Reply #2: In what way?

[Jim__]

Neither of the people in this debate are denying the existence or the utility of ideology. Anonymous Liberal is arguing that he (and presumably liberals in general) are less blinded to the facts by ideology than current-day American conservatives. Dreher is agreeing that ideology is currently blinding conservatives more than liberals, but that this effect is cyclical. He claims that our values always effect the relative value we attach to facts.

Based on your description of Bell, he seems to argue that the common American view in the 50's was free of any ideological distortion. Both of these people would disagree with him.