Ross Douthat had a piece recently which amounted to "voters have really short memories and only care about the Current Thing, even if some horrible thing the other side did in the recent past seems salient to you." It started out talking about Trump, but noted that the same has been true for COVID policy and many other things through history.
This can be a feature or a bug, but it is.
As for nuts on either side, what matters to me is if they are driving policy. Much hey has been made of vaccine skepticism, but none of that interfered with my getting a vaccine. By contrast, much hey has been made about wokeness, and wokeness really did interfere with my getting a vaccine (the CDC equity protocols).
Since the left has the power, its crazies matter more to my life because its crazies often set real life policies.
Zvi: "The world’s biggest airlines would be happy to get involved in the domestic air travel market. They are not American, so we ban them."
Catchy, but wrong. The world's biggest airlines by revenue are Delta, American and United. The biggest airlines by passenger carried are China Southern Air, American and Delta. One time startups like Southwest, Jet Blue, Allegiant, WestJet, etc are major competitors for the US big three.
Rather than foreign entry, the main block to competition to to be landing slots and boating ramps at airports, particularly the major airports. The may be room for more red-eye flights, but 7 am to 11 pm is full at the majors. NIMBY to airport expansion.
Both Rauch and Littlejohn, and even Arnold, note some problems in academia, at least implicitly. But not clearly.
Today, most colleges illegally discriminate against hiring Republican professors.
Until this truth becomes more commonly talked about as a problem colleges can and should solve - the problem in colleges, and thus in elites, and thus in elite based institutions, won't be solved. It will continue to get worse.
It would help if Republicans in Congress excluded colleges which have been discriminating against Republicans from: a-50%) tax exempt status, b-30%) Fed loan guarantees for students, and c-20%) Fed research grants. Even the threat of loss of such gov't subsidies would start college trustees addressing the issue. It's a FAR FAR bigger college problem than racism, sexism, homophobia, or climate change.
The political tribalism orange squeezing has barely been started, since every institution as well as all forms of both epistemic and political authority include a big segment on tribalism. Rauch's list of insults against Trump, without evidence, is an all too common display of his Democrat Demonization tribalism.
Littlejohn is less infected, and more insightful:
>>As much as we exhort one another to "think for yourself," "do your own research," and "make up your own mind," few of us really want to go to as much trouble as all that. Most of us are followers by nature, <<
Arnold has frequently noted this truth - we choose more who to believe.
Tho I'd disagree with Littlejohn's "The heyday of the expert was the early 20th century". I'd say it was up to, thru, and including the 60s Vietnam War, with Kennedy's "Brightest" folks messing up so badly in the face of the newly rich middle class folk rebelling against so much prior authority now seeming to be wrong.
Finally, new technology that young folk know better than old folk know, make it obvious to those young that old "wisdom" is not so valuable in a world with the new tech. This tech change degradation of experience is partly why the rebuilding of institutional authority ain't gonna happen.
Sasse : "And it’s the excuse for otherwise civic-minded Americans to ignore the nuts in their own party and obsess only over the nuts in the other party. We’re tempted to think that the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
This is mildly incoherent, or maybe revealing that he characterizes people in the same political party as enemies, but the other obvious cliche "No enemies to the left" would have given the game away.
If Congress were full of people of the political sensibilities of Ben Sasse, then Ben Sasse would probably be making a lot of sense. However, it isn't full of Ben Sasses, and Ben Sasse seems utterly oblivious to this.
Ross Douthat had a piece recently which amounted to "voters have really short memories and only care about the Current Thing, even if some horrible thing the other side did in the recent past seems salient to you." It started out talking about Trump, but noted that the same has been true for COVID policy and many other things through history.
This can be a feature or a bug, but it is.
As for nuts on either side, what matters to me is if they are driving policy. Much hey has been made of vaccine skepticism, but none of that interfered with my getting a vaccine. By contrast, much hey has been made about wokeness, and wokeness really did interfere with my getting a vaccine (the CDC equity protocols).
Since the left has the power, its crazies matter more to my life because its crazies often set real life policies.
Zvi: "The world’s biggest airlines would be happy to get involved in the domestic air travel market. They are not American, so we ban them."
Catchy, but wrong. The world's biggest airlines by revenue are Delta, American and United. The biggest airlines by passenger carried are China Southern Air, American and Delta. One time startups like Southwest, Jet Blue, Allegiant, WestJet, etc are major competitors for the US big three.
Rather than foreign entry, the main block to competition to to be landing slots and boating ramps at airports, particularly the major airports. The may be room for more red-eye flights, but 7 am to 11 pm is full at the majors. NIMBY to airport expansion.
Both Rauch and Littlejohn, and even Arnold, note some problems in academia, at least implicitly. But not clearly.
Today, most colleges illegally discriminate against hiring Republican professors.
Until this truth becomes more commonly talked about as a problem colleges can and should solve - the problem in colleges, and thus in elites, and thus in elite based institutions, won't be solved. It will continue to get worse.
It would help if Republicans in Congress excluded colleges which have been discriminating against Republicans from: a-50%) tax exempt status, b-30%) Fed loan guarantees for students, and c-20%) Fed research grants. Even the threat of loss of such gov't subsidies would start college trustees addressing the issue. It's a FAR FAR bigger college problem than racism, sexism, homophobia, or climate change.
The political tribalism orange squeezing has barely been started, since every institution as well as all forms of both epistemic and political authority include a big segment on tribalism. Rauch's list of insults against Trump, without evidence, is an all too common display of his Democrat Demonization tribalism.
Littlejohn is less infected, and more insightful:
>>As much as we exhort one another to "think for yourself," "do your own research," and "make up your own mind," few of us really want to go to as much trouble as all that. Most of us are followers by nature, <<
Arnold has frequently noted this truth - we choose more who to believe.
Tho I'd disagree with Littlejohn's "The heyday of the expert was the early 20th century". I'd say it was up to, thru, and including the 60s Vietnam War, with Kennedy's "Brightest" folks messing up so badly in the face of the newly rich middle class folk rebelling against so much prior authority now seeming to be wrong.
Finally, new technology that young folk know better than old folk know, make it obvious to those young that old "wisdom" is not so valuable in a world with the new tech. This tech change degradation of experience is partly why the rebuilding of institutional authority ain't gonna happen.
Probably.
Sasse : "And it’s the excuse for otherwise civic-minded Americans to ignore the nuts in their own party and obsess only over the nuts in the other party. We’re tempted to think that the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
This is mildly incoherent, or maybe revealing that he characterizes people in the same political party as enemies, but the other obvious cliche "No enemies to the left" would have given the game away.
If Congress were full of people of the political sensibilities of Ben Sasse, then Ben Sasse would probably be making a lot of sense. However, it isn't full of Ben Sasses, and Ben Sasse seems utterly oblivious to this.