The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas (43 page)

“Unity is how we shall overcome,” Barack Obama proclaimed on Martin Luther King Day 2008, in arguably his best campaign speech. “Unity is the great need of the hour—the great need of this hour,” he added, echoing King himself. “All too often when we talk about unity in this country, we’ve come to believe that it can be purchased on the cheap.” Again and again, in ways subtle and overt, Obama returned to this theme of unity over the course of his campaign. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!” became
a sort of spiritual mantra. Even his debut on the national stage in 2004 was all about unity—red and blue America coming together under a common god. One of the most brilliant props of his campaign was the crowd. The campaign used huge, massive, crowds electric with excitement not just to communicate enthusiasm for the candidate but to signal a kind of ethic. In
Crowds and Power
, Nobel laureate Elias Canetti writes that crowds are incredibly powerful psychological tools both for those in them and those looking at them. They speak a language all their own; “distinctions are thrown off and all feel
equal.…
It is for the sake of this blessed moment, when no one is greater or better than another, that people become a crowd.”
⁵

Roughly three years into his presidency, on December 6, 2011, President Obama was still at it. In Osawatomie, Kansas, the site where Theodore Roosevelt delivered his “New Nationalism” speech in 1910, President Obama cast himself as the heir to TR and his agenda the natural continuation of the New Nationalism of 1910. (Obama didn’t say whether he favored allowing huge monopolies to conspire with the federal government as TR proposed.) He concluded his speech just as Roosevelt had, by declaring “The fundamental rule in our national life—the rule which underlies all others—is that, on the whole, and in the long run, we shall go up or down together.”

His 2012 State of the Union address was dedicated to the theme of how much better America would be if it behaved like a military unit with a single mission. Obama is hardly alone. Scour the speeches of presidents, activists, community organizers, labor leaders, and virtually any leader of men and you will find appeals to unity. The cult of unity runs through every mass movement—how could they be
mass
movements otherwise? “The People! United! Cannot Be Defeated!” has been shouted into bullhorns since the invention of bullhorns (and they always seem to think it rhymes. It doesn’t). The propaganda posters of World War I, the New Deal, and World War II are all variations on the same theme: “We’re all in it together!”

Unity is great. Unity is wonderful. When a little girl falls down a well and the whole community drops what they are doing to save her, when civil rights activists marched, arm in arm, for their due share of the American dream, when you think of Todd Beamer’s last words on Flight 93
that fateful day on September 11—“Are you guys ready? Let’s roll!”—how can you not get a lump in your throat?

But you know where else you can find unity? Rape gangs. In fact, the Mafia, Crips, Bloods, MS-13, and the Yakuza, are nothing if not manifestations of man’s yearning to belong to a “cause larger than themselves.” Nazism would have remained the pathetic clubhouse of disgruntled losers if it wasn’t for the cult of unity. Fascism got its start in Italy when returning veterans wanted to rekindle what Mussolini called the “socialism of the trenches.” Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao—populists all—claimed they transcended the binding rules of law and tradition because they had the people on their side. Their authority derived directly from the unified might of the masses.
⁶
Indeed, the word fascism is derived from the ancient Roman symbol of the
fasces
, a bundle of sticks around an axe, symbolizing strength in numbers. Communism elevated unity, solidarity, and unwavering commitment to the cause above all things. As Bertolt Brecht put it in his 1930s play
The Decision
:

Who fights for communism must be able to fight and not to fight, to speak the truth and not to speak the truth, to perform services and not to perform services, to keep promises and not to keep promises, to go into danger and to keep out of danger, to be recognizable and not to be recognizable. Who fights for communism has only one of all the virtues: that he fights for communism.
⁷

In short, black hats and white hats alike can admire the principle of
unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno
(all for one, one for all!). And yet, once you start paying attention you’ll see how thoroughly the cult of unity infects our politics. On the right it generally gives its expression in the form of patriotism and is honest about it, though George W. Bush hammered the whole “I’m a uniter not a divider” refrain until it was wet mush. On the left and in the “center,” overt appeals to patriotism are less common or more forced. What comes more naturally are appeals to unity and coming together. Unity is the secular humanist euphemism for patriotism.

