Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Two Good Articles in National Review Today

John J. Miller on the New Yorker on Peter Viereck:

The New Yorker's interest in Viereck does not arise from a sincere desire to explore the roots of the Right. Instead, the article by Tom Reiss is a transparent attempt to attack "the radicalism of the George W. Bush Presidency" by suggesting that the conservative movement, in its infancy, betrayed its founding father. The true story is that Viereck was on stage during the creation of modern conservatism, but only in the opening scene. Then he walked away, never to be heard from again, except occasionally as a heckler.
Jonah Goldberg on the First Amendment:

The First Amendment was intended to keep political speech free; everything else was open to debate. Today, the leaders of the First Amendment industry see it exactly the other way around.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great line from the Miller piece:

Instead of saying that McCarthyism is conservatism's original sin, it would be more accurate to say that anti-anti-Communism was liberalism's unforgivable crime. Let's not forget who spent decades giving aid and comfort to Alger Hiss.

It's unfortunate that no bigger demons exist in high school history books than McCarthy.
In these books, Hiss's guilt is doubted and he is even portrayed as a victim. The Rosenbergs are treated with equal sympathy.