During The Financial Crisis And Bailouts Of

Promises To Get Beyond Partisanship Are The Most Perfunctory Sort Of Campaign Rhetoric, Almost As Empty As The Partisanship Itself.

It Is Always A Disappointment To Turn From Forthright Consideration Of Some Subject - Whether From The Left Or The Right, A Poet Or A Plumber - To The Beltway Version, In Which The Only Aspects Of The Issue That Matter Are The Effects It Will Have On The Fortunes Of The Two Parties And The Various Men In Power.

While Democrats Fussed With The Details Of Health Care Reforms, Conservatives Spent Months Telling The Nation That The Real Issue Is Freedom, That What's On The Line Is American Liberty Itself.

Americans Have Known About Mounting Inequality And King-sized Wall Street Bonuses For Years. But We Also Had An Entire Genre Of Journalism Dedicated To Brushing The Problem Off.

Public Borrowing Is Costly These Days, True, But Interest Rates On Municipal Bonds Are Still Considerably Lower Than Those Borne By Corporate Debt.