Replies

http://westernfrontamerica.com/2009/03/14/liberalism-antiintellectual/

Is liberalism anti-intellectual?
By Dr. Ellis Washington
March 14th, 2009

Liberalism is wrong because it doesn’t work.

If a company is too big to fail, it’s too big to exist.

~ George Will

On Thursday, conservative intellectual Laura Ingraham had writer George Will on her program discussing the Obama administration, the economy and society. As usual with Laura, the conversation was spirited, substantive and serious. In my opinion, Laura Ingraham is one of the finest interviewers in modern times, because in a few minutes she can with laser-like efficiency discern how to cut through all the cognitive dissonance and sophism to get at the important root issues she wishes to expose to her audience.

When the conversation shifted to the political philosophy of liberalism, George Will said something I thought was both simple and profound – Liberalism is wrong because it doesn’t work. As the subject moved to the dismal state of Wall Street, the American economy, rising unemployment and mega-corporations like AIG, Citigroup, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, GM, Ford and Chrysler on the verge of bankruptcy, George Will said, If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist.

I’ve always admired and learned from George Will and his intellectual brand of conservatism. As a matter of fact, he is responsible for my modest makeover 20 years ago when I shaved my mustache, cut my hair and started wearing bowties. The two quotes above are quintessential George Will where he, better than most intellectuals, has the unique gift of synthesizing complex ideas with a seemingly simple phrase.

When Will told Laura, “Liberalism is wrong because it doesn’t work,” I screamed in my heart, “Yes! Why can’t those dummkopfs in Congress prop up someone in front of a TV camera that can say this phrase with a degree of credibility?” Instead we have the new Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele, running around trying to “reach out” to the hip-hop community, to the Hollywood community, to blacks, Hispanics, Asians, young voters and to feminists (via his recent clumsy comments on abortion).

Here is some unsolicited advice for you, Mr. Steele, Why don’t you reach out to the damn conservatives!

Back to George Will and the ultimate question regarding liberals and liberalism: Is liberalism based on intellectualism, emotion or nihilism? Most conservative intellectuals like Ingraham and Will would contend that liberalism is anti-intellectual and is a political philosophy based on envy, emotionalism and nihilism. While I agree, I would add a fascism element to this characterization of liberalism that I gleaned from reading Jonah Goldberg’s book, “Liberal Fascism” – a marvelous book that elegantly chronicles the history of liberals’ love affair with fascism, which in its myriad incarnations in 20th century dictators like Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Franco, Mao, Pol Pot, Kim Il-sung, Idi Amin and others demanded both total obeisance to the will of “the Leader” and an education system based on propaganda rather than truth.

As a case in point, look at how the Obama administration is handling America’s present economic collapse. Both Obama, his economic advisers, particularly his clueless treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, are clearly in over their heads and are doing everything they can but address the central issues that brought our economy into the catastrophic state we find ourselves. Instead, we hear talk of pouring more billions to keep mortgage insurer AIG from bankruptcy. Why would you pour more bad money after bad money? Because AIG is too big to fail.

George Will shot back and said: If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. Will, like most conservatives, doesn’t want government intervention into business no matter how well intentioned, because he knows that it will only delay the inevitable economic catastrophe and depression. Let the market cleanse itself. Yes, in the short term it will be painful because many companies will be forced into bankruptcy, but the arrogance and anti-intellectualism of liberalism demands that, “We’ve got to do something.”

Enter stage left, President Obama the messiah and all of his little Marxist minions with their statistics, programs, spending plans, corporate statism and Italian and German-style fascism to save corporate America. Liberals and socialists in Congress can’t run Medicare, Amtrak, the public schools, the post office or the city of Washington, D.C., efficiently; why would any rational person think that these 535 dummkopfs can effectively run corporate America?

That’s why I believe that liberalism is anti-intellectualism. Every policy created from its presumptions either have failed (Marxism, Keynesianism, Wilson-FDR-LBJ socialism), is failing (unionism, American exceptionalism, the Obama administration) or will soon fail (government welfare from Watts to Wall Street). Obama, a Harvard Law graduate isn’t stupid. He and his army of Ivy-Leaguers realize that his policies are failing spectacularly. Here is where his Machiavellian side comes to the fore. I believe that Obama is purposely stimulating economic chaos rather than seriously trying to fix the economy. Why?

In a recent article, “Obama: Manchild in the promised land,” I wrote the following:

I have often stated in my own writings on law, politics and philosophy that before theory, before practice, there must be a pretext. Rahm Emanuel has clearly stated this shameless political pretext. … [”You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”] What is the “serious crisis” Emanuel doesn’t want “to go to waste”? Well, it’s the downward spiral of economy. To a certified socialist like Obama who is a self-confessed admirer of FDR, a crisis, any crisis, is like pure gold – misery = power.

Morals were first separated from politics in the writings of that infamous Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, in his treatise on statecraft, “The Prince” (1513). One of the most famous quotes from that work is: “The end justifies the means.” The Obama administration is playing Machiavelli like a Stradivarius violin against America’s most sacred, vested interests. Anti-intellectualism, anarchy, nihilism and societal instability are Obama’s means; an Orwellian police state where the Bible, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are treated as toilet paper will be the end.

America, be not deceived. Under the pretext of an imminent economic depression, Obama will use the machinery of government to repress our God-given natural rights of the people on an unprecedented scale. Unless Obama’s anti-intellectual, Marxist moves are stopped; this country will no longer be called USA but USSA – the United Socialist States of America.

———————————————————

Ellis Washington, currently a professor of law and political science at Savannah State University, former editor at the Michigan Law Review and law clerk at The Rutherford Institute, is a graduate of John Marshall Law School and a lecturer and freelance writer on constitutional law, legal history, political philosophy and critical race theory. He has written over a dozen law review articles and several books, including “The Inseparability of Law and Morality: The Constitution, Natural Law and the Rule of Law” (2002). See his law review article “Reply to Judge Richard Posner.” Washington’s latest book is “The Nuremberg Trials: Last Tragedy of the Holocaust.”