LINK: Jacob Levy takes on an article purporting to show the differences between conservatives and liberals (you know, liberal = fuzzy bunnies and all that is good and true in the world, conservative = unthinking minions of evil), and includes this note:
"There is an unfortunate selection effect in electoral politics: those who care about nothing else more than winning-- on both sides-- tend to have at least some competitive advantages (though these aren't boundless, because being principled is part of how one gets a highly-motivated base of support). There's a particular premium on victory-above-all consultants; consultants, like lawyers in an adversarial trial process, are hired for their skill in getting their side to win. But deciding whether "liberals" as such are less Schmittian, less prone to view political contests as apocalyptic and existential conflicts, than "conservatives" as such would presumably require comparing consultants to consultants, intellectuals to intellectuals, elected officials to elected officials, and popular demagogues to popular demagogues."
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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