"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Elitist Discourse (Reprise)

I must be in tune with something. After my comments on Nyhan's elitist little piece yesterday, I ran across these two posts by Atrios ("Unity" and "Consensus" -- scroll down a bit).

It's the same set of people who imagine that partisanship somehow creates disagreement rather than the other way around. It's true that there's some degree of tribalism in political identification, but mostly partisanship exists because people choose the party which best represents their political views. Partisanship is the political expression of disagreement, not the creator of it.

What "why can't we all agree" really means is "why can't everybody just agree with me."

Democracy is messy. Hurray!


Told you so.

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