That title is prompted by a great quotation that I only recently encountered: “Liberalism is the politics of kindness.” The source is Garrison Keiller, the sage of Lake Woebegone, and I found it in William Voegeli’s new book, “The Pity Party” by which he means  to convey his summary judgement of the Democrats.

His argument, most colorfully and baldly stated in the book, is that  the modern Democrats have been running a sort of extended con-game in which both their rhetoric and some of their vaunted legislation promise to relieve the disappointment, deprivation, suffering and humiliation of the “disadvantaged.” But, as he argues, in reality, things often get worse for those who supposedly benefit. Still, the counter-argument runs that conservatives don’t care about the burdens placed on working-class people – that being the operative meaning of “middle class” these days – or on minorities and the truly indigent. Conservatives, whether of the established party, Tea Party or Libertarian party, are seen as rather cold-hearted, lacking in empathy and blindly loyal to the near-religion of the free market.

This is one side of the politics  of mutual defamation. Voegeli has done half of the job and done it very well. Here he is in a conversation in which the proprietor required himself to take the role of the defender of the works and ways of liberalism.

Does Voegeli, a senior editor at the Claremont Review of Books, in fact hit the mark?