So. Christopher Hitchens has left The Nation, resigning in the final paragraph of his final column. One can sympathize with him. In my 9-11 anniversary posting, I remember sharing his frustration that the Left has chosen oppositionism over liberalism. As he says, "...I have come to realize that the magazine itself takes a side in this argument, and is becoming the voice and the echo chamber of those who truly believe that John Ashcroft is a greater menace than Osama bin Laden. (I too am resolutely opposed to secret imprisonment and terror-hysteria, but not in the same way as I am opposed to those who initiated the aggression, and who are planning future ones.) In these circumstances it seems to me false to continue the association, which is why I have decided to make this "Minority Report" my last one." Andrew Sullivan puts it another way in a column on the departure (and Hitchens' departure from The Nation is well-deserving of comment), "His most recent campaign was an attempt to indict Henry Kissinger for war-crimes. The last time I saw him, he walked out of a dinner party to protest a fellow-guest's disparagement of Edward Said, the leftist anti-Israel historian. Gore Vidal has anointed Hitchens as his successor in radical literary politics. And Martin Amis just excoriated him for being tardy in his renunciation of Stalin's evil. I don't think I've met a man more viscerally hostile to every form of religious faith, especially Christianity. But in today's Left, especially in its bitter, internecine rump in the United States, these radical bona fides are still not enough." One must not only agree with most of the agenda. One must agree with all things, and maintain the same enemies. Responding to Htichens' departure from The Nation, Alexander Cockburn said, "I think it was becoming increasingly bizarre for the Nation to publish his column. But people only very slowly take in these changes, much like Dorian Gray changes slowly in front of you. Hitch is no longer the beautiful slender young man of the Left. Now he's just another middle-aged porker of the Right."

I spoke to a friend this weekend, whose personal opposition to war in Aqhganiatan (and believe me, like most people, he will simply whine amongst the like-minded) was based precisely on Bush's support of the same. When I spoke about the opression based on gender and religion, my friend told me I sounded like a right-winger.

I side with Hitchens.