December 18th, 2010
George Will has an awe-inspiring column about the new No Labels beyondism. Instant classic graph:
Often in the year before the year before the year divisible by four, a few political people theatrically recoil from partisanship. Recently, this ritual has involved speculation about whether New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg might squander a few of his billions to improve America by failing to be elected president.
Just go ahead and drop that into Will’s Best-Of anthology now.
My only point of disagreement with Will is this: “Whatever their defects, America’s political parties are marvelously sensitive market mechanisms, measuring every tremor of the electorate’s moods.”
That is often, but not always true. One of the ways a party gets bombed back into the Stone Age is by ignoring the public market, a la Republicans in 2006 and, more impressively, Democrats from 2008 until present.
I have very little to say about No Labels because some people I like (and others, whom I admire) are involved with the group. I’d only ask this: How in the world did they keep Tom Friedman off the bus? This outfit was made for him.
Jason O. December 18, 2010 at 5:43 pm
‘The label “conservative” conveys much useful information about people who adopt it. So does the label “liberal,” which is why most liberals have abandoned it, preferring “progressive,” until they discredit it, too.’
That’s ownership. Or pwnership, whatever.