Churchill Is the Epitome of Horseshoe Politics

The horseshoe theory asserts that politics is more like a horseshoe than a straight line: Rather than sitting at opposite ends of a linear continuum, the far left and the far right sit at the points of a horseshoe, which bends back on itself. The ultra-right and the far left are not only identical in style: angry, conspiratorial and smelly. They also share similar beliefs about, say, the role of government (big) and the rights of minorities (small to vanishing).

Winston Churchill provides as good an example as any of the merits of the horseshoe theory. The US ultra-right has recently launched a fusillade of criticisms of Churchill as a warmonger, bigot and, horror, Zionist, criticisms that repeat — sometimes word for word — criticisms that have long been popular on the far left and, sadly, the broader academic left. The shock jocks and the radical professors are speaking with one voice.