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Where cowards have no names | page 1, 2
As you would expect of such a book, it contains detailed analyses and invites discussion and/or refutation by opponents. It is indicative of the left's approach to intellectual disagreement that though it has been 15 years since I first published parts of this book, I can't cite a single attempt by any "progressive" (with one exception) to meet its challenges or engage its arguments. The one exception is the intelligent and reflective review of "The Politics of Bad Faith" in Salon by then-managing editor David Weir. On the other hand, that review (by editorial decision) was a short one and not a point-by-point encounter with the underlying theses of my work. This silence, which is in effect an effort to pretend that such views don't exist, contrasts strikingly with the response to writers who have conducted mirror journeys from right to left. Political writers like Michael Lind and David Brock, who offered (quite feeble) explanations for their own political metamorphoses, have not only been welcomed by leftists but critiqued in detail by conservatives, including me.
David Horowitz David Horowitz's column appears on the News site every other Monday.
The appearance of "The Politics of Bad Faith" inspired two reviewer comments on Amazon by individuals who hated it (and me) and gave it a one-star rating (the lowest possible). Their remarks illuminate the way by which hardcore leftists approach ideological critiques of their worldview. The first of the customer reviewers was a "D. Lamkin" from Burke, Va., who stated: "One of the United States' many cultural factions is the one Horowitz represents so well -- those who would like nothing better than to turn the clock back to that wonderful time in U.S. history when minorities 'knew their place' and women were (supposedly) content to tend 'home and hearth' while the dominant white male 'hunted and gathered' in the U.S. economic marketplace." The writer then did allow that despite our mean-spirited, reactionary and racist views, writers like me should at least be tolerated. On the other hand, he argued, if the shoe were on the other foot, "the author of 'The Politics of Bad Faith' would not extend the same courtesy to dissenters from his viewpoint" because "that would negate the premises he argues in this book." Actually, the premise of my book -- not to mention everything I have done in my political life since leaving the left -- is precisely the opposite of what "D. Lamkin" claims. Not only do I believe in liberty and freedom of expression, but it is my central argument that all forms of socialism, and all efforts to create conditions of economic equality, are incompatible with liberty and individual rights, and that is why I oppose them. I believe the American Founders created our constitutional covenant with this understanding, and I specifically define conservatism in those terms -- as a defense of the constitutional covenant. The attempt to identify me with a political faction in America that wants to put minorities and women in their place and preserve the dominance of the white male is typical of the way leftists attack those who disagree with them, regardless of what the facts may be. For students of Stalinism, this is known as the tactic of "amalgamation," as when Trotskyists were lumped by Stalin with fascists and monarchists. The accusation that conservatives want to hold back women and minorities is a pure fabrication; it is political libel. But it is one that leftists hold dear. The second customer review of my book stated: Horowitz "is simply wrong. The roots of evil, if we can discuss such in meaningful terms, certainly are not in minorities or multiculturalism or treating women as something other than doormats. If the roots of evil exist, they are in the willingness of people like Horowitz to glorify the individual at the expense of society." First, to reiterate: I have never said or written anything to remotely suggest that minorities are the root of evil or that women should be treated like doormats. The truth, once again, is quite the opposite. As for my criticisms of "multiculturalism," they are focused very specifically on the efforts of radicals to use multiculturalism as a way of first attacking and then deconstructing America's own culture of freedom. On the other hand, this reviewer inadvertently lets the leftist cat out of the bag. In pinpointing the freedom of the individual as the enemy of the future, he identifies the actual pivot point in the great political debate dividing left from right. It's not about a desire by conservatives to hold women and minorities down. It is about whether submerging the individual in the state and putting society under the tutelage of a political elite is the way to liberate anyone -- and, most particularly, minorities, women and the poor.
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