Two messages hit my inbox at about the same time this evening. The first:

I discovered your blog today, and I am astonished. How can you consider yourself a liberal and toil for Fox (Faux) news? Or are you a typical lying Republican?

And the second:

I am a 20 year old from Tyler, TX currently attending college with a declared major in political science. Up until this point, I had always been aware that I contained within myself a strange mixture of liberal and conservative viewpoints which I never had a word to describe. I have always tended to be socially liberal, and yet felt passionately that about limited government and the need to restrain federal power (a traditionally conservative viewpoint). Enter the Agitator, your blog which I somehow mysteriously stumbled across in the vast jungle known as the Internet. I finally have a word to attach to my political beliefs: libertarian. I have found your website to be truly informative, concise, and witty, even though the latter may not be the purpose of it. I feel strongly that too many of our fellow Americans today are ready to roll over and give the government new powers in the name of combating terrorism or any other number of problems which plague our society. As we have all observed, though, give government an inch and it will take a mile. The recent rulings from the Supreme Court have dismayed me (esp. the medical marijuana ruling), and made me a bit stand-offish as to the liberal side these days. In the 2004 election, the first I was eligible to vote in, I voted Democrat - we shall see what my future ballots will say. In any event, thank you for the invaluable service which you provide to the American public, and the worldwide public, on your Blog, alerting us to the encroachments our federal (and state) governments are making on our everyday lives. The world could use more people such as yourself.

Nice contrast, eh? Think I’ll disregard the first, and revel in the second.

Truth is, I’ve gotten several messages from 20ish folks who’ve said the left’s posturing on Raich and Kelo have turned them off to (modern) liberalism.

To which I say…

Welcome!

Incidentally, I’m trying to catch up on a backlog of email. If I haven’t responded to a message you’ve sent, don’t be offended. Just swamped at the moment.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 27th, 2005 at 10:04 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.