The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas (50 page)

Constitutional amendments opposed by, 169–70

damaging “compassionate” schemes endorsed by, 174–75

definitions of, 216, 242

dissent and, 122–23, 128–30

empirical reasoning claimed in, 24–27, 28, 69, 207

expansion of voting rights and, 226, 272–73

“factual correctness” and, 92

Founders’ “original intent” invoked by, 168–70

health care and, 13–14, 26–30, 202–3, 228, 230, 231

limiting principle lacking in, 38, 58, 144, 232–33

McCarthyite tactics employed by, 128–29

middle class denigrated by, 192–94, 200

1950s prosperity and threat to, 200–201

patriotism questioned by, 125–26, 130

political fetishization of youth by, 224, 225, 226–27

pragmatism’s lasting impact on, 22, 23, 24–25, 48, 50–53, 56–58, 69

prevention principle of, 230, 231–33

Progressives rebranded as, 103

“proscience” stance maintained by, 205–7, 218–19

public-work projects and, 149–51

scientific bias in favor of, 210, 215–18

Social Darwinism villified by, 101, 103, 105, 107, 109, 112, 113

social justice as hallmark of, 132, 135, 139–42, 143–44

spirituality endorsed by, 259–60

“Understanding brings peace” belief of, 261–62

see also
Democratic Party, Democrats; Progressives, progressivism

libertarianism, 40, 69, 71, 81, 181, 182, 203, 215

flexible ideologies of, 23–24

Social Darwinism and, 103, 105, 107

life expectancy, 28, 29–30, 230

Life of Brian,
145, 261

Limbaugh, Rush, 204, 214

Lincoln, Abraham, 71, 114, 185

“living constitution,” 14, 159, 161, 162–70

intellectual roots of, 161, 162, 163–64, 167–68

State expansions in, 13, 163, 165–66

Supreme Court appointments and, 164–65

Living Constitution, Dying Faith
(Watson), 164
n

Living Wage, A
(Ryan), 140

Lochner
decision, 107

Lopez, Jennifer, 175, 176

Los Angeles, Calif., 98, 99

Los Angeles Times,
89–91, 209, 218

Louis XVI, King of France, 171

Luther, Martin, 235–38, 239

Lutherans, 77, 237, 238

McCarthy, Joseph, 128, 243

McCarthyism, 120, 125, 128, 243

McClosky, Herbert, 213, 214

McGovern, George, 199, 226

Madden, Thomas, 241–42, 246, 248, 250

Maddow, Rachel, 149–50

Madison, James, 270–71

Madonna, 178, 258

Maimonides, Moses, 9, 154

Malleus Maleficarum
(
This Witches’ Hammer
) (Kraimer), 244, 245

Malthus, Thomas, 104, 289
n

Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, 171–72, 173–74

Marie-Thérèse, Queen of Spain, 172

Marx, Karl, 45–46, 105, 195–97, 198

Marxism, 12, 32, 34, 47, 55, 63, 67, 140, 197, 198, 253, 266

class system in, 45–46, 195–97, 198, 211

“false consciousness” theory of, 45–46, 202, 211

scientific gospel of, 46, 211–12

Maryland, University of (Baltimore County), 137

“Mechanisms of the Slippery Slope, The” (Volokh), 118

Medicare, 13–14, 25, 149, 215, 226, 229

Medieval Inquisition, 247–48

Michigan, University of, 96–97

Middle Ages, 183, 265

“Middle America,” 192–94

middle class, 191–95, 199–203

cultural elite’s denigration of, 192–95, 199

Democratic strategic appeal to, 191–92, 199–200, 202–3

meaning of, 191–92

Middle East, 185, 236, 238–39, 240, 241, 242, 300
n

Middlemarch
(Eliot), 70

military, U.S., 52, 148, 181, 200, 216, 222

Miller, Laura, 245

minimum wage, 106

Ministry of International, Trade and Industry (MITI), 16

Mirage of Social Justice
(Hayek), 142

Mr. Rogers Neighborhood,
223

Money,
174

Monty Python, 55, 249, 261

Monty Python and the Holy Grail,
246

Moore, Michael, 149, 177

moral equivalence, 48–52

More, Thomas, 124, 248

Morehouse College, 96

MSNBC, 149–50

Muhammed, 238, 242

Muslim American Society, 133

Muslims, 180, 189, 235, 239, 249, 250, 263

Crusades myth and, 240–43

see also
Islam

Mussolini, Benito, 51, 57, 138, 197, 204, 214, 276

Napoleon I, Emperor of France, 39, 41–45, 59, 64, 196

Nation,
193

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), 136

National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), 134

National Intelligence Council, 73

National Recovery Administration (NRA), 50–51

National Review,
1, 11, 30, 89

National September 11 Memorial and Museum, 76

National Union of Social Justice (NUSJ), 141

Nazis, Nazism, 21, 32, 61, 69, 128, 129, 133, 151, 183, 187, 188–89, 212, 213, 244, 251, 253, 276

