Point Made

There was an interesting article in New York Magazine last week about the NYT columnist, David Brooks. Brooks holds the NYT conservative seat previously occupied by William Safire. Brooks is also a regular on NPR programming & ‘The News Hour” opposite Mark Shields. As a committed liberal, I read Brooks with admiration and learn from him consistently, even though I don’t always agree with him. It might be that as I age I am tending to be more moderate and that may blend well with Brook’s more moderate stance on most issues and his refusal to get caught up in the wedge issues that tend to stifle any kind of conversation across the aisle. It got me to thinking about some of the other must read columnists I read and why. Why do I read Tom Friedman and not Maureen Dowd? Friedman is a graduate of my alma mater in St Louis Park High School and we probably had the same English teacher. But Tom has moved way past the pleasant pastures of Suburban Minneapolis and into the wo...

The cycle is gaining more frequency. The ups and downs of things and people we like, or even just notice, get to be more rapid than a preteen pop star. It’s cool to like one day and so yesterday the next. Democrats were high when they captured majorities in the legislative branch and the White House, only to see things come apart almost immediately. Their demise is widely expected this fall, as opponents hope that the economy doesn’t turn rapidly for the better and derail their opposition momentum. I never remember when the “what have you done for me lately” crowd held so much sway. There are the adamant Republican supply-siders who, despite recent history containing abundant truth to the contrary, still believe that less regulation, taxes, and government, in general, will solve all of our problems. We have been doing this since the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, and it has accomplished three things. We have suffered through a myriad of economic failures, brought on by ...

If there is a frustration in looking at the political atmosphere, it is perpetuating lies and the ease with which that happens. All parties to this situation, whether they be the politicians themselves or the interest that carries water for them, are guilty. As I like to say, lying is not a partisan issue. It’s just a shame. I know that we all like to believe that the things we agree with are correct in themselves. They are because they sound right in our ears. They are just, and they support or justify our beliefs. Despite volumes of evidence to the contrary, a large percentage of people believe the Saddam Hussian was directly instrumental in the attack on the World Trade Center. Many people vigorously believe that President Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States. There is a continuing belief that President Bush engineered the attacks on 9/11 to justify starting the war in Iraq. These things began as rumors, and all have been disproved to reasonable p...