Although I've been following the health-care debate from a distance, I haven't been blogging much lately, mostly because what's going on in American politics is too depressing to contemplate. While I very often disagree with conservative columnist Rod Dreher, I'd like to pass along something he posted on his blog today:
I thought not long ago that I was fairly passionate about politics and public affairs, but now I find I'm less and less engaged, because so many of those who are engaged strike me as low and dishonest, and above all, too damn loud. I have heard, and hear almost every day, from folks on the right who seem to really believe that the Constitution and the Republic are hanging by a thread, and that these are not times for timid compromise, but to fight like berserkers until Obama is defeated — or we lose the nation. I think this is bizarre, untrue, and bad for the country. But it is what it is, and we are where we are. My liberal friend and I agreed that following politics is no fun these days, that neither of us could muster the kind of hate for the Other necessary to hold one's own in the public square today…
…I think this is why I get so wound up about Glenn Beck. Here we have the economy teetering on the brink of disaster, we have a losing war in Afghanistan, we have Iran doing its best to get nuclear weapons, but that jackass wants people to think the greatest threat to the Republic comes from minor officials in the Obama administration. And conservatives who ought to know better than to fall for this penny-ante crap go along with it because it works to make life difficult for the president, because they can… Do they not understand what they're doing here, what they're legitimating? Do they really think that the next Republican president is only going to be able to find saints to staff his administration? Do they really believe that the left is going to be discerning about its targets? What they're doing is making it impossible for normal people to serve in public office, or in a public appointment.
How sadly, horribly true. Read the whole thing.