COLORLINES/TUMBLR

“Mr Waldman is right to suggest that today’s Republican alarm and Democratic light-heartedness are partisan phenomena. But one is no sillier than the other. The majority of Democrats who saw government as a threat in 2007 were right to do so, and nothing truly significant has changed since then. Likewise, the overwhelming majority of Republicans who were at ease with the state in 2007 were profoundly misguided; one wishes they had been roused from their oblivious slumber for better reasons. The Gallup graph is truly troubling because it shows us that each party’s base of supporters is more or less blind to government’s threat to freedom when their favoured team is in power. Which is to say, their dogged partisan team-spiritedness keeps Americans from unifying to perceive and combat very real threats to their liberties and lives.” (via Partisan bias: The danger of the partisan mind | The Economist)