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The new-time religion: liberalism and its problems
National Review, May 23, 2005 by Jonah Goldberg
Whatever the merits of these "ideas," liberals would surely be better served if they understood that this is an old project indeed. Thurman Arnold, FDR's antitrust czar and a titan of liberal legal philosophy, made a much more serious attempt at the same point in The Folklore of Capitalism and Symbols of Government 70 years ago. He too believed that politics was ultimately about narratives and frames. Where he differed was that he understood he was in the dogma-manufacturing business while Lakoff, Reich, et al. take it as a metaphysical given that the liberal approach is the correct one.
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And this is where the Janus faces of liberalism meet. William James invented Pragmatism to accommodate the belief that Darwin killed God; with it, religious truth became whatever believers willed. Liberalism therefore puts government in God's throne to the extent that it believes that, as a matter of principle, no challenge is beyond the reach of Leviathan. From Woodrow Wilson on, central to the new liberals' project was to create, in Arnold's words, a "religion of government," where the old dogma of a limited state with defined powers would be rendered obsolete in favor of an "organic" state and an oracular "living constitution." Perhaps Howard Dean should purchase some "Don't Immanentize the Eschaton!" buttons with the "Don't" crossed out.
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