VOL. 6, NO. 12 (December, 1996) PP.179-81
SLOUCHING TOWARDS GOMORRAH: MODERN LIBERALISM AND AMERICAN
DECLINE by Robert H. Bork. New York: Regan Books (Harper
Collins), 1996. 382 pp. Cloth $25.00.
Reviewed by Richard A. Glenn
, Department of Political Science, Millersville University,
Pennsylvania.
William B. Yeats' classic poem "The Second Coming,"
written in 1919, is about the world disintegrating amidst a
brutal force. It concludes: "And what rough beast, its hour
come round at last/Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
While Yeats could not have known it, that "rough beast"
of decadence has reached its maturity in the last three decades
and threatens to send the United States slouching not towards
Bethlehem, but towards the depravity of Gomorrah. (Gomorrah, a
city legendary for its intractable wickedness, was demolished by
God in a cataclysm of "brimstone and fire" in the Old
Testament book of Genesis.) Such is the thesis of Robert H.
Bork's book SLOUCHING TOWARDS GOMORRAH: MODERN LIBERALISM AND
AMERICAN DECLINE. Mr. Bork, a John H. Olin Scholar in Legal
Scholars at the American Enterprise Institute, served on the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1982
to 1988. He was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S.
Supreme Court in 1987. (His nomination was rejected by the U.S.
Senate.) In addition, Mr. Bork has been a partner in a major law
firm, taught constitutional law at Yale Law School, and was
solicitor general and acting attorney general of the United
States.
According to Mr. Bork, the enemy within that brings about this
corrosion is modern liberalism, of which the defining
characteristics are radical egalitarianism ("the equality of
outcomes rather than of opportunities") and radical
individualism ("the drastic reduction of limits to personal
gratification"). Modern liberalism differs from classical
liberalism. Classic liberalism--the liberalism of Locke,
Montesquieu, Smith, and Jefferson, for instance--has the twin
thrusts of liberty and equality. But because liberalism has no
corrective within itself, all it can do is endorse more liberty
and demand more rights. This unqualified enthusiasm for liberty
has trumped the need for order. In decades and centuries past,
order took care of itself because liberty and equality were
tempered by restraining forces in American culture--family,
church, school, neighborhood, and inherited morality. Today the
authority of those institutions has been eroded. As such, the
concepts of liberty and equality have changed since their
enshrinement in the Declaration of Independence. Liberty has
become "moral anarchy." Equality has become
"despotic egalitarianism." Rot and devastation follow.
Such is modern liberalism.
According to the author, modern liberalism finds is roots in the
radicalism of the 1960s. From the PORT HURON STATEMENT of the
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1962 (that he calls
the "birth of the sixties") to the "sacking of the
universities" (with vivid accounts from Cornell, Yale, and
Kent State), Mr. Bork traces the attacks on American culture and
bourgeois morals. But while the sixties has passed, modern
liberalism has not. Modern liberalism is powerful because those
formulations remain deeply embedded in today's culture. Today,
student radicals of the sixties occupy positions of power and
influence across the nation. Cultural elites dominate "the
institutions that manufacture, manipulate, and disseminate ideas,
attitudes, and symbols"--universities, churches, Hollywood,
the national press, and the judiciary, to name a few.
The most excoriating chapter of this book is devoted to the
morally illiterate Supreme Court, an "agent of modern
liberalism." Calling the Court arguably "the most
powerful force shaping our culture," Mr. Bork derides the
transfer of democratic government from elected representatives to
unelected ones. (This premise was the foundation for his 1990
best-seller, THE TEMPTING OF AMERICA: THE POLITICAL SEDUCTION OF
THE LAW.) As a result, the courts govern us in way not remotely
contemplated by the framers and ratifiers of the Constitution,
inflating enumerated rights and creating new ones (such as the
right of privacy, right to physician-assisted suicide, and right
to same-sex marriages). The Court's intolerable assumption of
complete governing power "disintegrate[s] the basis for our
social unity [and] brings the rule of law into disrepute....We
head toward constitutional nihilism." To counter this
judicial despotism, Mr. Bork advocates (although he calls its
passage "highly unlikely") a constitutional amendment
making any federal or state court decision subject to being
overruled by a majority vote of each chamber of Congress. Also
derided is the twentieth century trend toward administrative
rule-making. Increasing and extensive governmental regulations
have led to greater bureaucratic authority, which makes the
democratic process "increasingly irrelevant." (Mr. Bork
is crashing through open doors here. This argument was initially
advanced in 1969 by Theodore Lowi in THE END OF LIBERALISM.) Mr.
