QOTD: EmotiCon Edition

Three for your money today, and we open the bidding with Peggy Noonan's errant stab at defining the concept of empathy:

(Maybe that's what they mean by empathy: Where you come from enters you, and you bring it with you as you rise. But if that's what they mean, then we're all empathetic. We're the most fluid society in human history, but no one ever leaves their zip code in America, we all take it with us. It's part of our pride. And it's not bad, it's good. [parenthesis unclosed in original]

Shaper of recent American domestic history Michael Gerson, fresh from his hometown of Oblivious, shows the limits of Noonan's parochialism with a classic line:

Just imagine the frustration and anger of standing before a federal judge who is predisposed against your claims for racial reasons of any sort.

It's classic because Gerson is speaking here primarily in defense of (and in empathy with) his fellow lily-white American citizens of Ricci v. DeStefano, who are like Gerson, of course, members of the least (by several orders of magnitude) racially-persecuted group in the nation. He really does have to imagine.

From there to David Brooks, who this morning has up one of his weirdly fairly-sensible columns:

...[E]motions are an inherent part of decision-making. Emotions are the processes we use to assign value to different possibilities. Emotions move us toward things and ideas that produce pleasure and away from things and ideas that produce pain.

People without emotions cannot make sensible decisions because they don't know how much anything is worth. People without social emotions like empathy are not objective decision-makers. They are sociopaths who sometimes end up on death row.

Or at the Washington Post or, heck, in the White House.

(Cheap shot? Sure. But in a world of Noonans and Gersons, Bushes and Cheneys, I'm afraid my empathy extends only so far.)

Dread Alert

Gerson: Obama may be "cool," but his campaign is "rootless."

KMBBA

Michael Gerson, today:

And to give a memorable speech, Obama must find some way to reassert his initial theme of national unity, recently drowned out by the daily gunfire of presidential politics. Every good convention speech includes clever partisan barbs.... But if Obama does not distinguish himself for his post-partisan unity, there is little positive justification for his candidacy. And this emphasis is needed in a country sickened by its own blogged bitterness. Democratic nations are designed for disagreement. They are weakened by contempt. Loyalty to America, at some level, demands loyalty to one another. Love of country requires a regard and affection for our fellow countrymen.

More...

Michael Gerson, 1/30/08:

Liberals and Democrats offer no praise because a desire to help dying Africans, minority students and low-income seniors does not fit the image of Bush's cruelty that they wish to cultivate.

Michael Gerson, 7/18/08:

If the movement to confront climate change is perceived as partisan, anti-capitalist and hostile to human life, it is likely to fail, causing suffering for many, including the ice bears. And so the question arises: Will the environment survive the environmentalists?

Et cetera.

Michael Gerson, anytime: can kiss my bitter bloggy arse.

So Be It

Shorter Michael Gerson: "The planet will explode before Wingnuttia embraces Algore."

Update: Fixed link.

Quote of the Day: Tragic Flaw Edition

Michael Gerson, proud conservative, in his Washington Post column this morning:

For all of conservatism's evident virtues, it can have one furtive, seedy vice: A justified suspicion of government can degenerate into an anti-government ideology -- rigid, stingy and indifferent to human suffering.

One flaw and -- can you believe their dagnabbed luck?-- it's a doozie...

(Apologies if this is all over the web by now. I chuckled over it at about 6:30am EST but had no time to post. Also good for a laugh is the acronym for the oft-cited African AIDS program: PEPFAR. You know they concocted that one to pique the continuing interest of ol' Cheerleader-in-Chief.)

The Invigorator

Shorter Michael Gerson: "John McCain is an All-American asshole."

The Boys from Barack

Shorter Michael Gerson: "Obama walks with Jeremiah Wright/Josef Mengele."

Another Dimestore Cowboy

Shorter Michael Gerson: "McCain will ride Bush's war horsey as far as it will take him."

Whistling Past the Graveyard

In his NY Times column this morning, Michael Gerson obediently follows his master's whistle with his 514th defense of the Bush presidency, which of course he collaborated in as head speechwriter until about 514 days ago.

Gerson is mightily impressed not just with Bush's final State of the Union address, but with his presidency generally:

Proposals such as No Child Left Behind, the AIDS and malaria initiatives, and the addition of a prescription drug benefit to Medicare would simply not have come from a traditional conservative politician. They became the agenda of a Republican administration precisely because of Bush's persistent, passionate advocacy. To put it bluntly, these would not have been the priorities of a Cheney administration.

In Gerson's mind, that armful of dog bones is enough to offset the rest of the "priorities of a Cheney administration," which Bush has pursued with far more gusto -- and far greater consequence -- than he ever put into the puppy treats. In the end, though, Gerson predictably ignores the many legitimate criticisms Democrats have made of Bush's "compassionate" accomplishments in favor of a typical red-cape, right-wing smear:

Liberals and Democrats offer no praise because a desire to help dying Africans, minority students and low-income seniors does not fit the image of Bush's cruelty that they wish to cultivate.

That poor, poor -- poor! -- man. We never deserved him.

Correction: Gerson's column appears in the Post, not the Times. I must have been confusing him with Bill Kristol.