The president did not "punish" Republican auto-dealers.

As political name-calling and partisan rhetoric overtakes the media, Jonah Goldberg casts a skeptical eye on the arguments used by today’s journalists, academics and “moderate” politicians. In his newest book, “The Tyranny of Clichés,” Goldberg scrutinizes the oft-repeated claim that liberals are non-ideologues by dismantling the myriad nonintellectual talking points the Left employs in debates.

The Paycheck Fairness Act looks like common sense, but instead of helping women it will hurt all workers. The legislation, built on 30 years of spurious advocacy research, will impose unnecessary and onerous requirements on employers.

Syria has always been among the Middle East's most repressive dictatorships, in addition to serving as the home to terrorists that have killed American soldiers and non-combatants in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank and more. Now, Syria is under fire from within; since March 2011, thousands of innocent Syrians have been killed in ruthless assaults by the Assad regime. While government forces continue to bombard major cities with appalling brutality, US strategic interests argue for intervention in this pivotal Arab country.

Liberals often speak in seemingly harmless cliches that they hope will penetrate our mental defenses. Here are some of the most egregious examples.

If the individual mandate is upheld, Americans will have suffered a loss of liberty from which there will be no turning back.

And this time, I don’t think Putin is going anywhere. As they say, history doesn’t repeat, but sometimes it rhymes.

Reasonable people can disagree about whether the United States should resume using enhanced interrogation techniques (as it appears it will if a Republican assumes the presidency in January 2013).  But we should at least debate this proposition based on facts.