The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Never Ending Swansong

4.24.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 3)

HISS-TRIONICS
Re: Jeffrey Lord's The Alger Hiss Democrats and Michael Roush's letter (under "Hiss Majesty") in Reader Mail's Beyond Good:

Reference Mr. Lord's article on elites and Alger Hiss and Barack Obama, don't you know that Alger Hiss was innocent? He was innocent and Richard Nixon was guilty. What was Nixon guilty of? Well of being, well, being Nixon. Everyone knows that. Everyone also knows that Harvard educated liberals are never guilty of anything. Besides, what crime was it to spy for the Soviet Union against the evil U.S.? You folks at the American Spectator had better learn American history and the nature of good and evil. Besides, up is down and black is white, slavery is freedom, war is peace. The Democrats help people, Republicans kill people and puppies.
-- Paul Melody
Gainesville, Virginia

Mike Roush launched his harpoon at Jeffrey Lord's article by "summarizing" it into a syllogism:

1. Senator Obama said some folks in the mid-West are bitter and cling to their guns and religion as a consequence. Ergo, Senator Obama is an elitist. (If you doubt this, remember he graduated from Harvard Law School).

2. Communists of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were elitist.

3. Therefore, Senator Obama is a communist.

The problem with Mr. Roush's rant is that nowhere in Mr. Lord's article does he pronounce that Senator Obama is a communist. Somewhere in his pursuit of excellence and knowledge, Mr. Roush apparently played hooky the day his teachers enlightened their students about the "straw man" false argument.

More than one European has visited America and noted that in our devotion to the belief in the equality of all men we avert our eyes from the realities of "class" in our midst. In our case, "class" has nothing to do with an aristocracy and often nothing to do with money. Instead, we have an elitist class composed of those with a certain sensibility and refinement.

Pace Mr. Roush, William Kristol did not invent Mr. Lord's contention. The observation of liberalism elitism is a widespread piece of social criticism among conservatives. Perhaps, Mr. Roush should consult Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions or his The Vision of the Anointed. Perhaps, James Burnham's Suicide of the West. Followed by F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom and The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism.

Conservatives in general have suspicion and distrust for government. They are skeptical (to say the least) of the ability of government to engineer societal solutions and make the workings of society more orderly and rational. Conservatives in any case don't believe anyone should have that much power. Liberals believe there is nothing wrong with government (nor growth in government) as long as the right persons are in command. Against all historical evidence, liberals believe the disorderliness of society with all its inequality and injustice can be managed into that "excellent nation." And who will those people be to handle those kinds of levers of power? People just like...them.

In spite of all songs extolling the virtues of diversity, equality and democracy and in spite all the avowed concern for all human beings, the truth is the Clintons and Obamas of this country have little use for people much different from themselves. Joe the butcher and Mary the candlestick maker are just fine with them as long as Joe and Mary share the same politics and vision. On the other hand, liberals bear no little impatience and frustration when Joe and Mary foolishly go in different directions. And when Joe and Mary do, liberals take the condescending view that Joe and Mary are ignorant, bigoted and probably fearful.

There is no area more illustrative of elitist attitudes than in the area of patriotism. Liberals tend to hold one of two views of patriotism. The first are patriotic to an idealized America congruent to their vision and that is the America they love and believe in. The second see patriotism as an outmoded and dangerous fossil of a time that should have been long past....It is not too much to say many liberals see patriotism as a kind of secular sin. In contrast, most Americans have essentially an unconditional love of America. Everyone can have 100 things they would like to be different in America; but in spite of those things most Americans believe America is good and believe in the "promise of America" to themselves, their fellow countrymen and to the world. Without hesitation or qualifier, they believe America is the greatest country in the world. Liberals are apt to lump these embarrassing attitudes into nationalism and chauvinism inappropriate for the modern world -- certainly not the attitudes of critical thinkers.

If you think it is unfair to sum up Obama's character based on one utterance, I would counter that his expression is simply an emanation of the company he keeps.
-- Mike Dooley

Mr. Roush doesn't seem to understand what elitism is. It's not about going to Harvard. It's about the attitude of being above it all, of knowing it all and laughing (as Mr. Roush himself does) at those who would have the audacity to question one as enlightened and special as an Obama or Hiss.

Mr. Lord did not imply that Obama is a communist, Mr. Roush. You're the one who jumped to that conclusion--guilty conscience? If you'll read closely you'll see that Mr. Lord was saying that the Hiss trial was when liberal, Democrat elitism became apparent, and it has never gone away, only grown.

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