I have read Maureen Dowd’s column today and many of the nearly 900 comments that followed. Also read some of the material here on Pajamas Media, including Roger Simon’s account of his depression over the nation’s polarization.
Here are a few thoughts: social policy is difficult, and requires much study and debate by persons who have spent their adult lives dealing with the outcomes of this or that policy. Absolutist thinkers, whether of the Left or Right or Center, rely on simple slogans and schemes to inform their opinions. But full of righteous, childish indignation against their supposed bosom enemies, they let loose with vitriol, not analysis. Hence the national polarization that Roger Simon rightly deplores and fears.
Who here has read Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty (1960)? Was he a statist or an anti-statist? The answer is “both,” just like Milton Friedman. Read the book: it doesn’t throw stones, and should be in everyone’s library. Meanwhile, calm down, take a big breath, and stop the hating and the ad hominems.
I agree that Obama is more than worrisome, but his admirers will not be persuaded by slings and arrows. Dissect the policies you fear and then explain why they are destructive, and why they get support from certain constituencies. Have you the much vaunted work ethic? Then get to work!
