The Coming Civil War

Michael Tomasky has written a cogent, even-handed appraisal of the "Tea Party" activists. I think it is downright scary. The ideological nature of this movement is so closed-minded and self-contained and self-referential it seems impossible to break through. That is, you can't have a rational discussion with any of these people because they refuse to listen to anything that doesn't prove their point of view. After all, in their mind, the media lies, the president lies, the scientists lie, the liberal academic establishment lies . . .

I blame it, in part, on the left and the moral relativists who would argue that there is no Truth (with a capital T). Opinion is fact. Actually, scratch that, because opinion implies that there are some facts about which one has a different interpretation. One can have an opinion about whether Obama's plan will actually help or hurt you. But these aren't opinions, they are beliefs - people who believe things to be true that simply are not. You cannot correct people who believe, as opposed to think, that Obama's healthcare plan will take away Medicare benefits.

Tomasky's scariest point, in my opinion (it's something I think, not believe to be true) is that we are about to witness a "Nullification Crisis". Those of you who have no idea of the historical import of this, please wikipedia, or google, the term. It's a states' rights argument that was used by South Carolina to "nullify" tariffs during Andrew Jackson's administration. He had to threaten to use the military to enforce federal law before the states backed down. And guess what - Lincoln and Kennedy/Johnson faced the same arguments.

Welcome to American Civil War II . . .