"As right-wing politicians and pundits call us stooges for Osama bin Laden, Tony Judt charges, in a widely discussed and heatedly debated essay in the London Review of Books, that American liberals -- without distinction -- have "acquiesced in President Bush's catastrophic foreign policy." Both claims are nonsense on stilts.Clearly this is a moment for liberals to define ourselves. The important truth is that most liberals, including the undersigned, have stayed our course throughout these grim five years. We have consistently and publicly repudiated the ruinous policies of the Bush administration, and our diagnosis, alas, has been vindicated by events. The Bush debacle is a direct consequence of its repudiation of liberal principles. And if the country is to recover, we should begin by restating these principles."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Historians from EnglandEssayists from EnglandJews from the United KingdomUniversity of Cambridge facultyEducators from England
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Bruce Ackerman and Todd Gitlin, "We Answer to the Name of Liberals" (October 22, 2006)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Judt
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Tony Judt
Tony Robert Judt (2 January 1948 – 6 August 2010) was a British historian, essayist, and university professor who specialized in European history.
129 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Tony Judt →
Related Quotes
"Some people, myself included, advocated foreign intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo while opposing our adventure in Ira…"
"My concern tonight is the following: Why is it that here in the United States we have such difficulty even imagining …"
"What, then, is to be done? We have to begin with the state: as the incarnation of collective interests, collective pu…"
"I was brought up on English food. But not fish and chips, spotted dick, toad in the hole, Yorkshire pud, or other del…"
"We don’t live in a world of fixed historical laws that says the—as you describe it—liberal state was born at a partic…"
"What’s missing from public conversation and public policy conversation is precisely a sort of moral underpinning, a s…"
"One of the very few things that I know I believe strongly is that we must learn how to make a better world out of usa…"
"Where does that leave me? Trying, as usual, to square general truths with particular circumstances. That’s the differ…"
"God knows I can think of enough things that I did wrong both personally and as part of my cohort. But I never abandon…"
"It is the liberals, then, who count. They are, as it might be, the canaries in the sulphurous mineshaft of modern dem…"