Liberals try to silence conservative ideas
February 13, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward
The Left has recently adopted an unfortunate trait: when unable to refute an idea proposed by a conservative, they attack the messenger in an effort to stifle debate. A few recent episodes illustrate this tendency.
A few months back, a university professor attacked The Heritage Foundation and other policy organizations dedicated to principles like free enterprise, limited government, strong national defense and traditional American values. “We should not only hold Bush accountable for this mess, but his army of enablers,” Prof. Joseph Palermo wrote on The Huffington Post website, “We need to hold the right-wing think tanks accountable too. They should be taken out of the law-writing business.”
The professor even singled out for attack Heritage’s work to advance conservative ideas: “The Heritage Foundation dominated the wrong-headed thinking of Bush’s domestic and foreign policies.”
Rewarding North Korea’s bad behavior
Yesterday, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill announced that North Korea had agreed to a deal to end its nuclear program. But on closer examination, this agreement might not be all that was advertised.
Indeed, writes Heritage scholar Bruce Klinger, the agreement “rewards Pyongyang for its bad behavior.” The rogue Communist regime has violated a number of treaties by continuing its covert nuclear weapons program, yet it “was able to win benefits, rather than suffer penalties, to halt its nuclear programs.”
Click here to read more about the loopholes in the agreement that North Korea can exploit.
Marriage vs. cohabitation
Over the years, the number of unmarried couples living together has grown. Liberals, who emphasize relativism and eschew passing judgment, have argued that unmarried cohabitation is equally as good as married cohabitation. But a new compilation of empirical research by Heritage’s FamilyFacts.org demonstrates that married couples are more stable, better off financially and less prone to depression and alcoholism.
Click here to read more about the benefits of marriage as compared to unmarried cohabitation.
In other news
- The Arizona Republic reports on the effects of that state’s minimum wage hike: “Some Valley employers, especially those in the food industry, say payroll budgets have risen so much that they're cutting hours, instituting hiring freezes and laying off employees.” And that’s from an increase smaller than that proposed by liberals in Congress.
- It would be hard to make France’s failed “social model” worse. Yet French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, a socialist, has managed to devise leftist policy proposals that would do just that.
- Spurred by the tax cuts, federal government revenues outpaced spending in January, leading to a surplus. Clearly, the government doesn’t lack for income—yet liberals still insist we need to raise taxes.
- A professor at Columbia University has proposed extending the bogus principle of “net neutrality”—arbitrary government regulations that would stifle online innovation in the name of “fairness”—to wireless networks as well. Heritage telecom expert James Gattuso has posted a debunking of the proposal’s assumptions and arguments.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.
- On Thursday, February 15 at noon, Christopher C. Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute explains why manipulation of “global warming” is the ideal scare campaign for those who hate capitalism and love big government.
- On Thursday, February 15 at 2:00 pm, author Alena Ledeneva will discuss the informal business practices of post-Soviet Russia and how they simultaneously support and subvert formal institutions.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
