FUKUYAMA PILE-ON: Brink Lindsey calls Fukuyama’s oped a “smear,” dissects its bogus logic, and concludes:

So if opposition to the cloning ban is a libertarian-left plot, how does Fukuyama explain Orrin Hatch and Arlen Specter? Furthermore, Fukuyama sneakily conflates the cloning controversy and the broader issue of genetic engineering. But on that broader issue, the political alignment is totally different from what Fukuyama suggests. The fact is that most conservatives oppose cloning strictly on pro-life grounds; they have none of Fukuyama’s general hostility to medical progress.

In reality, it’s Fukuyama — not libertarian opponents of the proposed cloning ban — who is in the grips of a “radical dogma.” Fukuyama, having proclaimed the end of history, wants to keep history under arrest by throttling scientific and medical progress. He speaks for an emerging coalition of neocon and Luddite left intellectuals – but are such views really in line with the broad currents of conservative or liberal opinion? I don’t think so. I was speaking recently with someone very prominent in conservative circles, and I asked him if he would oppose genetic engineering to improve intelligence, looks, etc. if it didn’t involve destroying embryos any more than current in vitro fertilization techniques. “Of course not,” he replied. “The essence of human nature is the desire to improve your condition. You can’t oppose that.” But Fukuyama does — in the name of defending an imaginary, static “human nature,” he sets himself against the essential dynamism that defines our humanity.

Yes.