Most of the time such appeals are as harmless as most of the pabulum in politics. Indeed, appeals to unity are unavoidable, because politics is ultimately about
addition, about bringing sufficient numbers of people together. But taken to its rational conclusion, appeals to unity are troubling because they work on the assumption that strength in numbers is, on its own, a virtue. That is not the American political tradition or creed. In America the hero is not the mob. It is the man—or woman—who stands up to the mob and says: You will not lynch this man today.

^*
The two obvious exceptions to this are South Carolina and Mississippi, where the slave population actually exceeded the nonslave population for most of the years preceding the Civil War.

At just about the moment I was starting to really hunker down to write this book, my only brother died in a terrible accident. Attempting to convey how terrible this tragedy was in this limited space—or any space, really—would be futile and inappropriate.

Save in one regard. After Josh died I didn’t think I could ever get back to work on this, or any, book. But thanks to the support of family, friends, and colleagues, I did. In this my gratitude is multiplied beyond reckoning. So first off, let me thank The Committee to Buy Jonah Goldberg a Drink. You know who you are. Also I want to thank Ramesh and April Ponnuru, Jim and Kate O’Beirne, Shannen and Casey Coffin, Kathryn Lopez, Tevi Troy, John Podhoretz, Craig Turk, Vin Cannato, John Miller, Pam Friedman, and so many other friends and colleagues who helped me through probably the worst days of my life.

My agent, Jay Mandel, has revealed himself to be not just a frighteningly competent literary agent but a valued and trusted friend.

The folks at Fox News, particularly at
Special Report with Bret Baier
, have been kind and gracious beyond all need and expectation.

I am deeply indebted to Mitchell Boersma, my research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), who went off to graduate school at precisely the moment I needed him most and yet stuck with the project to the bitter end anyway. (He was particularly helpful at navigating me through the rough terrain of social justice.) Mitch will go far. Joy Pavelski helped me in the early stages, only to leave too soon for entirely understandable reasons. Hiwa Alaghebandian joined the effort as the bitter end approached and helped make it much less bitter.

AEI, where I got my start in Washington, was supportive in every regard,
and I’m grateful in particular to Arthur Brooks for inviting me back to my old stomping grounds. I should also single out my colleague Nick Schulz, who is also one of my closest friends, and Eleanor Bartow, who has worked harder than necessary to make me feel welcome.

Other colleagues and friends who helped me in ways large and small include: Steven Hayward, Mark Perry, Kenneth Green and Andrew Rugg, Kevin Williamson, Donald Gooch, Doug Brosz, Bill Walsh, and Thomas Madden.

National Review
has been my employer and home since 1998, and some of what I’ve written here was developed first in the gonzo twilight zone of the early Goldberg File, as well as in the more refined pages of the magazine.
NR
’s editor, Rich Lowry, has been unstinting in his generous support all of this time, both as a friend and a boss. But I’m particularly grateful to both Rich and Jack Fowler,
NR
’s devoted publisher, for their menschlike concern after Josh died.

I’d also like to thank my editors and friends at Tribune Media Services, particularly my always upbeat and insightful editor Patrick Fitzmaurice, as well as the respective gangs at the
Los Angeles Times
and
USA Today
. Writing a regular column can be a burden when things are going great. I’m fortunate to have people to lighten my load in good times and bad.

In the acknowledgments for
Liberal Fascism
, I thanked the readers of
National Review Online
. If it was appropriate then, it’s downright mandatory now, because this book contains myriad conversations begun, and informed, by them. I cannot begin to say how lucky I have been by having you people to educate, correct, and encourage me. Thank you.

And then there’s family. My mother, who’s always been my biggest fan, had a worse year than I did but never flagged in her encouragement.

This year my wife, Jessica, had to juggle work and family in ways that leave me mute with awe and gratitude. Every day I think I couldn’t love her and my daughter more. Every morning I discover I was wrong.

