexively skeptical of military spending: “Waste, fraud and abuse” is a favorite phrase of Pentagon critics like Jon Stewart, never mind that it’s endemic to almost all government bureaucracies, including unemployment insurance and Medicaid. They’re also fond of citing Dwight Eisenhower’s warning from 1961 about the military-industrial complex, never mind that the complex is nothing like its former self. For purposes of comparison, the market cap of Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. defense contractor, is roughly 5 percent that of Apple.

OK then. Jon Stewart may have echoed “liberal” misgivings about defense spending (Stewart’s actual point was in defense of ordinary soldiers who suffer harm through Pentagon negligence, including “food insecurity” and other manifestations of a bloated, unaccountable budget). I ascribe to Stewart’s views. The military should take better care of its soldiers, and should be far more accountable than it is. Does that make my support of arming Ukraine here a “blind spot?” In light of Roosevelts’ and Trumans’ tenure in office, and all they accomplished, I think not. They were Democrats, and so are we here. And, yeah, for the record, I agree with Eisenhower’s point.

But maybe you want to talk about Social Security, Bret? Or a five-day workweek? Or integrating the armed forces? Those things aren’t mutually exclusive to a strong military, particularly in the face of of a brutal dictatorship that actually threatens us. Roosevelt and Truman actually proved that. It’s always been about policy, the way resources are used.

We can walk and chew gum at the same time, Bret. We always could.

You just didn’t realize it.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/11/2163447/-The-New-York-Times-makes-a-late-April-Fool-s-joke

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