Hey, Kathryn, sorry for silence. I have (a) been deep in Roger Penrose’s
new book, which I’ll write about another time, (b) working on my own, (c)
rewiring my attic, while (d) running to the front door every 10 minutes to
dole out candy. Also (e) when things get this wonkish, it seems wiser to
let the front-of-the-magazine guys take over.
THE ECONOMIST endorsing Kerry? Feu! Listen:
“Still, on social policy, Mr. Kerry has a clear advantage: unlike Mr Bush
he is not in hock to the Christian right. That will make him a more
tolerant, less divisive figure on issues such as abortion, gay marriage and
stem-cell research.”
So being in hock to the modern left makes you non-divisive? Looking the
other way while arrogant leftist state judiciaries re-define marriage is not
divisive?
The “Christian right” isn’t some gang of desperadoes holed up in a cave in
Idaho; we are a vast swathe of the U.S. public. How “tolerant” will John
Kerry be towards *us*?
There is no cause to be surprised, though. THE ECONOMIST has more positions
an American conservative will disagree with than otherwise: on immigration,
capital punishemnt, same-sex marriage… practically any social issue, in
fact. This is a bunch of tweedy snobs, remember, whose understanding of
U.S. society has some quite large gaps. For more on this, see my review of
THE RIGHT NATION here.