The rap on liberals is that they love humanity but are not so crazy about people; they won\u2019t act morally unless everyone else is also forced to be virtuous.<\/p>\n
This is, of course, a smear, albeit one with legs. Its resonance is precisely why those whose words and deeds seem to give truth to the stereotype must be called out. Which brings us to Professor Drew Westen of Emory University, a strong advocate for liberal causes who is regularly given prime real estate in the New York Times. Last Sunday he called for campaign finance reform<\/a> by regurgitating the line that politicians don\u2019t act in the people\u2019s interest (i.e. what he wants) because they are corrupted by special interest money.<\/p>\n To \u201cprove\u201d his point, he asserts that \u201cno one\u201d has been \u201cheld accountable\u201d for the causing the mortgage meltdown (\u201cthe greatest financial crime on the American people since the events leading up to\u00a0the Great Depression\u201d) or the BP oil spill.\u00a0 One could write a book contesting that claim but what interests me here is the personal note that follows. \u201cIn April, I spent a week with my family on a beautiful stretch of beach we\u2019d visited many times during the kids\u2019 spring break, except this time I watched as preschoolers made sand castles with sludge-colored sand and wondered about the unknown health effects on their young bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m all for wondering but sometimes you\u2019ve got to act. If it were my kids frolicking in the dunes of doom, I\u2019d yell, \u201cHey, get away, the sand is poisoned.\u201d I\u2019d give them ice cream and plop them in front of the idiot box while I plotted our getaway from our getaway.<\/p>\n If the tiny tots are someone else\u2019s, I would have asked their parents if they noticed anything funky about the sand \u2013 \u201cis it supposed to be gooey?\u201d \u2013 and refer to studies suggesting links between sludge and illness (people like studies).<\/p>\n But Westen had bigger fish to fry. Evidently, when you\u2019re bent on holding corporate monsters accountable, you don\u2019t have time to exercise a little personal responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"