TLP Week In Review, 11/5-11/11
Your weekly summary of what we've been up to here at The Liberal Patriot.
What We’re Reading (and Watching and Listening To…)
“America rediscovers the Middle East through Israel's war on Gaza”: TLP editor-at large Brian Katulis writes that the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has forced America to re-engage in the Middle East in ways that the Biden administration had tried to avoid in its first two-and-a-half years in office. And as the war goes on, “it is important to keep in mind that wars have an unpredictable way of shifting political dynamics in a society.”
“Even the Oppressed Have Obligations”: In The Atlantic, philosopher Michael Walzer blasts voices on the left making excuses for the October 7 pogrom perpetrated by Hamas, observing that the terrorist group “is a vanguard that isn’t looking for an organized rear guard. It is an elite of ready-to-be-martyrs who plan to liberate Palestine and eliminate Israel—not by themselves but only with those allies who won’t challenge their supremacy… The resort to terror follows. It is the natural expression of this kind of politics.”
“The Left’s Growing Antisemitism Problem”: In The Bulwark, David Masciotra warns that anti-Semitism is now thriving on the progressive left in the United States and, in addition to constituting “a moral outrage in itself… could also undermine progressive politics, robbing it of intellectual and ethical credibility in its fight against the nationalist-populist right.” “The contradictions” between the left’s slogans and its anti-Semitism ‘"are too obvious and hideous for reasonable people to ignore.”
Every Man For Himself and God Against All: The legendary, idiosyncratic German filmmaker Werner Herzog tells his life story, from his youth in post-World War II Bavaria to his long and unlikely career in cinema—throwing in wild anecdotes of his grueling vagabond adventures, the eccentric personalities he encountered along the way, and the time he once almost murdered the “maniac” actor (and five-time Herzog collaborator) Klaus Kinski.
Nation of Language @ The Atlantis: DMV area fans of bands like New Order, Future Islands, and Beach House should check out this young Brooklyn synth-pop outfit this Saturday night at The Atlantis, the 9:30 Club’s tiny nostalgia venue.
What We’ve Posted
“Democrats Win a Status-Quo Election” by TLP contributor Michael Baharaeen.
“What It Will Take to Make America Great: A response to Michael Kazin's review of Where Have All the Democrats Gone?” by TLP contributor John B. Judis and TLP politics editor Ruy Teixeira.
“Where Have All the Democrats Gone? A Review from the Left” by Georgetown historian Michael Kazin.
“America Can’t Go It Alone in the Middle East” by TLP editor-at-large Brian Katulis.
“Where Have All the Democrats Gone?” by TLP contributor John B. Judis and TLP politics editor Ruy Teixeira.
“Cultural Realism in K-12 and Higher Education” by TLP contributor Rick Kahlenberg.
Ruy’s Science-Fiction Pulp Cover of the Week
Just one more thing…
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now: perusing an online auction, a British researcher discovered the original late Victorian-era photograph of an old man with a bundle of sticks used by Led Zeppelin as cover art for the band’s iconic untitled fourth album.
