[Forgotten Amendments]

When you hear some “conservative” lecturing us to “grow up” and accept TSA groping, NSA spying, etc, you are listening to a Straussian.

Gottfried is on the right side. But I find his writing really boring. Hard to imagine a whole book ...

[x]

Gottfried is quick to note both that Strauss’s thought has indeed been appropriated in the service of a neoconservative agenda and that Strauss was no conservative.

Hard to say. How do you translate the views of someone whose most important experiences happened in early 20th century Germany into 21st century American terms? Certainly, Leo Strauss wasn't a typical mid-20th century American liberal, and he was even more different from later generations of American liberals.

Straussians, Gottfried concludes, have been able to “misrepresent as philosophical inquiries what are often homilies about American liberal democracy.”

"West Coast" Straussians, maybe. "East Coasters" have a bleaker view of the world.

Not only is its author well versed in his subject, but during this time of rancorous quarreling between self-sworn conservatives, Gottfried provides us with a model of civility.

Something new for him?