Today's Post of the Day- Healthy Left = Healthy Right

is here. It is well worth reading. It helped me, among other things, figure out an answer to my wife's quesion. She can't understand why I care about Ward Churchill. I'm white, and she's Hawaiian, I'm conservative, and she's a moderate lefty, so if anybody should be pissed off about someone falsely claiming to be indigenous it should be her.

I guess I'm pissed at him because of the his Eichmann comments, but more than that I'm pissed off because people like him have hijacked the left. The right NEEDS a healthy left, both to counter us when we go too far right, but also to inform us when we overlook things we're less inclined to notice.

Cernig's excellent post is one example of this. Another is this comment, by Salsafighter, from a debate on the Brazlian Jiu Jitsu board I visit.

Pan Africanism has always been interesting to me in the sense that we share some aspects of a common ancestory, but it is an American concept. I don't believe it is particularly relevant to compare the success of a cab driver from Eritrea (sp) to the plight of a black man who has lineage in this country that goes back over 400 years. The cab driver can use the system as it exist today because of the struggle of African Americans who came before him. Without that struggle, you would not even recognize him as a cab driver from Eritrea, you would recognize him as another black man....or perhaps worse.

It is a bit embarassing to admit- but the fact is I never really considered the above. And it is self-evidently true- obvious- the moment you read it. So a thoughtful lefty just opened my eyes to something that, thoughtful righty that I am, I would never have seen. This goes on all over, all the time, I'm sure. But it happens less and less as the left goes more and more crazy.

The Churchill/Michael Moore faction of the left damages the moderate left's ability to win elections and wield influence, but those of us on the right should not be happy about this. Because that faction also seriously impairs the right's ability to wield the power it has wisely.

That's the main reason I hate Churchill. (Let's see if the wife buys it.)

Update: Sasso, from the BJJ board, questions whether or not I'm sure Salsafigher is 'a lefty'. I'm NOT 100% sure Salsafighter IS a lefty, it is an assumption I've made based on some of his comments. He hasn't identified himself as such. Sasso also implies that the main reason I hate Churchill is not as stated above. But it really is. This country once had two serious political parties. Now it has one. People like Churchill are the reason.