After Liberalism

David Gelernter

LIBERALISM today is a spent force, morally and intellectually. And so the question before us is “What can the Left do now?” and I really don’t know. Perhaps it could open a restaurant. Leftists do have a flair for food. Among serious historians it is generally agreed that the one towering contribution of American liberalism over the last 25 years is the Great Puffy Muffin, which was developed by a team of leading experimental chefs in Madison, Wisconsin, circa 1977. Great Puffies couldn’t exist without woodsy leftist cafés that serve two hundred kinds of coffee, arc papered with posters about alternative holistic community medicine, and have waitresses who spend all day trying to out- glower one another.

DG

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David Gelernter

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David Gelernter

LIBERALISM today is a spent force, morally and intellectually. And so the question before us is “What can the Left do now?” and I really don’t know. Perhaps it could open a restaurant. Leftists do have a flair for food. Among serious historians it is generally agreed that the one towering contribution of American liberalism over the last 25 years is the Great Puffy Muffin, which was developed by a team of leading experimental chefs in Madison, Wisconsin, circa 1977. Great Puffies couldn’t exist without woodsy leftist cafés that serve two hundred kinds of coffee, arc papered with posters about alternative holistic community medicine, and have waitresses who spend all day trying to out- glower one another.