David Shuster, of MSNBC's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, has been running an interesting little feature at the top of his show these last few days. Rush Limbaugh, as you have no doubt read about, has claimed that he hopes that Obama fails. Not only that, but Limbaugh has claimed that all Republicans so hope. Shuster has been getting prominent Republicans on the show and has been asking them whether they want Obama to fail. They tend to temporise; talking about socialism, totalitarianism, and other red herrings.The problem as I see it is that US public political discourse hasn't been about discussing the relative merit of ideas for a very long time. There are exceptions, but, by and large, the US political discourse is about scoring rhetorical points rather than admitting that their political philosophies might be far too simplistic to deal with issues in the 21st century— and in so doing, failing to engage in honest discussion in a search for the best principles. The act more like gladiators than thinkers.
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