Never Enough
(Voegeli), 58

New Deal, 16, 24, 50–51, 53, 54, 58, 128, 140–41, 168, 201, 272, 275

New England Primer,
234

New Orleans, La., 260

New Republic,
13, 25, 34, 57, 106–7, 160–61, 183

Newseum, 133

New Yorker,
192

New York Times,
28, 38, 68, 89, 118, 129, 168, 182, 204, 213, 240, 242

“
n
Guilty Men” study (Volokh), 153–54

Nietzsche, Friedrich, 45, 46–47, 48, 49, 103

Nixon, Richard, 120, 199, 226

No Labels movement, 59–61, 64, 274

Nordlinger, Jay, 11, 12

North Korea, 60, 143, 183

Norwegian massacre (2011), 132

Notes on the State of Virginia
(Jefferson), 270

Oakeshott, Michael, 33, 34, 35–37

Obama, Barack, 14, 15, 31, 63, 70, 101, 121, 126, 128, 133, 134, 147, 149, 150, 171, 182, 191, 206, 230, 231, 232, 297
n

alleged racism in opponents of, 129–30

anti-ideology stance of, 19, 21, 22–23

health care policies of, 30, 117, 129, 168, 203, 228

“new declaration of independence” speech of, 19–21, 22

pragmatism of, 22, 52–53, 69

religion and, 81–82, 83

Supreme Court nominations and, 164–65

“unity” as campaign theme of, 274–75

Obama, Michelle, 125

ObamaCare, 30, 117, 129, 168, 203

Occupy Wall Street, 124–25

Of the Liberty of the Press
(Hume), 114

Ohio, 193–94

“On the Pulse of Morning” (Angelou), 190

Oration on the Dignity of Man
(Pico), 9

Origins of Species, The
(Darwin), 104, 289
n

Orwell, George, 1, 127, 181, 183, 184, 187–88

Ottoman Empire, 238, 239

Oxford English Dictionary,
102, 137

pacifism, 183, 185, 210

Pakistan, 263

Palestinians, 189, 262

Partisan Review,
183

Patriot Act, 121, 168

patriotism, 125–30, 276

dissent as “highest form” of, 122–23, 124, 126

liberal indignation over questioning of, 125–26, 130

Peace of Augsburg, 78

Peace of Westphalia, 78

Peirce, Charles S., 44, 47–48

Peloponnesian War, 262–63

Pelosi, Nancy, 129, 147, 203

Perry, Mark, 174–75

Philosophy of History, The
(Hegel), 152

Pinker, Steven, 182, 302
n
–3
n

pluralism, 78–79, 92, 236, 237, 238

Polanski, Roman, 178–79

“Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition” (Jost et al.), 204–5, 214–15, 218

Politico,
19, 126

Politics as a Vocation
(Weber), 181

Poor Richard’s Almanack
(Franklin), 299
n

Popular Science,
162

Port Huron Statement, 194

“positive liberty” doctrines, 116, 203

poverty rates, 70

“power corrupts,” 84–88, 178

pragmatism, 14, 23, 39, 44–45, 50, 56–58, 92, 162, 212

demonization of ideologies by, 24–25, 35

dissolving of dogmas in, 46, 48, 53, 56, 58, 69

empirical reasoning of,
see
empiricism

historical precedent disregarded in, 47, 53–54, 66, 69

and modern liberalism, 22, 23, 24–25, 48, 50–53, 56–58, 69

Nietzschean, 46–47, 48, 49

see also
American Pragmatism

Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary
(Nisbet), 11

prevention principle, 228–33

in health care policies, 228, 229–31, 299
n
–300
n

Princess and the Frog, The,
260

Princeton Regional Health Commission, 118

Progressive Democracy,
292
n

progressives, progressivism, 30, 36, 45, 103, 104, 115, 116, 132, 143, 150, 192, 201, 203, 211, 212, 231, 236, 271

contemporary liberalism as descendant of, 57–58, 103

Dewey’s philosophical impact on, 54–56, 69, 160, 203

“diversity” as viewed by, 91, 95, 99

economic ideas of, 16, 30, 53–54, 57, 105–7

evolution’s influence on philosophy of, 112–13, 161–62

as fundamentally Christian movement, 82–83

German academic background of, 49

governmental expansion endorsed by, 13, 14–17, 26, 30–31, 50–51, 152, 163, 165–66, 230–33

