Kazin, Michael: Populist Persuasion

To me, this is one of the central values of liberalism: Traditional values seen through critical eyes, and summarized by the great German philosopher and pragmatist, Jurgen Habermas: "We must realize that all traditions [including Rationalism and Scientism] are ambivalent and that it is therefore necessary to be critical about all of them so as to be able to decide which tradition to maintain and which not." In..http://www.amazon.com/Populist-Persuasion-American-History/dp/0801485584

"Moral outrage at a violent, paternalistic state had enabled the New Left to help build the largest antiwar movement in the nations history. But the inability of radicals to transcend their own backgrounds, to speak both authentically and empathetically to Americans outside the educated middle class, prevented them from waging a serious struggle for domestic political change--one that, as in the past, would need cooperation from a liberal elite. Activists had hoped to replace a corrupt system with a mass movement committed to face-to-face, interracial democracy. But, notwithstanding the remarkable gains of feminism, they only discredited the old order without laying the political foundation for a new one. That was the New Left's tragedy--and America's." 218

"the United States is a republic, not a democracy". (rejected unions, minimum wage, Social Security...pre 1917 ideology and "terror of the enemy".  225