One of the reasons for the swift decline of the West in the post WWII era has been the rapid removal of dissenting voices from positions of influence. Mediocre “company men” squeezed out anyone who dissented from the party line, which became ever more banal and venal.

Robert Taft of Ohio represented the last gasp of old American conservatism, and was quietly sabotaged from within his party by the mainstream Eisenhower supporters. Many Taft supporters had mortgages called in by their banks, quickly ending their opposition to the party machine. Yes, behind the dog and pony shows served up to the Oprah crowd, politics has always been dirty business.

Of course, the outward signs lagged reality, as old American conservatism died with the defeat of the so-called “isolationists” prior to the war. It is almost laughable to see how far removed from reality conventional understanding of history has become. The left is the anti-war party, the right the warmongers in the bizarro world created by our media and schools. Yet the only serious anti-war movements in the last 100 years were reactionary conservative, and the left has pushed for and benefitted from every major war since the now lamented Mexican war.

If anyone insists on maintaining the fantasy that the Potomac branch of the Likud party is “conservative” in any meaningful sense of the word, or that Noriega and Hussein were really reincarnations of Hitler, we’ll give them a nice wink and pat on the head.

Back here on planet earth, those of us with at least an inkling of the monumental task before us must think seriously about how we can set up a system that will allow for real dissent, for the real strength of diversity. “In a multitude of counselors there is wisdom” states the old Proverb. We’ll need true wisdom, and not just the posed pictures of the corporate image ads and college admissions brochures, if we are to create a truly just and liberal society.