{"id":171,"date":"2025-05-08T11:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T11:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/05\/08\/ronad-radosh-on-david-horowitz\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T11:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T11:52:14","slug":"ronad-radosh-on-david-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/05\/08\/ronad-radosh-on-david-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronald Radosh on David Horowitz: A Critical Appreciation"},"content":{"rendered":"

On very rare occasions, something<\/a> surfaces at The Bulwark<\/em> worth reading.<\/span><\/p>\n

Radosh, who is well worth reading, gives his take on Horowitz's flipping of his ideological script, and takes him to task for his late extremism. But how is this judgment by Radosh not itself extreme:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

What David is being celebrated for is the opposite of the introspective and empathetic writer, a thoughtful and moderate conservative, evident in his personal books. And his supporters give him credit for helping to create the most repulsive and nasty of the Trump entourage, Stephen Miller, who of course, added his own tribute<\/a> to David. Another right-wing extremist prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, wrote<\/a> to single out David\u2019s responsibility for Miller\u2019s career in these words . . . .<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What hatreds politics sires! I am reminded of something I wrote in From Democrat to Dissident<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

We were friends for a time, but friendship is fragile among those for whom ideas matter. Unlike the ordinary nonintellectual person, the intellectual lives for and sometimes from ideas. They are his oxygen and sometimes his bread and butter. He takes them very seriously indeed and with them differences in ideas. So the tendency is for one intellectual to view another whose ideas differ as not merely holding incorrect views but as being morally defective in so doing. Why? Because ideas matter to the intellectual. They matter in the way doctrines and dogmas mattered to old-time religionists. If one\u2019s eternal happiness is at stake, it matters infinitely whether one \u201cgets it right\u201d doctrinally. If there is no salvation outside the church, you had better belong to the right church. It matters so much that one may feel entirely justified in forcing the heterodox to recant \u201cfor their own good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Addendum<\/em> (5\/9)<\/span><\/p>\n

Here<\/a> is Stephen Miller in action. Trenchant, but wholly on target, and the reprobates who are the recipients of the trenchancy richly deserve it. Miller is neither repulsive nor nasty by any sane measure.  Perhaps someone should ask Radosh which side he is on these days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Would that the extremity of the political polarization of the present could be avoided, including the polarization over polarization itself, its nature, causes, effects, and who is responsible for it. I say they<\/em> are responsible for it.   Our positions are moderate; theirs are extreme. <\/span><\/p>\n

For example, James Carville<\/a>, the "ragin' Cajun," is poles apart from the sane and reasonable Victor Davis Hanson<\/a>.  Bang on the links and see for yourself.  But 'see' is not the right word inasmuch as leftists are blind and can't see 'jack.' How explain such blindness, such intransigence, such praeter-natural feculence of brain, perversity of will, foulness of heart?<\/span><\/p>\n

I find it endlessly fascinating. Polarization, I mean. Why this depth of disagreement? But it's all grist for the mill, blog-fodder for the Bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

For another example, compare Newt Gingrich's sanity<\/a> to its lack<\/a> in one  who is "terrified" at Trump's judicial picks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Addendum (5\/10): polarization update<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

TDS at TNR<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Living under a far-right authoritarian regime that is gutting every American institution that keeps people safe, alive, and connected to a thriving civilization, we have to keep asking ourselves how we got here\u2014and how we can get out. And the most important factor in Donald Trump\u2019s win was that Kamala Harris lost.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump has run for president three times and Harris is the only person to have lost the popular vote to him. In 2024, he had no special magic; if anything, he was marred as a felon and a failed coup leader. A major part of the problem was Harris, who embodies the change-nothing politics of Hillary Clinton without the latter\u2019s political savvy; and the cautiousness of Joe Biden without his populist instincts.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On very rare occasions, something surfaces at The Bulwark worth reading. Radosh, who is well worth reading, gives his take on Horowitz's flipping of his ideological script, and takes him to task for his late extremism. But how is this judgment by Radosh not itself extreme: What David is being celebrated for is the opposite … Continue reading “Ronald Radosh on David Horowitz: A Critical Appreciation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,102,64,27,187,188,123,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commitment-doxastic-and-existential","category-communism","category-conservatism","category-maga-matters","category-political-apostasy","category-political-conversions","category-political-morality","category-political-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}