[Vision2020] "Liberals" Slammed For Pro-Business CBD Stance?

[Ted Moffett]

All:

I find it odd in the extreme that the decision to maintain the debate about
the business focus of the CBD by the Moscow City Council and Mayor Nancy
Cheney, in the resent decision to take more time to consider the granting of
a CUP to NSA, has been labeled "liberal" and "leftist" by some in local
media.

Are not "leftists" and "liberals" those who take a more anti-business stance
regarding how government regulation impacts the so called "free market,"
than "right wingers" and "conservatives?"

If NSA could be replaced in the CBD by a free market profit making
capitalist business (NSA could simply move outside the CBD), why is this not
to the liking of those free market capitalist advocates (those who often are
called conservatives or right wingers), who ostensibly seek to promote the
inherent value of such institutions in our society?

It seems in this case that the so called liberals are championing capitalism
in their critical view of NSA's activity in the CBD, while the so called
conservatives are actually taking a stance in favor of a non-profit
institution, whose goals are ostensibly not those of making a buck and
getting rich offering goods or services.  Indeed, NSA is above this sort of
crass capitalism, is it not?  Or am I wrong?  I might actually respect
NSA in this regard, with some serious qualifications, if indeed they serve
higher goals than making a killing worshiping the almighty dollar.  But
business is business, and worshiping the almighty dollar is what the CBD is
ostensibly about, I assume.  Again, am I wrong?

Are those who defend NSA "socialists," if they defend NSA against the pure
goals of capitalism that the CBD might be considered to embody?

The simple minded labeling of those who oppose NSA's presence in the CBD as
"liberals" or "leftists" reflects the common practice of utilizing a
polarizing linear sort of thinking in political/economic thought, that does
a disservice to a detailed critical political analysis that recognizes the
full complexity of political/economic ideology, ideology that often does not
fit the Procrustean bed that demands political opinions must be either
"left" or "right."

This is reflected more broadly in the current muddle headed nonsense about
President Bush being a "conservative," while he has recklessly spent half a
trillion dollars on a foolish war in Iraq with little chance of success.

The war in Iraq strikes me as a classic wasteful liberal boondoggle of the
most extreme sort!

Promoting NSAs presence in the CBD also could be deconstructed as reflective
of a religious oriented liberal agenda.

Ted Moffett
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