John Rosenberg offers his thoughts on that astonishing essay by Professor Surber here.

I’ll add this point. For all Surber’s proclaimed deep study of the world, it’s obvious that he doesn’t have any idea what conservatives really think. Surber blathers away about how liberals understand “the trajectory of history,” which he says is about overcoming prejudice and unearned privilege and resisting oppression in favor of justice. Is our oh-so-learned philosophy professor unaware that conservative advocates of free markets and the minimal state have demonstrated that it is precisely the existence of governmental power that obstructs poor people from making progress?

Who opposes eminent-domain laws, which are so often used to deprive poor people of their property?

Who opposes the public-education monopoly that does such a lousy job of teaching the basics to inner-city children?

Who opposes minimum-wage laws that price the unskilled out of the labor market?

Who opposes the federal meddling in the housing market that has done so much harm to people of all sorts who were lured into bad investments?

The many “liberals” who manipulate public policy for their own gain behind the smokescreen of good intentions must love it when academics play the role of the useful idiot.