I just finished Jonah Goldberg’s excellent book The Tyranny of Cliches: How the Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas. Each of the 24 chapters debunks a liberal cliché with equal portions of wit and wisdom. The chapter on the “living constitution” is exceptional, especially this passage.
“Drunk on a rich cocktail of Hegel, Darwin and Dewey, they believed that they were smart enough to scavenge what they thought useful from the whole mule cart of Western civilization, and then throw the rest of it off the cliffside of history, clanging and banging its way down the memory hole. They would start over. Fresh. Blank sheet.”
What a great summary of the progressive mindset.
Goldberg also argues that the progressives hate the blindfolded statute of Lady Justice that stands outside the Supreme Court building. She does not represent “justice” as defined by progressives. Goldberg quotes Herbert Croly’s design of the statute and then states:
“Alas, this book [Progressive Democracy by Croly and Pearson] doesn’t come with illustrations, because I would rather enjoy commissioning an artist’s rendition of a woman outfitted to look like a cross-dressing hybrid of Mr. Gadget and Granny Clampett from The Beverly Hillbillies, as a great symbol of progressive jurisprudence.”
