The Eightieth Congress—the one which passed the Taft-Hartley Act-lives in retrospect as a gosh-awful nightmare to Liberals of the statist persuasion. It is not so much that Bob Taft finally managed to make his impression in the Eightieth; nor is it that taxes were cut back a bit, or that public housing received a slight rebuff, or that price controls were rejected, or that social security was left precisely where it was. No, the thing which really annoys the. latter-day Liberals about the Eightieth Congress is that it symbolizes the resurgence, ever so faint, of an intellectual opposition to trends which they had considered operative for eternity. The true reason for the Liberals’ wrath is accurately reported by historian Eric Goldman. Quoting columnist T.R.B. of the New Republic, Goldman says with an air of horror too anguished to be restrained: ‘ Everything was debatable again.”
That is it: the fear of debate. Although Voltaire (“I wholly disapprove of what you have to say but will defend to the death your right to say it”) is still quoted by latter-day Liberals, they don’t really believe in Voltaire. They have a birthcontroller attitude toward any sentiment which offends the statist canon. It is not that they want to murder an opposing idea; murder is a messy business. It is just that they don’t want it to be born.
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