Are Liberals Always "Right"?

Reading the Rude Pundit today, he makes a compelling argument that the Left has been "right" about a good many things and the Right is just beginning to understand that now, due, in part, to Katrina. Now the Rude One says this much better than I can but in such an artful way so as to require an ID proving you're at least 35 before you read it. Allow me to summarize:

The Left was "right" about global warming. It seems the environment is out to get us. These weird problems in the Ecology aren't an accident. The Right is finally coming to the conclusion that we can't terrorize the environment without expecting a fight.

The Left was "right" about our neglect of the poor coming back to haunt us. Our society is much worse off for racism and classism and divisive race-based policy. If the poor in New Orleans hadn't been neglected by policy since Nixon, that town wouldn't have been allowed to drown.

The Left believes society invests in ITSELF by investing in educating our children. We've neglected that DUTY for decades and it's time we pay the piper. In this regard, it appears, once again, the Left was "right".

The Left believes that we need to address these issues before they blow up in our face. Once again, no argument here.

So... the Left has clearly been "right" a good many times. If they'd drop the PETA fringe, lose the perceptions that 1.) they're willing to throw money at problems before understanding them fully AND 2.) they'd choose butter over guns under any circumstance; they might actually convince enough people to be able to make a real difference. No doubt the fringe elements of the Right are far more frightening to me but they're far more creative in managing their identity. See, the Right is really good at making themselves clearly understood. It isn't tough to comprehend "fags bad." They gain a lot of ground with "pro-life" and "death tax" and "being resolute". The Left needs to find a way to make the shades of gray appear much more black and white to the America People or they'll always come up second in the vote. I suppose we could educate the people so they could understand nuance but we've already decided that this is a long-term goal. Until then, to win, the Left has to be more Right (without the quotation marks this time).