Conservatives Too Tight, Liberals Too Loose

One of the greatest political misfortunes to hit America is the phony war between Conservative and Liberal. It’s an unnecessary divide, and it paralyzes reason.

Currently the conservative commentators are the best example of the death of ideas, because they hold the top position in the media. But the same calcification of ideas prevails in the liberal positions also, and we’ll come to witness this more over the next eight years of Obama’s presidency.

The national debate should not be a war for supremacy of either position, conservative and liberal, that results in one side disqualified and the other triumphant. Such a result tilts the debate into an excess that has to be wrong, by its very nature of excess. The truth is sharp-edged and fine, but simple, not extreme.

How Populism Turned To The Right

The Lexington column in The Economist is always worth reading for its wry insight into close-up American politics, but I am especially grateful for the recent explanation of how and when the long-enduring strain of political opinion called Populism switched from being a device employed by both left and right sides of the spectrum, and became an exclusive tool of the Republican party.

If you like clues, and wonder whose presidency this occurred under, you’ll love the title of September 18th’s column, Richard Milhous McCain. And the subtitle reads, “Americans cannot escape from the shadow of Tricky Dick.”