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PARTISAN REVIEW
questions come
In
with two strikes against them, which are to be
considered as having the burden of proof on their shoulders rather than
on other shoulders . In this sense I belong to the second family of critics,
those who think that neoconservatism is extremely important as a
cultural force.
It
has been and will be important for two reasons. The first has
to
do with the contradictory impulses of the American public on such
questions as containing the size of government and tax expenditures,
and on a whole series of citizen concerns, from education, to h ea lth,
to
environment, and so on. In a situation where the citizenry seems
to
be
pulled in two different directions, a set of selective views which can
shape the discussion has a particularly powerful place.
Second, neoconservatism is especially important in relation to the
existence of the so-called " new class. " It is true that, however vaguely
defined, some large group of people, who are relatively affluent and
educated, and who work in large organizations, seems to be so located
as to have their shifts in opinion magnified by the media; and they are
an important element in the legitimation of various social concerns
and social programs. In linking the significance of neoconservatism to
the existence of a "new class" I am not endorsing the neoconservative
theory of the "new class. " In fact, that theory is an example of how
little facts may have to do with this discussion. That is, the idea of the
"new class " was set forth by neoconservatives long before any of them,
as far as I know, made any effort to get the facts. This effort was made
only recently in a volume edited by Bruce-Briggs.
The notion of the " new class " as a highly adversary oppositionist
group in society was from the beginning contradicted by available facts
including those gathered, for example, by Seymour Martin Lipset and
Everett Ladd in the late sixties, at the high point of volatility in
American politics. Their study of academics, who should have been the
heart of the " new class, " found out that while busing, to take one
instance as a test case, was much more popular among college profes–
sors than among the general public, it was still opposed by over half
of the professors. Fifty-eight percent of the professors disapproved
strongly of student and faculty radicalism, and almost all of those who
approved did so with reservations. Only three percent had no reserva–
tions. Finally Lipset and Ladd concluded, after redoing some of this
study several years later, that although American academics constitute
the most politically liberal occupational group in the United States,
they are not in any way radical. "They manifest values, expectations,
orientations to governments , moods, and concerns that broadly reflect
