The Missing (Two-part) Viewpoint

Submitted by Ron Thompson (United States), Apr 10, 2016 at 16:36

It certainly makes sense that readers of Daniel Pipes' website would strongly prefer Trump to H. Clinton, even if two-thirds of that support is reluctant.
What distresses this reader is the apparent compete absence of any political leader or well-known public intellectual who both opposes either "Islamism" or Islam itself, AND at the same time opposes the extremist Capitalism that has been embraced by the Republican party for over 20 years.
Gone are any voices on the Left, even the moderate or 'centrist' Left, that are in the tradition of FDR, who stoutly resisted and spoke against Nazism in the 1930's and Harry Truman, who stoutly resisted and spoke against (and followed strong polices against) Communism in the late 1940's and 50's, while at the same time they supported a rational social safety net and increased economic fairness.

So we are left with one party espousing a sort of extremist Pacifism in foreign affairs on the left and the other espousing an extremist Capitalism on the right.

Where is the leader or respected thinker who sees and discusses the danger in both those policies. And is there any electorate that would respond to such a leader?

The absence of such a Two-pronged Viewpoint - more economic fairness at home (and abroad), and more opposition to the religio-political-military ideology of Islam abroad (and at home).
That is the great danger and potential tragedy of our time, in my view.

ps The closest to a voice on the Left may be Tony Blair, who recently said, "Many Muslims have beliefs which are fundamentally incompatible with Modernity". In spite of his unpopularity, is that a start? I see no counterpart on the Right.

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