ABSTRACT
In light of the recent attacks on Leo Strauss and his alleged influence on the neoconservatives, the Bush administration, and the Iraq War,1 several of his students and defenders have gone to great lengths to remind us that their teacher was a “friend” to liberal democracy.2 Yale political theorist Steven Smith has even gone so far as to suggest that Strauss was not only “a friend of liberal democracy” but even “one of the best friends democracy has ever had.”3 However, the real question that needs to be asked is not whether Strauss was a “friend” to liberal democracy but, rather, what kind of a friend was he-genuine or two-faced? Furthermore, to change the terms of the question: Was Strauss a friend or a foe to liberal capitalism? The difference between liberal democracy and liberal capitalism is real, and it may force Strauss’s defenders to answer the question rather differently.4
