{"id":5544,"date":"2006-09-13T18:36:30","date_gmt":"2006-09-13T18:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=5544"},"modified":"2013-04-10T18:37:23","modified_gmt":"2013-04-10T18:37:23","slug":"where-the-illiberal-is-in-liberalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/where-the-illiberal-is-in-liberalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Where the Illiberal Is in Liberalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n

Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he whining of Democrats and ex-Clintonistas about the \u201cdocudrama\u201d\u00a0The Path to 9\/11<\/i>\u00a0has given us all another example of liberal mendacity and hypocrisy. Start with the total silence of the usual civil liberties suspects to say a word about this attempt at stifling someone\u2019s First Amendment right to free speech. Where are the ACLU and its usual clich\u00e9s about the \u201cchilling effects\u201d of such attempts? Where are all the blowhard academics who noisily defended the noxious Ward Churchill? Where are all the quotes from John Stuart Mill usually trotted out on these occasions?<\/p>\n

Of course these are rhetorical questions, because we all know that those lofty liberal principles always come down to whose political ox is being gored. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty \u2014 unless they happen to be privileged white kids whose alleged victim is a black woman. Leaking protected information is a heinous crime deserving of a special prosecutor and a relentless hounding in the press \u2014 unless it\u2019s the press itself leaking information about a government program trying to keep us from getting blown up in our cubicles or airplane seats. Judging people by their race or gender is a horrible affront to justice and morality \u2014 unless you\u2019re a college admissions officer desperate to prove his \u201ccommitment to diversity\u201d by giving a leg up to affluent minorities and women. Tolerance of those different from us is the highest good \u2014 unless \u201cthose different\u201d are \u201cfundamentalist\u201d Christians, observant Jews, people who like guns, or poor Southern whites.<\/p>\n

Even more laughable than these blatant hypocrisies, however, is the argument that the television show should be pulled not because it is politically inconvenient for the Democrats but because it \u201cdistorts history.\u201d What is popular culture, most of it manufactured by liberals and leftists, but a massive distortion of history? I\u2019m not talking about taking liberties with the facts to make a good story.\u00a0Cinderella Man\u00a0<\/i>reduces the complicated, conflicted heavyweight champion Max Baer into a cartoonish goon, but this is to provide the idealized hero with an equally demonized villain, the standard Manichean pattern of most movies \u2014 though one does wonder why the movie makes nearly invisible the big white Star of David that the historical Baer sported on his trunks.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m talking about, rather, are the distortions that serve to disguise ideology or politics in the robes of history. You can almost pick movies at random and find propaganda as historically fantastical as\u00a0Birth of a Nation<\/i>. Arthur Penn\u2019s much praised\u00a0Bonnie and Clyde<\/i>took a pair of homely psychopaths \u2014 mad-dog killers who preyed mostly on small shopkeepers and who murdered lawmen in cold blood \u2014 and turned them into glamorous Robin Hoods, thus validating the sixties fashion of glorifying violence as long as it is directed at villains (bankers, cops, etc) approved by the left. This same attitude still exists today, evident in the lefty girlish gushing over a thug like convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. Or how about Warren Beatty\u2019s bloated bit of communist agitprop\u00a0Reds<\/i>, a kitschy valentine to one of the most useful of useful idiots, John Reed, who labored on behalf of an ideology that murdered a 100 million people? More recently,\u00a0Kingdom of Heaven<\/i>\u00a0was a perfect storm of Orwellian history, transforming the intolerant Muslims into proto-humanist apostles of tolerance, and depicting every Christian who doesn\u2019t abjure his faith as an intolerant fanatic.\u00a0 And how can we ignore the mother of all liars, Michael Moore, whose fabrications and historical distortions were rewarded with an Academy Award?<\/p>\n

