American political discourse is deteriorating into two opposing echo chambers. They both betray a conformity in opinion and intolerance towards dissension that could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be identified as "liberal". The furious blows between these political tribes is unrecognizable as a free marketplace of ideas. And the conformit... See more

There is a twenty-first-­century clerisy, though it is rarely religious and operates in a secular consumer society. Its members aren’t priests. They are journalists, entertainers, credentialed professionals, and teachers. They provide the images, narratives, arguments, and artworks that reinforce the binding outlook, and they police dissenters as v... See more