One of the popular rhetorical moves in the climate change debate is for advocates of aggressive government intervention to claim that "97% of scientists" agree with their position, and so therefore any critics must be unscientific "deniers." Now these claims have been dubious from the start; people like David Friedman have demonstrated that the "97% consensus" assertion became a talking point only through a biased procedure that mischaracterized how journal articles were rated, and thereby inflating the estimate. But beyond that, a review in The New Republic of a book critical of mainstream economics uses the exact same degree of consensus in order to cast aspersions on the science of economics. In other words, when it comes to the nearly unanimous rejection of rent control or tariffs among professional economists, at least some progressive leftists conclude that there must be group-think involved. The one consistent thread in both cases"îthat of the climate scientists and that of the economists"îis that The New Republic takes the side that will expand the scope of government power, a central tenet since its birth by Herbert Croly a century ago.

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