Introduction

1
.   S. G. Tallentyre,
The Friends of Voltaire
(London: Smith Elder & Co., 1906).

2
.   Cyril Clemens,
Chesterton as Seen by His Contemporaries
(Webster Groves, Mo.: Mark Twain Society, 1939), p. 7.

3
.   Dennis Danielson, “That Copernicanism Demoted Humans from the Center of the Cosmos,”
Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion
, ed. Ronald L. Numbers, (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2009) pp. 50–59.

4
.   Ibid.

5
.   Ibid.

6
.   Robert Nisbet,
Prejudices
(Harvard University Press, 1983).

7
.   For a definitive account of these and other myths, I highly recommend
Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion
, edited by Ronald L. Numbers, to which I am deeply indebted.

8
.   Jay Nordlinger, “The Right Side of History,”
National Review
, April 16, 2011.

9
.   Jonathan Cohn, “Why Ryan’s Medicare, Medicaid Plans Are Radical,”
The New Republic,
April 4, 2011, accessed August 17, 2011,
www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/86189/ryan-republican-lbj-medicare-medicaid-covenant
.

10
. Paul Krugman, “Competitiveness: A Dangerous Obsession,”
Foreign Affairs
(March/April 1994).

11
. Kevin Phillips,
Staying on Top: The Business Case for a National Industrial Strategy
(New York: Random House, 1984)

1.: Ideology

1
.   Remarks of President-Elect Barack Obama as prepared for delivery on Inaugural Whistle Stop Tour Baltimore, Maryland. January 17, 2009; accessed June 17, 2011,
www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-4730806-503544.html
.

2
.   Inaugural Address of President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009.

3
.   Transcript, Obama fund-raiser speech, April 6, 2008; accessed October 25,
2011,
www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html
.

4
.   Jonathan Chait, “Fact Finders: The Anti-Dogma Dogma,”
The New Republic,
February 28, 2005; accessed August 17, 2011,
www.tnr.com/article/politics/fact-finders
.

5
.   Scott W. Atlas, “The Worst Study Ever?”
Commentary
(April 2011).

6
.   See David Gratzer, “The Ugly Truth About Canadian Healthcare,”
City Journal
; accessed April 10, 2011,
www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_canadian_healthcare.html
, and Gratzer “Socialism and Cancer,”
New Atlantis
(Winter 2009); accessed April 10, 2011,
www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/socialism-and-cancer
.

7
.   See June E. O’Neill and Dave M. O’Neill, 2008. “Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S.,” Forum for Health Economics & Policy, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 10(1).

8
.   Paul Krugman, “Ailing Health Care,”
New York Times,
April 11, 2005.

9
.   Thomas Miller: “Debunking Richard Cohen: How Does the U.S. Health-Care System Stack Up?”
National Review Online,
November 15, 2010; accessed April 13, 2011,
www.nationalreview.com/corner/253313/debunking-richard-cohen-how-does-us-health-care-system-stack-thomas-p-miller
.

10
. Christopher J. L. Murray, Kulkarni, Sandeep, and Ezzati, Majid. “Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities across Races, Counties, and Race-Counties in the United States,”
American Journal of Preventative Medicine
29-51 (2005).

11
. Evelyn J. Patterson, “Incarcerating Death: Mortality in U.S. State Correctional Facilities, 1985–1998.
Democracy
47, no. 3 (August 2010): 587–607:

Using data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics and Census Bureau, I estimate death rates of working-age prisoners and nonprisoners by sex and race. Incarceration was more detrimental to females in comparison to their male counterparts in the period covered by this study. White male prisoners had higher death rates than white males who were not in prison. Black male prisoners, however, consistently exhibited lower death rates than black male nonprisoners did.“

12
. Erik von Kuehelt-Leddihn, “Is Ideology Useless?”
National Review,
June 10, 1983.

13
. Ibid.

14
. Russell Kirk, “Ten Conservative Principles,”
The Politics of Prudence,
(ISI Books, 1993). The author of this formulation was actually H. Stuart Hughes, but it was popularized by Kirk.