David Brewster
I happened to be at a party with a distinguished statesman the other night, and he wondered out loud why voters seem to be so angry this year. We are not at war, there are no scandals in high office, our economy is better than nearly all other countries, we are defusing issues such as gay marriage and incarceration. Yet we are told this is the Year of the Angry Voter. Is it instead the Year of the Hissy Fit? And might it pass if some presidential candidate instead talked about solutions and forgiveness and understanding? Consider this fine essay, putting down cheap petulance, and citing the words of Anne Lamott: “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
And then there is the meme of “socialism”
Are we about to have a debate about socialism, or will the term remain a kind of feel-good gesture of defiance? Some interesting aspects in this essay by Glenn Reynolds, a law professor. Denmark, insisting it has a market economy, resents Bernie Sanders’ claim that it is a socialist state. Young people are not increasingly in favor of redistributing wealth. Reynolds thinks libertarianism and socialism both represent a plea by young people who are not part of an organized voting bloc (as minorities are) asking to be included in the major discussions of the day. All this suggests to me that if Hillary really makes the issue not Bernie but socialism, she could pop a few bubbles.
