The
Forward devotes an article to Dissent, the tiny journal of responsible Leftist thinking. Last week, I linked to an essay there on
civic nationalism, religion, and the Left Go read it if you didn't already.
Whereas many on the left cringed at the surge in displays of patriotism in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon — with Nation columnist Katha Pollitt memorably tsk-tsking that the American flag "stands for jingoism and vengeance and war" — Dissent contributors have called for the left to embrace patriotism. And Dissent's editors, while opposing Israel's settlement policies, have been notably more sympathetic to Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians than have many other writers for left-wing publications.
"I hope [these stances] add up to a coherent picture of a magazine whose editors are committed to fostering a left that isn't so radically alienated from American society that it cannot speak to our fellow citizens," said Dissent's co-editor, Michael Walzer. Walzer, a pioneer of "just war" theory, has written that he would oppose a war for regime change in Iraq, but would support one if it was necessary to enforce the United Nations weapons inspections.
Dissent has a long honorable history of, well, dissenting from the left orthodoxies of its time:
Gerald Sorin, author of a recent book about Dissent's late founder, titled Irving Howe: A Life of Passionate Dissent (New York University), said that Dissent's role since the September 11 attacks is consistent with its history. Indeed, the socialist literary critic Howe founded the journal in 1954 in order to provide a home for radicals who were deeply anti-Stalinist.
During the 1960s, members of the Dissent circle clashed with some activists on the New Left whom, according to Sorin, they regarded as "romantic revolutionaries, in a non-revolutionary context" and "illiberal." More recently, many at Dissent supported the 1991 Gulf War and American intervention in the Balkans, although Sorin said these were subjects of debate in the journal. "There's a left that assumes that everything that is wrong with the world is the fault of the United States, and Dissent simply never took that position," he said.
Even David Horowitz, dragon-slayer of leftist stupidities, admires
Dissent's principled stands:
During the Sixties Dissent’s founder Irving Howe symbolized the resistance within the left to the totalitarian elements who came to dominate its decade. Although in the 1980s its editors were seduced into a "critical" defense of the Nicaraguan regime, they have an otherwise honorable record of having opposed Communism throughout the Cold War, even if they only grudgingly supported or – worse – were often excessively critical of America’s efforts to contain the Communist threat.
One of the editors, Michael Walzer,
caused a stir with a response to leftist breast-beating after 9-11,
"Can There Be a Decent Left?" He says,
"The response that I've gotten has been pretty much 50-50 furious attacks and people who express gratitude."
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