The Third World War

A conservative friend of mine who does a good deal of professional talking mentioned the other day that on discussion programs, lately, he is often pitted with a liberal and a New Leftist. ‘In the old days,” he said, “I was always battling a liberal-Old Left united front. With the current setup, I usually find myself ganged up with the New Leftist against the liberal.” My friend is not alone in having noted a seeming affinity between New Left and Right.

In an article (“Confessions of a Right-Wing Liberal”) appropriately published in Ramparts (June 15 issue), Professor Murray N. Rothbard recounts how it came about that one who “twenty years ago was an extreme rightwing Republican” is today happy writing for Ramparts and convinced that “if we would salvage liberty . . . this needs to be done by a counter-fusion of old right and new left.” I doubt Professor Rothbard will comprehend the chuckles with which Ramparts’ sophisticated readers will savor the naivete of his face-saving boast that “my basic political views have not changed by a single iota in these two decades!”

JB

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James Burnham

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A conservative friend of mine who does a good deal of professional talking mentioned the other day that on discussion programs, lately, he is often pitted with a liberal and a New Leftist. ‘In the old days,” he said, “I was always battling a liberal-Old Left united front. With the current setup, I usually find myself ganged up with the New Leftist against the liberal.” My friend is not alone in having noted a seeming affinity between New Left and Right.

In an article (“Confessions of a Right-Wing Liberal”) appropriately published in Ramparts (June 15 issue), Professor Murray N. Rothbard recounts how it came about that one who “twenty years ago was an extreme rightwing Republican” is today happy writing for Ramparts and convinced that “if we would salvage liberty . . . this needs to be done by a counter-fusion of old right and new left.” I doubt Professor Rothbard will comprehend the chuckles with which Ramparts’ sophisticated readers will savor the naivete of his face-saving boast that “my basic political views have not changed by a single iota in these two decades!”