Nat Hentoff laid off by Village Voice

I'm sorry to hear that Nat Henthoff has been laid off. Despite some fundamental disagreements with his views, I've long been an admirer of his, as he has struck me as a rare honest and honorable man. All the best to him.

What an absolutely great column! The difficulty of being against abortion on the left is equalled by the difficulty of being against capital punishment and for any form of social safety net on the right. Coherent morality need not apply in our politics.

My guess is that Nat got laid off not because of his views, but because of his age. It's a guess, but it would be quite in keeping with the practice nearly everywhere else in America.

I would suspect he was laid off for his age, too. It is easy for the Village Voice to get someone younger, cheaper, and more in line with the youth.

It saddens me when I hear about thoughtful intelligent people being mistreated by liberals because they have different views. It doesn't surprise me, though. The ideological lines among the 60's/70's generations were pretty firm and inflexible. I think that is still true, today, among older liberals (and as Rod has written, among Republicans on the other side of the divide). It is so counter-productive to be that way, and so annoying for the rest of us. But they actually believe that if you don't agree with all of their ideology, you weren't REALLY liberal and you were probably trying to undermine them. (It was basically what Republicans are doing today with the whole RINO thing.) Believe me, if you have to work on a political cause with these people, you get a lot more done when they can't make it to the meetings. But, then again, I am about 20 years younger than the people I have met like that, and my generation tends be a lot more pragmatic.

Any number of political arguments can be made. But what I expect is behind his departure is that the Voice, like so many papers, is facing really hard times. He has enough of a reputation that he will do better and make more as a blogger, an author, and a commentator on the electronic media. So they let him go, in favor of keeping several lesser writers employed. Sad, a sign of the changing times and lousy economy, but change happens. Look for him elsewhere. I'd love to blame W for this, but I don't think he would know Hentoff if they stood face to face, were introduced, and were forced to stand together for an hour. W would probably make some clever comment like "Voice? What a funny name for a paper - your read it, ya know, it can't talk, heh, heh".

anon,

"...we have had all types of social safety programs, backed by conservatives, for decades" Really?

You must've missed the word "net" in my post, because spending more money on defense than the rest of the world combined, and putting more people in prison per capita than any nation other than South Africa just isn't what I meant.

I was talking about the reflexive conservative allergy to spending a nickel on Social Security, Medicare, welfare, WIC, HUD, even the Department of Education, which we all know should be abolished!

But please educate my stupid self, which social safety net programs were backed by conservatives? Which part of the New Deal or Great Society, which part of the Reagan Revolution or the Contract for America added to the nation's social safety net?

I'm all eyes.

stupid chris,

the idea that because republicans want increase the safety net by 0 to 3% and democrats want to increase it by 9 to 12% this difference somehow is the moral equivalent of 1.5 M abortion is either silly or self deception.

Its even sillier to say the at most 5 executions a yr in america somehow supports the contention that they are all hypocrites. (even though I support JPII death penalty position)

anon,

I'm so stupid that I can't see where you answered any part of any of my questions. Argumentation abounds, but not answers.

So I stand by my observation: " The difficulty of being against abortion on the left is equalled by the difficulty of being against capital punishment and for any form of social safety net on the right."

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By the way, your statistic "the at most 5 executions a yr in america" is off by somewhere between 400% and infinity. Rod's Great State of Texas all by it's Lone Star self executed 18 in 2008, 26 in 2007, which would mean that if you were only talking about Texas instead of the entire nation you'd still be off by 360% this year alone. (Do you work for the government, a wall street brokerage, or a bank? Those are the only places I know of where you can be so wrong and still be taken seriously.)

jon,

health care is a difficult problem. all citizens do have access to healthcare just not healthcare insurance. by law anyone who shows up at a publicly funded emergency room has to be treated regardless of their insurance status (or citizenship). how to fix that without destroying the benefits we all receive from our current health care industry isn't easy. liberals always want to say how all europeans are better because they all have access to healthcare. but where do the majority of new drugs and procedures get invented? where do you have to get on waiting lists and where do you actually get treated?

the other problem is that we don't have the money to pay for universal healthcare. we have healthcare programs for poor and senior citizens, we may not be able to afford to guarantee a high level of health coverage for every person. if we should learn one thing from the current economic crisis, it is that once the government gets involved in universal health care it will inevitably move to the candian style takeover. we can't just keep voting ourselves entitlements and then issuing debt for our grandchildren to pay off. that's not compassion.

and if you were an aspiring chemist or doctor why don't you go to a top university in europe....oh because the government won't socialize your invention. and because the top pharma and biotech companies stay in america for the same reason.

why haven't the europeans figured out that if they just issue more scientific grants they will catch up to the americans....

There's nothing in the story to suggest that Hentoff's views on abortion had anything to do with his being let go.

I am so sad to hear of Nat Hentoff's firing. It was the very column that Rod posted that got me interested in reading Hentoff's memoir, Boston Boy, a great book. Although I am pro-choice, I support anti-abortionist's right to free speech, unlike most pro-choicers.

In fact, I support the rights to free speech of others with whom I disagree. This is the reason that I, disgusted since 2001 by the Republican Party of which I was a part for most of my life, absolutely cannot pull the lever for a Democrat/liberal. Simply because I can't vote Republican in good conscience anymore doesn't mean that the Democrats/liberals will get my vote, even if I agree with some of their views. I'd rather not vote, and I haven't in eight years.

The issue is as Jen above, and as Hentoff himself, described it. Democrat/liberals act as the standard bearers of diversity and tolerance. Yet, the second one, even one from their own ranks, voices a diverse and dissenting opinion, the Democrat/liberal response is to apply a label and censor that individual. How cowardly and intolerant. Clue to the left: If you are going to claim superiority in an area, then you'd better lead by good example, or get out of the way. (The same goes for the right, but I'm being specific here to the diversity and tolerance issues touted so often by the left.) I work in academia, so I see this lock-step mentality all the time, which is antithesis to promoting exploration of various ideas and free expression thereof to students, which is one of the major things that education should be about. Or perhaps I'm just being silly!