The Pity Party (42 page)

    
desentimentalized liberalism and, 4–5

    
effect of assassination of, 5–6, 94–96, 107

    
white guilt and, 95

Kennedy, Joseph Sr., 6, 12

Kennedy, Robert F., 99

    
empathy and, 5–6, 12

    
poverty and, 124–27

    
white guilt and, 97–98, 100, 106, 214

kindness, C. S. Lewis on, 73–74.

    
See also
compassion

King, Coretta Scott, 164

Kipling, Rudyard, 240–41

Klein, Joe, 94, 139, 143, 150

Kohn, Sally, 57

Krauthammer, Charles, 50–51

Kristof, Nicholas, 11, 118–19, 185, 240

Krugman, Paul, xix

Kuttner, Robert, 221

Lakoff, George, 9–10, 11, 34, 217

Lanza, Adam, 153–57

Lasch, Christopher, 134–35

Lemann, Nicholas, 98–99, 103, 128, 178–79

Levinson, Sanford, 159–60

Lewis, Anthony, 24, 27

Lewis, C. S., 73–74, 205

liberalism

    
attempts to desentimentalize, 4–5

    
effect of Kennedy assassination on, 5–6, 94–96, 107

    
statism and government power, 195–206

    
see also
compassion; liberal programs

Liberal Mind, The
(Minogue), xvii–xviii

liberal programs, efficacy versus caring concerns, 139–93

    
“comprehensive” programs and, 181–85

    
differences with conservatives over, 222–29

    
diversity and affirmative action policies, 173–81

    
environmental programs, 163–73

    
gun control, 152–63

    
Head Start, 139–41, 143, 148

    
perpetual need for additional programs, 185–93

Liberator
, 52–53

lifestyles, liberals' suspending of judgment and dismissal of bad outcomes of programs, 72–75

Lilla, Mark, 14

Lincoln, Abraham, 240

Lindberg, Tod, 223

Lippmann, Walter, 50

Lithwick, Dahlia, 176–77

Loury, Glenn, 108–9

Macmillan, Harold, 16–17

Madison, James, 15, 19, 73, 200–201

Malawi, per capital GDP of, 82

Mamet, David, 26, 164

Manent, Pierre, 53

Mansfield, Mike, 95, 136

Marshall, Thurgood, 174

Martin, Trayvon, 112

Massachusetts, economic growth and, 68–69

Mathis, Joel, 161

McArdle, Megan, 168–69

McCain, John, xiii

McCloskey, Deirdre, 67, 225

McGovern, George, 51–52, 53, 54

McWhorter, John, 112–13

Mead, Walter Russell, 53–54, 136

Medicaid, xiv, 86, 181, 183, 191, 225

    
SCHIP and, 8–9, 38

Medicare, xiv, 77, 86, 181, 191, 225, 235

    
admitted waste in program, 182–83

    
Affordable Care Act as corrective for, 228

Meditations on Hunting
(Ortega y Gasset), 151

Mencken, H. L., 197

Mexico

    
immigration to U.S. from, 58–60

    
lack of assimilation of immigrants from, 80–81

    
per capital GDP of, 59

Meyerson, Harold, 227

Michigan, University of, 175–76

“Middle America,” Lasch on, 134–35

middle class, evolution to victimhood, 122–37

Miles, Vincent, 123

Miller, Matt, 88

Minogue, Kenneth, xvii–xviii, 28, 47

modernity

    
changes in social contract and, 13–17

    
Christianity and, 13–20, 29

    
remedies for, 17–26

    
remedies for, reasons to doubt value of, 27–34

Moore, Susan, 70–71, 72, 73, 108

Muller, Jerry, 77

murders, “discrimination” of, 112

Murray, Charles

    
life well-lived and, 73

    
plan for transfer state, 229–35

Napolitano, Janet, 184

National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission), 105–6

Nation
magazine, 123

nation-states, liberals' disdain for patriotism and, 49–50

natural disasters

    
animal licensing and, 1–3, 200, 202

    
helplessness and, 88, 92

natural gas.
See
hydrological fracturing (fracking)

