I’ve written before about the often eerie similarities between the rhetoric of the Right and that of the Left. At some point the similarities become congruencies, leaving the causal observer mystified about the unbelievable metamorphoses of public figures. Famous jumpers from across the political spectrum include the “drink-sodden popinjay” Christopher Hitchens (who managed the shift from Trotskyist to neo-conservative with great deftness), David Horowitz (formerly of the New Left, now not), and David Brock (former attack dog for the “vast right-wing conspiracy,” now a different sort of canine for the Left).

So what exactly is a person to do upon finding that his cause is uncomfortably close to that of groups that he’s always found repugnant? I came up against this problem during the Boston Celebrates Israel festival in the summer of 2003. (more…)