Am I liberal or conservative? Its certainly hard to tell from this weblog: I was looking through my recent entries when I observed an interesting juxtaposition -- I claimed that liberals were either hypocritical or obsessive and dumb in this post; two days afterward I wrote this, arguing that over-representation of stupid people among conservatives explains their relative scarcity in academia.

In a nutshell, I am a 2000 Democrat. In 2000, as Clinton was leaving the presidency, I agreed with Democrats on every single conceivable issue, with the exception of affirmative action. I have not grown more conservative since then; rather, the Democratic party has shifted to the left into positions it never espoused during the Clinton years: skepticism about free trade, criticism of US intervention abroad, abandonment of fiscal conservatism (Kerry never promised a balanced budget).

I wish I could freeze 2000 and make it last forever. A high tech bubble that provided jobs for every well-educated person who sought them; Clinton was the president of the United States; a balanced budget and projections of a rosy economic future; politics was simple -- there were two parties, one made up of reflexive isolationists who wanted to force Christian conservative values on the rest of the country; the other championed humanitarian intervention abroad, supported free trade, and fought efforts to undermine the separation of church and state. The isolationists nominated a bumbling dolt for president while the other party nominated a savvy, intelligent policy wonk -- it did not take me long to figure out who I was going to vote for in the 2000 election.

Its too bad its all irrevocably lost.