For those eagerly awaiting my response to Michael Tomasky’s review of my book (in which he calls Liberal Fascism one of the most inane and self-negating books he’s ever read), I finally got it done and posted this morning (I’ve been traveling a lot). In short, I was deeply underwhelmed with Tomasky’s effort and disappointed in what seems to me a lapse in his intellectual integrity. As it’s long and few care that much about Tomasky or my response to him, I’ll just post the summation here (though some might find it enjoyable lunch reading):
To sum up: Tomasky affirmatively concedes vast chunks of my argument and passively concedes even more. His strongest critiques are with arguments and assertions that cannot actually be found in my book. All the while he argues both that I don’t know what I am talking about and that students of history knew all of this stuff before. In other words, I’m both ignorant and I’m not telling him anything he didn’t know.
But, yes, by all means: I’m the one guilty of being inane and self-negating.
I cannot be certain whether Tomasky’s myopic reading and thumbless grasp of my book is genuine or merely a grand show put on for more effective ideological spadework. But I am certain that it would be unwise to rely on liberals like him to tell us when progressivism has gone too far.
[Cross-posted at the Corner]