The Devaluation of Free Speech in the Land of the Free
Whether we realize it or not, we are being forced to rethink our origins and reorder our priorities — mostly by holding our tongue.
Whether we realize it or not, we are being forced to rethink our origins and reorder our priorities — mostly by holding our tongue.
While most American Jews and other liberals believe in the intrinsic goodness and moral superiority of liberal policies, powerful arguments can be made that liberal policies actually diminish a society’s moral character. Many individual liberals are wonderful people, but the policies they advocate tend to make a people worse.
Recently, I spoke to Reform rabbinical students in their class on \”Jewish Political Tradition.\” Which is, exactly, what? My expertise, I told them, is politics, not theology. Here was my dilemma: to talk reality or defer to the orthodoxy of Reform Jews, which is to say, political liberalism. (Forget the Reconstructionists, i.e., Jewish Unitarians, who are oxymoronic \”religious\” secular humanists.) How confusing all this, especially for non-Jews, who are further told that Conservative Jews are somewhere between Reform Jews and Orthodox Jews — sort of like the words \”liberal\” and \”conservative.\”
It is time to renew our commitment to liberalization and democratization — it is what the Islamists fear most. Congress should pass comprehensive legislation conditioning relations between the United States and nonliberal democracies on progress toward liberalization. This is not imperialism. It is support for decent values and democracies abroad.
The scholars, journalists and concerned citizens were there for a conference whose title could hardly be weightier or more ominous: \”The Collapse of Europe, the Rise of Islam, and the Consequences for the United States.\”\n
In a town famous for hot air, the Washington Post made a major contribution over the weekend with an oft-repeated tale of how Jewish voters, concerned about terrorism and Israel, are about to migrate to the greener pastures of the GOP.
Dennis Prager uses half of what I said to the L.A. Times and gives the impression that I am one of those awful leftists who are \”either morally confused, immoral or lack courage.\”
Several weeks ago, the eminent Harvard sociologist Nathan Glazer, one of the renowned New York intellectuals chronicled in the film \”Arguing the World,\” came to town for a lecture and seminar at UCLA.
The placard near the escalator of New York\’s Grand Hyatt Hotel directed seekers up to the ballroom level for the founding convention of Edah, the fledgling voice of Orthodox liberalism.