If we say that anyone who 'moralizes' must be perfect morally then we are in effect saying no one can moralize.

[In] the post-Enlightenment world, science [has] taken the place of magic, miracles, and superstition.

A lot of the things that Trump needs to do to be a popular president requires annoying his biggest fans.

The search for a moral equivalent of war continues to define American liberalism to this day.

As a broad generalization, big businesses have no moral objections to being whores. Getting into bed with Uncle Sam is all a question of price, not principle.

Getting the support of Syria is the moral equivalent of winning the Klan's endorsement - it might be useful but it doesn't necessarily speak well of you.

But there's a fourth interpretation: Obama can't leave his comfort zone. No president since Woodrow Wilson has been as enamored of abstract ideas or more sure that disagreement with him is proof of ignorance, bad faith or dogmatism. As a candidate, he insisted his real opponent was 'cynicism,' and in his address last week, he returned to this trite formulation, insisting again he was bravely battling the cynics.