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The legitimacy of liberalism

The no-longer-nice blogger over at No More Mister Nice Blog seems to be furious that the New York Times has run a review of “Stolen Honor:  Wounds That Never Heal” by Alessandra Stanley.  The review begins,

“Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal,” the highly contested anti-Kerry documentary, should not be shown by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It should be shown in its entirety on all the networks, cable stations and on public television.

But surely his anger, like that of the Swift Boat Veterans themselves, is misplaced.  The moral imperative to entertain and adjudicate among all points of view runs deep in the liberal tradition, and we should not betray that tradition today simply because we are offended by speech that some might find noxious-- or, as Stanley puts it, “histrionic, often specious and deeply sad.” Indeed, one is reminded here of the famous debate between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison on this question, at the very dawn of our Republic.  Who can forget Jefferson’s eloquent declaration that

There remains little Doubt among the opinions of Men, that the legitimacy of liberal Society rests on its willingness to support the Harangues of deranged and vicious Persons of the far Right, particularly if they be subsidized by media Conglomerates of vast Size.

A principle surpassed in nobility only by Madison’s equally eloquent rejoinder:

Nay, Thomas, I know of none who would doubt such a thing.  And yet these be but empty Words, if we of liberal Mind do not further seek to ensure that these well-subsidized Harangues of the “Wing-Nuts” be promulgated throughout the breadth of the Nation, by means of every Channel public and private.  For no Nation can long endure or prosper, unless it be sure to foster a mature political culture of Lying and Calumny.  Liberal citizens must lead in this as in every Respect, to undertake to promote those Means by which they might be slandered and vilified throughout the Land, preferably during prime hours of the Evening in those among our States that are most likely to “swing.”

Long may the gray lady hold aloft the banner of liberalism!

Posted by on 10/22 at 09:08 AM

  1. You may find this hard to believe, but this is the first that I have heard of these quotes. Such is the sorry state of our educational system.

    Posted by Scribestalker  on  10/22  at  12:03 PM

  2. Michael,

    Show it on public television?  You mean, on my tax dollar?  Hmm.

    My first reaction:  Yes, but only if the right agrees to stop complaining about government subsidized tenured-radicals (= socialism, = obscenity, = investigative journalism).  And I doubt anyone at the GOP would take us up on that.

    On second thought, there’s so much government-subsidized right-wing speech happening right now, I doubt it makes much difference ...

    Allons enfants,

    Jarrett

    Posted by  on  10/22  at  01:54 PM

  3. "this is the first I have heard of these quotes”

    I’m with Scribestalker.  Could we have chapter and verse for these quotes so we can make up for having been left behind?

    Posted by  on  10/22  at  02:42 PM

  4. Jarret,

    That would be on your tax penny.  Most of public broadcasting is funded by public donations and corporate underwriting.

    Posted by Melanie  on  10/22  at  03:06 PM

  5. Hey, Scribestalker and tc, these are some of our country’s founding documents.  If you’re not familiar with them, all I can say is that this is a scathing indictment of our government schools and their liberal agenda:  as Lynne Cheney has pointed out, we now have whole weeks devoted to the practice of witchcraft in the classroom and nary a mention of the works of our Founding Fathers.

    Posted by Michael  on  10/22  at  03:50 PM

  6. LOL - nice

    Posted by Chris  on  10/22  at  05:50 PM

  7. Hmm! Must have been among those 300,000 liberal/socialist books she set a match to.  Perhaps she didn’t catch the name, Thomas Jefferson.

    Posted by  on  10/22  at  06:10 PM

  8. This is not exactly related, but checkout what the NAS is supporting now. Normally, it’s the NAS accusing theorists of trashing the canon and academic standards. Now they are, in effect, defending the trashing of women in writers’ rooms, as if they want to protect that kind of “free speech” in lecture halls.  Unbelievable.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/arts/television/17noxo.html

    NAS=National Association of Scholars, by the way

    Posted by  on  10/22  at  08:51 PM

  9. I’ll say this for this idiotic review: it’s produced a remarkable amount of first-rate blogging.

    Posted by Scott  on  10/22  at  08:56 PM

  10. You are a very funny man.  Jonathan Swift would be proud.

    Posted by  on  10/23  at  08:55 AM

  11. Are you being sarcastic, dude?

    “I don’t even know anymore.”

    Posted by  on  10/23  at  02:44 PM

  12. Is that Madison quote the first known use of the term “wing-nut?” It sounds like an expression Ben Franklin might have coined.

    Posted by  on  10/23  at  04:10 PM

  13. Great question!  I’m going to have to reply in a new post.

    Posted by Michael  on  10/23  at  06:05 PM

  14. Ms. Stanley has every right to her nauseating opinion.  Likewise, I have every right to throw a shoe at she who voids her rheum upon me.

    Sinclair has the right to show the movie.  I would not censor them, but they are hardly immune to criticism, or to a boycott of their advertisers.

    Posted by  on  10/25  at  09:25 AM

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