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Carl Oglesby: New Left, Old Right

“In a strong sense, the Old Right and the New Left are morally and politically coordinate.” Students for a Democratic Society leader Carl Oglesby, who died Tuesday, was largely correct about that. As Bill Kauffman wrote in our pages three years ago: Oglesby rejected the “socialist radical, the corporatist conservative, and the welfare-state liberal” and […]

“In a strong sense, the Old Right and the New Left are morally and politically coordinate.” Students for a Democratic Society leader Carl Oglesby, who died Tuesday, was largely correct about that. As Bill Kauffman wrote in our pages three years ago:

Oglesby rejected the “socialist radical, the corporatist conservative, and the welfare-state liberal” and challenged the New Left to embrace “American democratic populism” and “the American libertarian right.”

Invoking Senator Taft, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Congressman Buffett, and Saturday Evening Post writer Garet Garrett, among other stalwarts of the Old Right, he asked, “Why have the traditional opponents of big, militarized, central authoritarian government now joined forces with such a government’s boldest advocates?” What in the name of Thomas Jefferson were conservatives doing holding the bag for Robert Strange McNamara?

Antiwar.com’s Eric Garris further highlights the libertarian side of Oglesby here.

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