Certainly better than Wolfe.
I was fascinated to spend hours in the late night (for some reason) reading the reactions by a few academics on crookedtimber.org to Goldberg’s book. While I would never rule out legitimate criticism of Goldberg’s efforts (nothing is perfect and maybe he was trying to slyly score some partisan points there) the sum of what I encountered was of people of some moderate intellectual gifts and academic training becoming arbiters of good scholarship and only allowing those ‘conservative’ viewpoints in outlets they have deemed permissible for being dispassionate.
Then you go to their own personal blogs and they are at Obama’s inauguration, reading the most paranoiac interpretations of Bush policy and utterly distorting the positions of their political opponents—but on a remarkably juvenile level.
It all boils down to “we sit in judgment and we have consensus and have been immersed in academe and therefore we find you lacking.”
It is telling that the most comments they’ve ever been able to generate have been about GOldberg’s book and this includes their own lefty booster posts and personal blogs.
I believe that Goldberg has proven beyond a doubt where fascism originates. It requires an acquiescent liberalized middle glass placed in fear, and a nationalist view of progress. Of course Obama exhibits all the necessary philosophical and personal markers of fascist history.
It is signidficant also that Goldberg proves that fascist movements in Europe had to destroy the right wing traditionalists, before they could fully blossom into totalitarian states. That destruction is now being attempted by Obama on our economy and on conservative culture. And Rush Limbaugh is the lightning rod.
Few Americans truly understand this. Rush Limbaugh does. Certainly Jonah Goldberg does.
Worth another BUMP! (while I’m scrolling back looking for another subject)