What Would Wellstone Think? -

What Would Wellstone Think? - Last night, Lewis reminded me of one of the more interesting facets of Paul Wellstone's character.

While he was liberal enough to make Ted Kennedy blanche, and his convictions in that direction were utterly unshakeable, he had great intellectual respect for opposing viewpoints.

More than that, his closest friends in the Senate, irrespective of affiliation, were other Senators of deep conviction; people who went to Washington on the basis of their ideas; people who didn't consult polls and focus groups and consultants before voting their consciences. People like Jesse Helms and Barry Goldwater; people who, despite their opposing beliefs, were people like him.

Contrast that with the behavior of so many that'd call themselves Wellstone supporters around here. I will be charitable and call it "intolerance", but whatever you call it, you see it everywhere: posts on this list; teachers teaching their students that Republicans are bad; personal ads with "Republicans Need Not Reply" as the headline; implausible conspiracy theories,which people grasp onto like intellectual life rafts; people who all but plug their ears and run away when one voices a conservative idea, or respond with red-faced, spittle-flecked vituperation; the growing separatism of so many arguments from the left these days.

In the meantime, the wacko (but not-far-from-mainstream) left is responding with the type of bizarre conspiracy theories that people used to associate with the lunatic right. We talked about that yesterday.