Leo Morris and the War of Ideas

October 21, 2021

OUR COLUMNIST LEO MORRIS is editing a special issue of the journal focused on the increasing division in our state and nation. We need your help raising $600 to meet the additional publication costs.

As an editorial writer for four decades, Morris is familiar with controversy. He has developed a practical approach that begins with empirical evidence but is open to nuance and a sense of proportion — an honest search for the truth, in other words, however elusive and wherever the chips might fall.

What he is facing today, however, is something new. He finds that his usual approach is blocked. Empirical evidence is squelched, nuances are ignored and proportion is lost.

Like it or not, he is no longer in a civil discussion. He is in a war. 

And as we have written before, this conflict is between classical liberals in the mold of our Founding Fathers on one side and radical progressives on the other side. The later have gone well past the Wilson-Roosevelt-Johnson idea of the welfare state in favor of a revolutionary, confiscatory, command economy by force majeure. The Constitution has no truck with them, hence their vehement attacks on it and its principles.

“In such a situation my usual approach will be ultimately self-defeating,” Morris writes. “In a war, there is a winner and a loser, and only the winner gets to set the agenda. While I might prefer to gently explore philosophical subtleties, the other side is brooking no dissent and taking no prisoners. If I continue as before, that side will win, the country will be lost, and it won’t matter how good my ideas.”

It is the foundation’s conviction that more of our neighbors need to be made aware not only of what is at stake but what will be tactically effective in putting down a destructive movement. Morris, drawing on the widest survey of current policy and opinion, intends to provide Hoosiers a solid base on how to think about this growing division, how to wage this new war of ideas.

Please help with a tax-deductible donation. The address is: “The Leo Project,” PO Box 5166, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 46995, or a transfer or credit card at Paypal.com via director@inpolicy.org. Your support is greatly needed and appreciated.

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