Sisyphus on Hitchens

New Sisyphus gets it completely right in his discussion of Hitchens' recent review of Mark Steyn's new book:

"In other words, the leading man of the Left has met the leading man of the
Right and they've walked away from the encounter almost shoulder-to-shoulder.
This says something about our continued vitality and our prospects. The obvious
objection is that Hitchens is "no longer of the Left", but for reasons too
complicated to go into here, I do not believe that this is the case. I believe
his thought is still solidly leftist in outlook and his values, if mobilized
correctly, would rally a significant portion of the American and Euro Left."

The development (or reaffirmation) of a more coherent internationalist liberalism must make Madison liberals cringe with confusion. There needs to be a serious, sustained discussion at UW about what it means to be a liberal. This is related to our reputation as a politically-open university. If you can't tell already, I'm really excited for Hitch's visit. But I've been banging away about my hero all day, and this will be enough of that business for the time being...