The liberal consensus and the politics of intolerance

In defense of freedom of speech -- and of blogger Lionheart.

I watched something interesting on Dutch public television yesterday night. Former minister and now member of parliament for the market-friendly VVD party Henk Kamp consulted the online Electoral Compass USA, and found out he is ideologically closest to Hillary Clinton, followed by John Edwards and Barack Obama. He himself said to feel more connected to the latter, however; the fact that Hillary's success depends for a large part on her husband's past achievements he did not like very much. (See picture below for my own result.)

This is a guy who is supposed to represent the conservative wing of our formerly most "right-wing" party (that is, until the emergence of "populist" parties on the right). Admittedly, from following Dutch media coverage of the American pre-election season, one might conclude that only Democratic candidates participate. But this fact alone cannot be a sufficient explanation for Kamp's liberal bias.

Another incident also demonstrated the lack of serious conservative alternatives in Dutch politics and media. The very successful "right-wing" weblog GeenStijl -- featuring politically-incorrect and often hilariously sarcastic analyses on issues including immigration, integration, left-wing radicalism, and the welfare-dependent underclass -- held a poll among its visitors. It turned out that 41 percent of them would vote for Hillary Clinton had they been American citizens, followed by 32 percent for Barack Obama.

These are interesting facts. They show that the right wing of the Dutch political spectrum is in fact equivalent with -- at best -- the center of American politics. It testifies to my long-held opinion that we are being paralyzed by a choking liberal consensus. (Indeed, if the opposite were true, that American rather than European media and politics are extremely biased, such enlightened figures as Michael Moore and Oprah Winfrey would simply not exist in the United States.) And the Netherlands are not alone, of course. It made me remember the former Clinton administration official who moved to London after his tenure, and found out -- to his own delight -- that the Liberal, Labour and Conservative Party more or less reflected his personal political views.

Perhaps this liberal consensus, openly intolerant of opinions critical of its policies of multiculturalism and socialism, is the driving force behind the planned arrest of British blogger Lionheart on the grounds of inciting racial hatred: "I am currently out of the Country and on my return home to England I am going to be arrested by British detectives on suspicion of Stirring up Racial Hatred by displaying written material" contrary to sections 18(1) and 27(3) of the Public Order Act 1986. This charge if found guilty carries a lengthy prison sentence, more than what most paedophiles and rapists receive, and all for writing words of truth about the barbarity that is living in the midst of our children, which threatens the very future of our Country."

Here is yet another disgraceful product of bankrupt, yet all too popular, liberal ideals, which should be met with outrage all over the Western world. If we don't speak out today, it might be too late tomorrow; Dutch prime minister Jan-Peter Balkenende recently said (NL) in a television interview that his government is planning to make an extra effort to prevent society from becoming more polarized, referring to old but hitherto dormant hate-speech laws. (Of course, he refused to answer repeated questions as to whether this new policy would target Geert Wilders's confrontational politics as well.)

One Dane has already written a letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown concerning these politics of intolerance aimed at Lionheart. Atlas Shrugs devoted an article to this disgrace, and fellow Dutch blogger R. Hartman (from whom I learned about the incident) wrote about it as well, concluding that "Freedom of Speech is on the way out fast in the formerly free Western world." Please allow me to be next. Hopefully many will follow.