S<\/span>o let\u2019s not take seriously all the crocodile tears being shed for Clio, muse of history. We all know what this is about. But let\u2019s also be honest and remember the big mistake many conservatives made three years ago when they put pressure on CBS to pull a silly picture about Ronald Reagan, thus legitimizing the current liberal attempt to use the same tactic to censor something they don\u2019t like. Conservatives usually know better; as I wrote at the time in an article\u00a0“The Conservatives’ Pyrrhic Victory,”\u00a0<\/a>\u201cConservatives . . . usually favor a free market of ideas; their protests focus on the unfair domination of the market by one group that controls an institution. Content is not the issue, for no matter how bad or pernicious the idea, the more people who encounter it, the more its lack of merit will become apparent. A free raucous debate will generally allow the people to sort out treasures from trash; and if some trash should prevail, the same process will eventually expose its trashiness. We need to monitor the various institutions that promote ideas, of course, but for fairness, not for content. If all voices have an equal opportunity to be heard without fear of reprisal or coercion, then the market and the people who frequent it will do the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the argument liberals should be making about\u00a0The Path to 9\/11,\u00a0<\/i>for the issues a discussion of the film\u2019s presumed inaccuracies could incite are extremely important.\u00a0 No one should try to assign partisan blame for our collective indifference to jihadist terror, for apart from a prescient few we were all asleep at the wheel. Let\u2019s not forget one of Ronald Reagan\u2019s biggest mistakes: failing to punish Hezbollah and Iran for murdering 241 U.S. Marines in 1983. That was one of a series of failures that emboldened Bin Laden and culminated in 9\/11. A discussion of those failures and their circumstances, even if it is provoked by a television movie, is thus very important as we enter the sixth year of a war against Islamic jihadists. Only liberals can explain why this principle they usually loudly endorse has been cast aside in this case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The whining of Democrats and ex-Clintonistas about the \u201cdocudrama\u201d\u00a0The Path to 9\/11\u00a0has given us all another example of liberal mendacity and hypocrisy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,770],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1rq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3308,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-unexamined-president-and-his-media-enablers\/","url_meta":{"origin":5544,"position":0},"title":"The Unexamined President and His Media Enablers","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society As usual, the mainstream media are getting wrong the significance of President Obama\u2019s release of his actual birth certificate. In the liberal-left narrative, the \u201cbirther\u201d issue was always evidence of the Republican Party\u2019s fringe kookiness: as the\u00a0Daily Kos\u2019s Markos Moulitsas crowed, \u201cWhat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2406,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/liberating-libya-for-jihadists\/","url_meta":{"origin":5544,"position":1},"title":"Liberating Libya for Jihadists","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The fall of Muammar Gaddafi is making some in the West giddy with the usual \u201cArab Spring\u201d wishful visions of democracy and freedom flourishing throughout the Muslim Middle East, even as the last binge of democratic intoxication, the fall of Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Libya"","block_context":{"text":"Libya","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/libya\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5490,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/imminent-danger\/","url_meta":{"origin":5544,"position":2},"title":"Imminent Danger","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Madness and massacre will not result in sound gun laws. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The reaction to the murders in Blacksburg is eliciting the usual liberal nostrums. Typical is the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0editorial that concluded, \u201cWhat is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7637,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/moral-equivalence-moral-idiocy\/","url_meta":{"origin":5544,"position":3},"title":"Moral Equivalence, Moral Idiocy","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine Scenes all too familiar from the Arab conflict with Israel have followed the murder last Wednesday of a 16-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Abu Khdeir. Mourners at his funeral\u00a0chanting the Muslim war-cry \u201cAllahu Akbar\u201d as they carry the boy\u2019s\u00a0open coffin, the crowd shouting slogans like \u201cIntifada\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/6b682571-56c4-4ad7-adc6-c762abf878af-620x372.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5409,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/liberal-racism\/","url_meta":{"origin":5544,"position":4},"title":"Liberal Racism","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The assault on skilled, independent, intelligent blacks by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers When Barack Obama accused Hillary Clinton of \u201cplaying the gender card,\u201d the hypocrisy that typically defines our public discourse on race descended into the surreal. Obama\u2019s whole career has been created by and has exploited the perception\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6606,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bruce-thornton-on-secure-freedom-radio-with-frank-gaffney\/","url_meta":{"origin":5544,"position":5},"title":"Bruce Thornton on Secure Freedom Radio with Frank Gaffney","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Seth Jones, Bruce Thornton, Peter Pham, Diana West October 9th, 2013\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0Comments SETH JONES, Associate Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation, joins guest host DAN BONGINO, to help explain the terror threat from and historical background of the terrorist organization al-Shabaab. BRUCE THORNTON, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5545,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5544\/revisions\/5545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}