Word: hobgoblin
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...policy. The atmosphere today is completely different from what it was in 1946, and the Democrats had already taken vigorous steps to rid the government of security risks. To base repressive measures of today on the events of seven years ago is the reduction ad absurdum of politics-by-hobgoblin...
With few exceptions (such as Mark Clark's dramatic air assaults on the North Korean power plants), the Truman Administration has rejected the pressure strategy in Korea, alleging its fear of "widening the war." But this hobgoblin phrase can be misleading. By implication, it calls up the idea of a vast jihad aimed at destroying Red China out of hand. Yet it need not, and this is where all the discussion during the election campaign got bogged. It is possible to keep the objective-an honorable and acceptable armistice in Korea-limited, while enlarging the means to reach that...
...midst of reassuring everyone else last week, President Truman popped a hobgoblin on U.S. businessmen. With an offhand gesture he appointed 42-year-old Leon Keyserling his chief seer on economic affairs...
...make a President out of a ribbon salesman"). He later backtracked and gave Truman all-out support. Said the President in his message of condolence: "[He] became . . . the exemplar of the philosopher's teaching that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...
...that the epithet "red-baiter," uttered in shrill tones of ethical exaltation, has a paralyzing effect on almost all liberal critics of Communism, is one of the most effective silencing tricks in the versatile Communist repertory. The Lyons recipe for overcoming it: "Walk up boldly to the terrible hobgoblin and . . . say, 'Boo!'' He warns liberals that they will not find it easy at first "and may have to practice it before their mirrors with doors closed and blinds drawn. . . . [But] in the end they will be cured, and will be able to examine the mythology of Stalinism...