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Article: My fellow ideologues.(on Barack Obama)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- February 9, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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'WHAT is required," proclaimed Barack Obama in his pre-inaugural address in Philadelphia, "is a new declaration of independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives--from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry--an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels."
What's a poor ideologue like me to make of that?
Now before I go on, I need to clarify something about what I mean when I say I'm an ideologue. It's true, there's a venerable tradition in conservatism that doesn't like ideology. H. Stuart Hughes's famous aphorism "Conservatism is the negation of ideology" earned applause from no less than Russell Kirk. But Kirk ...