Reply #12: When did the right leave civilization?

[despairing optimist]

The Constitution was written to preserve property and privilege. It is in the right's interest to support all laws serving that goal.

I think you are confusing "civilization" with the state. The state has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, whether the state is controlled by the right or the left. And sadly, fascism was an outgrowth of the right and the part of civilization that it represented in an effort to channel the coercive powers of the state toward its desired ends.

Much as I abhor fascism, I can't agree that the right, ipso facto, is not a part of civilization just because I wish it were so. That's the way fundies of all stripes think, and it's what got * a second term.

And the right will always exist. At any given time and in any situation, there will be groups of people who want to stay the course and resist change, and there will be people who start out as reformers and become part of the system once they've changed it. In other words, today's left can become tomorrow's right.

So I think that rather than saying that the right will wither away, it may be better to say that a new left will be born as the old one gets co-opted. In any event, we're in for interesting times, as the Chinese curse goes.