historical precedent dismissed by, 12–14, 47, 69, 162–63, 166, 167–68

“living constitution” concept of, 13, 14, 161, 162–70

McCarthyite tactics employed by, 128

Middle America denigrated by, 193–94

“moral equivalent of war” and, 48, 49–52

in New Deal era, 16, 50–51, 53, 54, 58, 128, 140–42, 201

pragmatism’s influence on, 24–25, 47, 48, 49–58, 69, 116

rebuilding of Lady Justice proposed by, 160–61, 168

Social Darwinism as basic to, 105–7, 112–13

State-centric philosophy of, 151–52

war socialism endorsed by, 50–51, 232

in Wilson era, 16, 49–50, 58, 82, 120, 128, 162–63, 167, 193–94

see also
liberals, liberalism

proletariat, 195, 197–98, 211–12

Promise of American Life, The
(Croly), 57, 82

Protestantism, 10, 78, 237, 238

Protestant Reformation, 32, 77, 85, 235, 236–38, 239, 246, 247, 300
n

Prussia, 43, 49

Psychological Bulletin,
205, 214–15

Psychology Today,
216, 288
n

public-works projects, 149–51

racial quotas, 96–98

racism, 98, 100, 125, 137, 185, 205

Obama’s opponents and, 129–30

in Progressive economics, 105–7

Social Darwinism and, 103, 105–7

“Rationalism in Politics” (Oakeshott), 35–37

Rauschenbusch, Walter, 49, 82, 83

Reading Obama
(Kloppenberg), 52–53

Reagan, Ronald, 4, 22, 23, 101, 202, 204, 209, 214, 223, 227

Real Majority, The
(Scammon and Wattenberg), 199

“Recent Developments in the Study of the Great European Witch Hunt” (Gibbons), 247

Record, The
(Bergen County), 118

Red Scare, 243

Reed, John, 212, 253–54

Reformation, 32, 77, 85, 235, 236–38, 239, 246, 247, 300
n

Reform Darwinism, 107

Reich, Robert, 100, 108–9, 111

religion, 44, 48, 76, 215, 234, 252

American pluralism and, 78–79

businessmen influenced by, 111–12

criticisms and hatred of, 252, 253, 254, 259, 301
n
–2
n

dogmas of,
see
dogma

in guiding of politics, 79–82

Obama and, 81–82, 83

spirituality vs., 256–60

theology of the State and, 152

wars fought over, 77–78, 237–38, 240–42

see also
separation of church and state;
specific religions

religious schools, 119

Rendezvous with Destiny
(Goldman), 53

rent control laws, 174

Republican National Committee, 169

Republicans, 6, 13, 22, 34, 50, 59, 64–65, 72, 84, 89, 92, 120, 127, 128, 129, 171, 172, 176, 200, 207, 215, 217, 227, 264

see also
conservatives, conservatism

“Republicans Against Science” (Krugman), 204

Rerum Novarum
(Pope Leo XIII), 139, 140

Reuters, 5

Revolution from Within
(Steinem), 244

Right Is Wrong
(Huffington), 62

“robber barons,” 107–9, 110–12, 171, 176

Robber Barons, The
(Josephson), 109

Robespierre, Maximilien, 40, 41, 42

Rockefeller, John D., Jr., 111

Rockefeller, John D., Sr., 108, 111

Roman Empire, 77, 145–46, 150, 154, 236, 254, 255

Roman mythology, 159, 160

Roosevelt, Franklin D., 22, 23, 55, 120, 131, 172, 202, 203

New Deal of, 50–51, 128, 140–41, 272

opponents persecuted by, 128–29

Supreme Court and, 162, 272

Roosevelt, Theodore, 105, 128, 152, 193, 275

Ross, E. A., 105–6

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 33, 138, 172, 252, 304
n

“ruling classes,” 45–46, 196, 198

Russell, Louise B., 229, 230, 299
n
–300
n

Russia, 124, 211, 212

Russian Revolution, 67, 212, 253–54

Ryan, John, 139–40, 141

Saletan, William, 210, 218

Salon,
245, 259

same-sex marriage, 119, 134, 201, 271

Say, Jean-Baptiste, 40, 41

Scheer, Robert, 90–91

science, 34, 207–19

camouflaging ideologies with, 72–74, 205, 207, 211–12, 215, 219

Church seen as hindrance to, 8–11, 254

conservatives viewed as foes of, 204, 205–7

dogma vs., 70–75

history as, 85, 86

of human brain development, 220–21

Marxist gospel of, 46, 211–12

pro-liberal bias in, 210, 215–18