DEAN ON POLITICAL ARROGANCE: In response to a post here last Thursday, the always-fascinating Dean Esmay contemplates those who believe that "one of America's two major parties is thoroughly corrupt and evil":
As I've gotten older I've realized that this is a titanic form of arrogance.Arrogance? Yes. Because here's what it boils down to: "if only people would listen to me then they would have to agree with me, because what I believe is obviously right."
It's hard. I think we all sometimes fall prey to this. Some of us just do it more than others, or more intensely than others. One cure is to be confronted with the fact that you're wrong about one of your core beliefs. Sooner or later, most of us are confronted with such evidence. The question is, do we ignore it, rationalize our way around it, or take the blow and allow our minds to be changed?
Read the whole thing. Dean also says some remarkably kind things about Lying in Ponds, and provocatively writes that " it might even be said that political partisanship, in the Western Democratic style, is the greatest cultural achievement of the past three or four centuries". I probably won't be able to resist commenting on that.
| Author/ Affiliation |
Title/ Date |
words | PI | Partisan References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| William Safire New York Times |
After 1,000 Days 9 June 2003 |
755 | 50 | 1R+: President Bush 1R= |
| William Raspberry Washington Post |
Good for Them That's Got 9 June 2003 |
795 | 38 | 1D+: Democrats 3R+: Republicans, president, David Stockman 8R-: administration, The president, Reagan administration, Reagan, Reagan, president, Bush administration, administration 1D=, 3R= |
| Robert L. Bartley WSJ OpinionJournal |
Joining LaRouche 9 June 2003 |
1212 | 35 | 7R+: Wolfowitz, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Bush, administration 1R-: Bush Administration 9R= |
| Bob Herbert Inactive |
Where Fear Rules the Street 9 June 2003 |
888 | 0 | 3D= |
| Fred Hiatt Inactive |
Challenging Bush's World View 9 June 2003 |
849 | 0 | 4D=, 10R= |