MooreOns

Earlier this month Peter Beinart, the editor of The New Republic (and a friend of mine), called for his movement and party to purge those liberals and Democrats who are soft on “Islamic totalitarianism.” His argument is that the Democrats should emulate those liberals who founded the Americans for Democratic Action in January 1947, when “130 men and women met at Washington’s Willard Hotel to save American liberalism,” as Beinart begins his essay. “A few months earlier, in articles in The New Republic and elsewhere, the columnists Joseph and Stewart Alsop had warned that ‘the liberal movement is now engaged in sowing the seeds of its own destruction.’ Liberals, they argued, ‘consistently avoided the great political reality of the present: the Soviet challenge to the West.’”

Beinart laments, correctly, that there’s “little liberal passion” for anything like a similar commitment to fighting Islamist totalitarians today. Beholden to MoveOn.org (which opposed invading Afghanistan for fear of perpetuating the “cycle of violence” and making America “like the terrorists”) and to the ethos, if not the august personage, of Michael Moore (who believes Bush is more of a threat than Bin Laden), liberals are unprepared to form the “fighting” party Beinart wants. John Kerry’s insistence that “we shouldn’t be opening firehouses in Baghdad and closing them down in our own communities” was little more than pandering to the MooreOn wing of the party.

About the Author

Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg is a National Review contributing editor.

Featured Tags

Earlier this month Peter Beinart, the editor of The New Republic (and a friend of mine), called for his movement and party to purge those liberals and Democrats who are soft on “Islamic totalitarianism.” His argument is that the Democrats should emulate those liberals who founded the Americans for Democratic Action in January 1947, when “130 men and women met at Washington’s Willard Hotel to save American liberalism,” as Beinart begins his essay. “A few months earlier, in articles in The New Republic and elsewhere, the columnists Joseph and Stewart Alsop had warned that ‘the liberal movement is now engaged in sowing the seeds of its own destruction.’ Liberals, they argued, ‘consistently avoided the great political reality of the present: the Soviet challenge to the West.’”

Beinart laments, correctly, that there’s “little liberal passion” for anything like a similar commitment to fighting Islamist totalitarians today. Beholden to MoveOn.org (which opposed invading Afghanistan for fear of perpetuating the “cycle of violence” and making America “like the terrorists”) and to the ethos, if not the august personage, of Michael Moore (who believes Bush is more of a threat than Bin Laden), liberals are unprepared to form the “fighting” party Beinart wants. John Kerry’s insistence that “we shouldn’t be opening firehouses in Baghdad and closing them down in our own communities” was little more than pandering to the MooreOn wing of the party.