Spectator's Journal / The Liberals' Halfway House
Vigilante, Richard
A t the last session of the first-ever conference on neoliberalism in Washington in October, Irving Kristol and Victor Navasky appeared to present critiques of the conference. Charlie Peters,...
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...Ken Auletta, author of The Underclass, might be Peters's idea of the perfect neoliberal--a journalist who sheds his presumptions and goes out to find how government programs really work...
...The government, he says, should nudge investors toward investing in "new plants and equipment instead of simply trading old issues, which is what most of the activity on Wall Street is about today...
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...Irving Kristol made a similar point, arguing that the neoliberals say silly things about "creating community" among workers without understanding that (a) religion is what creates community, and (b) the workers they are trying to help don't need liberal community because, unlike liberals, they have religion...
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...Daniel Yankelovich pointed out that liberals don't sacrifice for their values anymore, by which he meant mostly that they don't go to protest marches...
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...In this regard the most revealing event of the weekend was an entirely incoherent panel on values...
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Vol. 17 • January 1984 • No. 1