I discovered this quote from John Lloyd while I was browsing the web last night and came across an article entitled ‘Lefties for the war’ that I’d missed back in the heat of the pre-war debate.
I think Lloyd explains in a positive way something that my left critics here have been repeating for the past few months as a criticism:
“When I ceased to be a communist and therefore ditched an essentially undemocratic philosophy, I adopted democracy as a new faith with the real fervour of the convert. We centre-left ex-communists believe passionately in democracy because we’ve reasoned ourselves towards it, so we are
perhaps more prepared to support wars that establish or defend it.
“We are articulating the democrats’ case for war. Our belief is that the revolution that has really lasted is the democratic revolution emerging from France and the US in the 18th century. We believe that liberal democracy still holds out a promise to all societies – all our political values are based on this – so we must support those who are fighting for it within their own societies, like in Iraq.”
That seems to sum things up pretty well as far as this ex-communist is concerned.
