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[Libertarianism] is about curbing state power to let people be and do what they want. Liberalism is about using state power to make people do and be what liberals want. And that makes all the difference in the world.

Jonah Goldberg

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Jonah Goldberg
Age: 55
Born: 1969
Born: March 21
Author
Journalist
Writer
Manhattan borough
New York City
Jonah Jacob Goldberg
Makes
Curbing
Power
Libertarianism
States
Liberals
Make
Liberalism
World
Using
People
Difference
Differences
State

More quotes by Jonah Goldberg

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I am just mystified by these people telling me I would think Obama was doing a great job if his skin contained less melanin.
Jonah Goldberg
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When you treat reprehensible and ludicrous arguments with respect you have elevated the reprehensible and made the ludicrous a bit more reasonable. Having a serious argument with a Nazi makes the horror of the Holocaust a debatable point. Don't wrestle in the mud with pigs. You get dirty and the pig likes it.
Jonah Goldberg
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When activists say we need to move past the partisan divide, what they mean is: Shut up and get with my program. Have you ever heard anyone say, We need to get past all of this partisan squabbling and name-calling. That's why I'm going to abandon all my objections and agree with you?
Jonah Goldberg
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Cultures grow on the vine of tradition.
Jonah Goldberg
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Tom Friedman says China is so awesome they make kosher pigs.
Jonah Goldberg
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Social distinctions tend to matter only at your own level and above.
Jonah Goldberg
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In Europe and America alike, voters increasingly recognize that the benefits of the green revolution aren't worth the costs, particularly when the revolutionaries don't have a clue what they're doing.
Jonah Goldberg
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Everyone understands that [democrat Senator Harry Reid] is deliberately lying. The man reads his lies from prepared texts. You can't read from a script and then claim you misspoke.
Jonah Goldberg
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Republican politics have been off-kilter for several years now because a large segment of the conservative base does not look back fondly on the Bush presidency.
Jonah Goldberg
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Of course, it's a mystery to me why any American who can't be bothered to pay attention to politics unless Pamela Anderson is discussing it should be welcome in that conversation.
Jonah Goldberg
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I'd like to know why sociologists can't decide whether movie sex and violence has any effect on children, but there's a universal consensus that even a glimpse of a Camel will force children to become lifelong smokers.
Jonah Goldberg
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The truth is France has been the chief Western advocate of normalizing relations with Iraq - one of its largest trading partners - for years, partly because France holds billions in IOUs from Iraq that wouldn't be redeemable by a new regime.
Jonah Goldberg
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But you're never taught in schools - we don't teach anyone in public schools that government is the problem. We don't teach anyone in college that government is the problem - except maybe a handful of sort of unique, conservative schools. But mainstream media never talks as if government is the problem.
Jonah Goldberg
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The search for a moral equivalent of war continues to define American liberalism to this day.
Jonah Goldberg
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Nothing drives your opponents more crazy than being utterly reasonable. And nothing makes demonizing or delegitimizing your opponents easier than letting them shriek unreasonable things for you. The Republicans need to get back to being the party that elicits unreasonable shrieking from their opponents. Not the other way around.
Jonah Goldberg
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Fascism isn't a libertarian doctrine! It just isn't, never will be and it can't be cast as one.
Jonah Goldberg
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The Founders understood that democracy was important, but if you didn't filter it through a republican system you'd be just as likely to end up with a tyranny of the majority as you would with a healthy society. Don't worry, I won't quote the Federalist Papers, but trust me, it's in there.
Jonah Goldberg
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I think there needs to be a meeting to set an agenda for more meetings about meetings.
Jonah Goldberg
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Progressivism, liberalism, or whatever you want to call it has become an ideology of power. So long as liberals hold it, principles don't matter.
Jonah Goldberg
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...associational ad hominem attacks remain the left's favorite rhetorical strategy for undermining opponents.
Jonah Goldberg