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We Used To Be The Smart Ones

Remember when "race-baiting demagogue" used to be Al Sharpton? Remember when we could credibly claim liberals were guided by emotion, instead of reason? Those were the days. How ridiculous and unserious does someone have to be, before we stop listening?

Somewhere, someone confused contrarianism with conservatism. As long as somebody appears to hate the "right" people, it's kosher. What?

There is always a market in the age of new media for a dissenting view. The trouble is, we've got to know the difference between going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, and going against reality. There will always be someone who disagrees with what "respectable" people say. The problem today is, we didn't assume that person was right, just because they exist, and now it seems we do.

I hear this chatter that we're going to "make America great again." America has been great this whole time. The people who made America great came to Ellis Island, and their kids fought back fascism in the second great war. They probably didn't speak English when they got here. I'll tip my cap, anyway.

Later, some folks fled communism, and America was still that beacon of freedom. Of course we have problems; there are always problems. But America's doors have always opened out. The blessings of liberty are not talents to be buried in the ground.

Don't give me star-spangled selfishness, and call it "patriotism." Don't make us fearful and miserly, and call it civic virtue. I'm still an American exceptionalist. It seems to me that some folks waving the flag are really pessimists and thieves. Liberty for me, but not for thee. What a shame! We can do better than this.


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