I'm just suprised to hear a Republican here saying it. I consider myself to be center right in politics, I just don't believe the Bush administration has a coherent policy. The left learned their lesson well before the Communist countries started falling apart, now it's just a form of insurance companies owned by the state. Nothing wrong with insurance, nationalising some parts of it makes it cover more peoplejust like nationalising town planning, defense, policing, etc.
Add to that a minimum wage, unionisation, safety regulations, dovish foreign policy, consumer protection and moderate progressive taxation and that's all the left stands for these days. Nothing about getting rid of capitalism in any western left platform these days.
The right on the other hand has an ideological platform that is extreme as the worst of the left ever was. That's the problem and that why leftist blogs, etc attack the right because of their extremism which basically advocates the removal of all the policies the left endorse. There's no balance, there's a moderate left and a right pining for their annihilation. The right can't prove these extremist ideas work any more than the extreme left ever could, simply because neither ideology works when pushed to its extremes. When you push one side too hard they get angry and push back, and they don't stop until the balance is restored.
Indeed a problem on the left is they don't like the idea of supporting Bush drunk or sober, whether it's with power or alcohol. They don't agree that he did the right thing in Iraq just like 90% of the rest of the world didn't agree. And they all think they were vindicated. And they don't like being called unpatriotic for not supporting the drunken Bush either.
Sometimes it's hard to break that blind obedience to an extreme, because it makes things appear so certain. unfortunately it doesn't work in the real world, I was just a little shocked from hearing Tom something sensible on economics. Even ebnelson has a glimmer of reason every now and then. As to whether this is a widening crack in their overall blind loyalty remains to be seen.