Lind, Michael (1962–)

A PROLIFIC WRITER and the Whitehead Senior Fellow at the New American Foundation, Michael Lind serves as co-director of the American Strategy Project. Lind's articles have been published in such prestigious publications as the New Yorker, Harper's, and New Republic. Identifying himself as a fifth-generation Texan, Lind spent most of his early life, including his undergraduate years, in the Lone Star State. He first left Texas in the 1980s to study foreign policy at Yale University.

In 1996, Lind received national attention for his scathing attack on multiculturalism and its opponents in The Next American Nation: The New Nationalism and the Fourth American Revolution. Lind's attack on conservatism was expanded that same year with the publication of Up from Conservatism: Why The Right Is Wrong for America. As a protégé of ultraconservative William F. Buckley, Jr., Lind had been viewed as a rising young Republican who would serve the interests of conservatism with fierce loyalty. He continued to endorse the ideologies of neoconservatism until 1998, when he rejected the right in favor of what be called the “radical center.” Denying that he had changed his ideology, Lind insisted that it was the Republican Party that had swung to the extreme right, blaming the shift on radical conservatives such as Pat Robertson and Patrick Buchanan. Lind announced that he was pro-choice (in regard to abortion), a supporter of the right of homosexuals to join the military, and an advocate for social welfare programs initiated by Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

By calling himself a centrist, Lind placed himself in an ideal position to hurl criticisms at both liberals and conservatives, contending that both the Democrats and Republicans had lost touch with reality. Lind's favorite target became George W. Bush, who Lind believed (along with millions of other Americans) stole the 2000 election from Democrat Al Gore, with the connivance of his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Republicans in Congress, and conservatives on the Supreme Court.

In Made in Texas, Lind used his first-hand knowledge of Texas politics to vilify Bush and his Texas cronies, who included Vice President Dick Cheney. Lind maintained that the Bush gang succeeded in reshaping national politics to suit the interests of the Texas oil industry and southern conservatives. Lind became an outspoken opponent of Bush's handling of the war in Iraq and pointed out that few of the president's advisers guiding military strategy had actual military experience. Lind also abhorred the fact that conservative think tanks became instrumental in shaping Bush's foreign policy. Lind insisted that Bush had been chosen as the designated heir to the party of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.

While many of his opponents insisted that he had become a liberal, Lind rejected the label. Indeed, a number of political writers admitted that Lind's ideology was difficult to identify since he endorsed elements of both liberalism and conservatism. For instance, Lind agreed with the conservative view that the Vietnam conflict was a “just, constitutional, and necessary” engagement. He contended that the United States was justified in protecting its interest in inhibiting the growth of communism, even though American strategy could often be immoral and counterproductive. On the other hand, Lind's affinity with the far-left was obvious in his proposals for redistributing American land and wealth.

...