Bork concludes:
Modern liberalism is fundamentally at odds with democratic
government because it demands results that ordinary people would
not freely choose. Liberals must govern, therefore, through
institutions that are largely insulated from the popular will.
The most important institutions for liberals' purposes are the
judiciary and the bureaucracies. The judiciary and the
bureaucracies are staffed with intellectuals....and thus tend to
share the views and accept the agenda of modern liberalism.
Judicial and bureaucratic government, which may be
well-intentioned, cannot, by definition, be democratic. Yet, in
this sense, Mr. Bork's criticism is less an indictment of the
judiciary and bureaucracy and directed more appropriately at
those who permit the abdication of lawmaking responsibility to
institutions that are largely insulated from the popular will.
The bulwark of the book is a well-organized and clearly written
critique of the collapse of American culture since the 1960s. (As
such, this is NOT a book about government.) No institution of
that culture has remained untouched. To hear Mr. Bork tell it,
nothing positive has happened in this country since the glory
days of "I like Ike." This book reads like all-out
assault on American culture in the past four decades. Perhaps
Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole used this text as a
basis for his "bridge to the past" metaphor. Yet in
comparison to Mr. Bork, Mr. Dole may well be
"optimistic."
Mr. Bork equates popular culture with "unrestrained
hedonism." He advocates censorship ""for the most
violent and sexually explicit material" easily available
through popular music, movies, and the internet. ("The very
fact that we have gone from Elvis to Snoop Doggy Dogg is the
heart of the case for censorship.") Crime has proliferated.
The war on drugs has failed. Abortion has led to a lack of
respect for human life--"killing for convenience."
Physician-assisted suicide will spiral into euthanasia. ("It
is entirely predictable that many of the elderly, ill, and infirm
will be killed, and often without consent.") Feminism, the
"most fanatical and destructive movement of the 1960s,"
is an attack on hierarchy, family, religion, and national
security. Racial tensions have escalated. Affirmative action
"was a serious mistake....Continuing it would be a
disaster." Education has become politicized to the point
that competency has decreased. Teachers do not teach; students do
not learn. Religion, "essential to a civilized
culture," has become marginalized. (However, Mr. Bork calls
the rise in religious conservatism "most promising.")
Multiculturalism is a lie because all cultures are not equal. It
has fragmented America. A culture of chaos persists. America
heads toward moral decline and spiritual decay.
While the data presented are solid and the analysis penetrating,
the latter is incomplete. Mr. Bork never addresses the major
criticisms directed toward his agenda. He ignores the dangers of
censorship, the successes of affirmative action, the arguments in
favor of assisted suicide, the perils of a union between church
and state, and the pitfalls of cultural gerrymandering. On no
issue does he offer a balanced analysis. Legitimate discussion is
replaced with bold assertions: modern liberalism "is
intellectually and morally bankrupt;" modern liberals are
"today's barbarians;" Bill Clinton is "the very
model of the modern liberal;" etc.
Moreover, while Mr. Bork attacks each component of American
culture, he fails to offer much in the way of a solution. His
book is heavy on description, light on prescription. Only the
last chapter (a total of 13 pages)--entitled "Can America
Avoid Gomorrah?"--is forward looking. Mr. Bork advocates a
revival of conservative culture--a self-confidence about the
worth of traditional values. There are signs that this is
happening (i.e., the conservative political climate of the last
fifteen years, President Clinton's move to the "vital
center"). But the courage to resist Gomorrah is ultimately
"the optimism of the will." This first requisite is
knowing what is happening to us (the stated purpose of this
book). The second step is resistance to radical individualism and
radical egalitarianism in every area of American culture. Resist
radical individualism? America has always been headed to hell in
a handbasket. (See calls for censoring Elvis.) Radical
egalitarianism? A simple look at economic outcomes would suggest
that, particularly in the decade of the eighties, wealth and
income have become more disparate.
While the diagnosis may be correct, the cure may be unacceptable
and unattainable. Mr. Bork appears to assume that America holds
to a commonly-agreed upon moral core. Such moral consensus is
difficult to find today. It remains doubtful that America will be
willing to swallow the medication that Mr. Bork has prescribed
for a return to normalcy and health. After all, "popular
culture" is "popular" for a reason. And, most of
us would agree, the courts are not to blame for that.
Copyright 1996