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), 164

negative income tax

    
Friedman's proposal of, 229–30, 231

    
Murray's plan for transfer state and, 229–35

New Deal, Cuomo's defense of, 7

Newtown, CT, shootings, 153–57

New York Times
, 177–78, 202

Nixon, Richard, 198–99

Noah, Timothy, 45

Nordhaus, Ted, 166–67

nuclear power, liberals' dislike of, 166–67, 170, 173

Oakley, Barbara, 32

Obama, Barack, 9, 137, 202

    
Affordable Care Act and, 225

    
environmental programs and, 163

    
on government, 188–90, 198–99, 201

    
gun control and, 152–56, 162–63

    
Head Start and, 141, 148

    
on “Middle America,” 135–36

    
rhetoric of compassion and, xiii–xvii, 10–11, 25–26

    
and taking care of own, 38, 76, 86, 91, 192

    
2014 budget of, 37

Obama, Michelle, xiii–xiv, xv

Obamacare.
See
Affordable Care Act

Occupy Wall Street movement, 127, 136

O'Connor, Sandra Day, 176

Office of Economic Opportunity, 46

O'Hare, Michael, 168, 172

Ohio, gun laws in, 162

On Bullshit
(Frankfurt), 144–48

One: Do We Have a Right to More Children?
(Conly), 205

O'Neill, Thomas P. “Tip,” xviii

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 216

Orszag, Peter, 183

Ortega y Gasset, José, 151

Orwell, George, 17–18

O'Sullivan, John, 94

Oswald, Lee Harvey, 95, 99

Other America, The
(Harrington), 96

Owens, Marcelas, xiv

Packer, George, 95

pathological altruism, 32–33

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
See
Affordable Care Act

Patrick, Deval, 207

patriotism, liberals' call to higher patriotism and humanitarianism, 48–55

Pelosi, Nancy, 87

Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch
(Kant), 19

Philippines, per capital GDP of, 36

Piss Christ
(Serrano), 31

pluralism, 79–80

population control, liberals' proposals for, 170–72, 205

Postrel, Virginia, 183

poverty

    
Freidman on limits of private charity, 212–14

    
Johnson's War on, 96–97, 124–25, 192–93

    
liberals' views on economic growth versus social welfare, 66–72

    
relative poverty line and, 43–47

    
victimhood and, 96–100

Powell, Lewis, 174–77

prisoners, rates of release of, 131

proximity, as factor in liberals' compassion, 39–43

Public School 163, in New York City, 120–21

Putnam, Robert, 81–82, 115

Queen for a Day
(television program), xv–xvi

Rawls, John, 11–12, 25, 109, 142

Reagan, Ronald, xviii, 198, 208, 209, 236

reciprocity

    
as factor in liberals' compassion, 41–43

    
Kennedy and civil rights, 104

“Recycling Is Garbage” (Tierney), 164–65

Reeve, Christopher, xi–xii

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
, 173–79

Rehnquist, William, 174

religion.
See
Christianity

Remnick, David, 163

renewable energy, 167

Republican Party, principle constituency of, 238

Resnick, Joseph, 1

Reston, James, 95

reverse discrimination, 177–79

Revolt of the Elites, The
(Lasch), 134–35

Revolt of the Haves, The
(Kuttner), 221

Rhetoric
(Aristotle), xii

Rieder, Jonathan, 236–37

Righteous Mind, The
(Haidt), 132

“Rising Tide Lifts Mostly Yachts, A” (Coates), 116

Road to Serfdom, The
(Hayek), 197–98

Romney, Mitt, xix–xx, 110, 137

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 94, 100, 123

Roosevelt, Franklin, xi, xviii, 4, 23, 103, 110, 123, 149, 196, 214–15, 225

Rorty, Richard, 222–23

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 21–22, 25, 26, 31, 149, 213

Sackett, Chantell and Michael, 200–202

Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency
, 201–2

Sailer, Steve, 57–58

Sanchez, Steve “Koolking83,” xix–xx

Sander, Richard, 180

Savage, Dan, 133

Scheiber, Noam, 161

Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr., 4, 29, 30, 97–99, 100

Schmidtz, David, 33

Schneider, Peter, 51

Schrag, Peter, 186

Schumer, Charles, 126–27

Second Amendment, 159–60

self-interest well understood, doctrine of, 18–21, 22–23

    
role in social welfare programs, 213–22

selfishness

    
liberal criticism of self-reliance as, 118–22

    
renunciation of, 23–24

self-regard, empathy and, 25–26, 31–33

self-reliance

    
consequences of lack of, 111–18

    
dependence encouraged instead, 91–93, 106–11

    
liberals' criticisms of as selfish, 118–22

Serrano, Andres, 31

Serrano v. Priest
cases, 220–21

Shapiro, Daniel, 142–43

Shellenberger, Michael, 166–67

Siegel, Lee, 129–30, 146

Sirhan, Sirhan, 99

Smiley, Jane, 134, 136

Smith, Adam, 45–46, 107, 224

social contract, modernity's effect on, 13–17

Social Security, 77, 86, 191, 233, 235

    
intentions of 1935 enactment of, 123–24

social welfare programs

    
conservatives' plans to reform, 229–36

    
increased expenditures in Reagan years, 208, 232, 236

    
liberals' views on economic growth and, 66–72

    
perpetual need for additional programs, 185–93

    
role of self-interest well understood, 213–22

    
U.S. spending on welfare as percentage of GDP, 77

    
see also
domestic policies

solar power, 167, 172

Sontag, Susan, 104–5

Sopranos, The
(television program), 44

Sotomayor, Sonia, 9, 202

Southfield, MI, 113–15

Sowell, Thomas, 116–17

Sparkman, John, 103

Springsteen, Bruce, 76

State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), 8–9, 38

statism, liberals and government's power to coerce, 195–206

Steele, Shelby, 111

Stevens, John, 174

Stevenson, Adlai, 103

Stewart, Potter, 174

Steyn, Mark, 71

Strauss, Leo, 10

Streeter, Richard, 185–86

suffering

    
stoicism and, 11, 13

    
well-being of empathizer and, 31–33

“Suggestion on the Negro Problem,” (Gilman), 101–2

Sumner, William Graham, 195–96

Supreme Court, of U.S.

    
child labor and, 224

    
decisions on affirmative action, 173–79, 180

    
Sackett
and, 201–2

    
Serrano v. Priest II
, 220–21

Swain, Carol, 63–64

Sweden, social welfare in, 75–76, 216–17

Talbot, Margaret, 153–54

Talbott, Strobe, 49–50, 56

taxation

    
federal income exemption, 46

    
liberals' political use of G. H. W. Bush's tax increases, 208–9

    
local property taxes and school district funding, 220–22

    
private schools exempted from, 120

    
Smith on, 45–46

    
social justice and weakening of personal ties, 216–22

    
see also
negative income tax

Taylor, Stuart Jr., 180

Texas, economic growth and, 68–69

Thatcher, Margaret, 42

Theory of Justice, A
(Rawls), 11–12

Thernstrom, Abigail, 103

Thernstrom, Stephan, 103, 106

Thomas, Joseph, 114

Thomas, Norman, 123

Thurmond, Strom, 103

Tierney, John, 164–65

Tocqueville, Alexis de, 20–21, 77

tolerance

    
liberals' selective application of, 28–31

    
lower patriotism and, 54–55