Is Rahm Emanuel John Gotti?

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2009/10/is-rahm-emanuel-john-gotti

There's a lively debate just now on the right about tone and civility. Over at the American Enterprise Institute blog, Charles Murray writes:

Our job is to engage in a debate on great issues and make converts to our point of view. The key word is converts—referring to people who didn't start out agreeing with us. We shouldn't be civil and reasonable just because we want to be nice guys. It is the only option we've got if we want to succeed instead of just posture. The Glenn Becks of the world posture, and make our work harder.

Meanwhile, the Manhattan Institute has posted a video of Monday night's Wriston Lecture. The Manhattan Institute does some fine work, and, in the interest of complying with all the Federal Trade Commission's new rules designed to protect American consumers from corrupt bloggers, I should disclose that it fed me dinner and a glass of Johnny Walker Black on the rocks at said Wriston Lecture. Now, granted, the Wriston Lecture is mostly a speech to the already converted and not an outreach effort. And granted too that plenty of free-market types, myself included, may bristle or at least be slightly uncomfortable at the kind of groupthink or us-versus-them outlook that seems implied by the whole notion of converting to a point of view. And granted, too, that Charles Krauthammer's Wriston Lecture this year was overall a thoughtful and serious and intelligent contribution. Was it really necessary, or constructive, or even funny, for Dr. Krauthammer to open with a joke about the 2016 Wriston Lecture being awarded to the City of Chicago on the basis of the fact that, as Dr. Krauthammer put it, "Michelle's outfit was outstanding, and sleeveless," and that Rahm Emanuel gave a presentation that was the "most persuasive" since the 1996 Olympics were awarded to Brooklyn on the basis of a plea by "John Gotti"? Is it really necessary, in other words, to make fun of the president's wife's clothing and to compare the president's chief of staff to a convicted murderer? Later in the talk, Dr. Krauthammer referred to President Obama's overseas travels as a "haj."

Over at National Review, Rich Lowry calls the lecture "wonderful" and "sophisticated." Anyway, politics ain't beanbag, and some of the anger directed at the Obama administration is spawned by its policies and actions. But Mr. Murray may be on to something with his argument that civility will be helpful in crafting arguments that will appeal to an American people that, after all, voted for Mr. Obama in large numbers less than a year ago.

by Editor  |  Oct 7, 2009 at 1:10 pm receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list