And Andrew Sullivan points out quite forthrightly that Stalinism remains alive and well on the Left today, in the demand that one sacrifice independent thought for ideological purity.

I can't say I read him very often but I came across this chilling post of his from last week. It's an attack on any independent thought outside of the situational demands of a political coalition. It is a full-throated and not-even-regretful support for the subjugation of free inquiry and free ideas to the demands of political organization. It makes Sidney Blumenthal seem intellectually honest. Money quote:

Roger Cohen may feel like he is a liberal hawk, and thus distinct. But what Roger Cohen feels does not matter, because Roger Cohen does not control any branch of the American military. Who he empowers, and which actors in American politics find their ideas legitimized by his columns, is all that matters. And in that, he is worse than a neoconservative. He's a liberal hawk who knows better, but whose interest in writing about his own virtue overwhelms his judgments concerning the actual actions of those who wield power. He is not a neoconservative. He is a narcissist.

Klein slips in a bogus word here: feels. Cohen doesn't feel he is a liberal hawk; he believes he is. He has arguments to make, arguments that can be agreed with or disagreed with, but that have merits of their own that should be addressed regardless of the arrangement of political power at the time. This isn't narcissism; it is the duty of any writer and thinker to state his own views as best he can without concern for how the world might greet them, who might use them unfairly, or who might expropriate them for insincere purposes. Without this independence, a writer is merely a hack. Or, worse for a writer, an activist.

Now I'll be honest -- I am not always a fan of Sullivan, and I view him as being completely wrong-headed on a number of issues, especially as regards his comments on people of faith daring to participate in the political process. But here he points to a really dangerous notion swirling on the Left -- that the needs and ideology of the Party must take precedence over the free and forthright expression of one's own views.

The Washington Post reported on such demands for ideological purity yesterday.

Sounds more like these folks have taken the CPUSA from the 1930s to the 1950s as their model. But then again, we should have known that from watching their treatment of Joe Lieberman last year.

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