A little late on this one - it's been sitting in my browser for almost a week - but it's still worth noting, as an occurrence like this is so rare.. George Will is making sense.
So Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes and a long, luminous list of other skeptics can be spared the posthumous ignominy of being stricken from the rolls of exemplary Americans. And almost 30 million living Americans welcomed that presidential benediction.
According to the American Religious Identification Survey, Americans who answer "none" when asked to identify their religion numbered 29.4 million in 2001, more than double the 14.3 million in 1990. If unbelievers had their own state -- the state of None -- its population would be more than twice that of New England's six states, and None would be the nation's second-largest state...
He concludes..
Damn right.
What's really irritating about the times we live in is that it is so rare to see someone criticize the members of their own "team." Conservatives rarely if ever criticize the President, even if he's clearly being an unbelievable ass. Democrats are just as bad. If someone suggests that a Republican may have made a good decision, they are stripped of their liberal cred.
What would be better would be if people would champion causes and principles, not parties and individuals. I know that's asking for a lot, but I think that it's the ideas that matter. It's hard, I know. I am certainly no stranger to the temptation to paint Republicans and their dirty little schemes with a broad brush, but at least I try to be honest about it. I'm not doing cartwheels to justify things I clearly do not believe in just because it was a "liberal" idea or a "conservative" idea. I just want people to make sense, that's all.
It's my birthday on Thursday, and really and truly, that's all I want. I also have a wishlist on Amazon.com, in case they're out of People Making Sense.
