Matt Welch on the "Axis of Evil":
Without commenting on the propriety of Bush’s usage of “axis,” I find it interesting how many on the Left have a knee-jerk hostility to the word “evil,” and are still hung up about Ronald Reagan's usage of it. If there were two things the Left could never stop taunting Reagan for, it was his Evil Empire quote, and his exhortation to Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” It seems to me rather obvious that, in these two cases, Reagan was right, and his hecklers (which included me at the time) were wrong. Facing this honestly should have been the first priority of every “progressive” since November 1989.
There's certainly reason to question the literal accuracy of the word "axis," let alone its propriety, to describe the malfeasance of the three countries in question. But to shrink from the word "evil" in this situation is perverse. It's yet another example of the contemporary Left's nostalgia-driven inability, thus far, to "update" itself and engage with today's world. Until they manage to do that, today's Leftists doom themselves to impotence and irrelevance, even when they do happen to be on the right side of this or that dispute.
Posted by Dr. Frank at February 5, 2002 04:53 PM | TrackBack