RECOMMENDED READING – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  Occasionally I see a piece of journalism that I must recommend to readers.  Tomorrow's Washington Post has just such an article.

It's called "Why Are Liberals so Condescending?" by Gerard Alexander, associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia.  It is the best analysis of liberal psychology and feelings of superiority that I have ever read in a journalistic piece.  The Washington Post, a liberal paper after all, is to be commended for running it.  You must read it.  There'll be a quiz on Monday.  This is the way it starts:

Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of serious consideration. Indeed, all the appeals to bipartisanship notwithstanding, President Obama and other leading liberal voices have joined in a chorus of intellectual condescension.

And...

This condescension is part of a liberal tradition that for generations has impoverished American debates over the economy, society and the functions of government -- and threatens to do so again today, when dialogue would be more valuable than ever.

And this is the way it ends:

Even liberals should think twice about the prospect of decisions on innovative surgeries, light bulbs and carbon quotas being directed by legislators grandstanding for the cameras. Of course, thinking twice would be easier if more of them were listening to conservatives at all.

Read, read, read.  There is a rising voice in the academic world.  Send him the body armor.

February 6, 2010