Jonah Goldberg's Historical Errors

Reading the local newspaper today, I ran across an op-ed piece by Jonah Goldberg. While certainly not as extreme as Ann Coulter, he has written some real howlers. In today's piece titled "Invasion of the America Snatchers" - Goldberg's attempt at a humorous reference to the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" - after dividing America up into two neat clearly defined and simplistic camps, goes on to bemoan the recent influence of "European" ideas on American culture and politics. In a jeremiad - not unlike that of a fundamentalist preacher - Goldberg declares that "At the time of our founding, there were a bunch of Americans who clung to European values. Today, we call their descendants 'Canadians.' ... For many generations after the American Revolution, the idea of emulating European politics was nigh upon heresy. It wasn't until Woodrow Wilson, ... that borrowing ideas from Europe became fully politically acceptable." Goldberg further sneers, "If you look closely and study body language and speech, you may just discover that the liberals screeching at conservative aren't in fact Americans at all. They are Europeans taking on the form of Americans."

Setting aside Goldberg's inane parochial definition of "Americans," his reductionistic statements regarding European influence are simply wrong. Where does he think the revolutionary ideas of Jefferson, Madison, Paine, Adams, and Franklin sprang from? the mind of God? These ideas were historical developments articulated by the likes of Rousseau (French), Montesquieu (French), Voltaire (French), Diderot (French), Locke (English), Plato (Greek), Cicero (Roman), Smith (Scottish), ....... Furthermore, America was essentially culturally and politically European.

The myth of American exceptionalism isn't even obscured by a sophisticated veneer in Goldberg's rant. The relationship between our European heritage and our response to a new world has been a contested one from the beginning: a love/hate affair. To radically extricate what is "American" from what is "European" is to ignore history. It is a shameful triumph of ideological rhetoric over historical accuracy and fairness.

Goldberg later notes in a dripping bit of romantic nostalgia that George Keenan reminisces - in reference to the pre-New Deal "rugged individualism" (such as that advocated by the utterly oblivious and politically tone-deaf Herbert Hoover) - about"when 'times were hard... as they often were, groans and lamentations went up to God, but never to Washington.' "

By this quote, does Goldberg suggest that we dismantle Social Security, Medicare, the SEC? (we all know big business can regulate itself). The FDIC? (Hey, if the bank folds due to poor investment of funds or macroeconomic problems beyond its control, too bad). Perhaps, we should do away with the Department of Agriculture’s meat inspections, the “meddlesome” FDA’s drug safety regulations? After all, according to Goldberg's logic, we should take our complaints to God, not government.

Like most reactionary jeremiads, Goldberg's transparent demagoguery depends on the intellectual laziness of his audience by appealing to both profound ignorance and prejudice. His piece offers neither a much-needed dose of moderation nor an appeal to common sense.