Wouldn’t this be refreshing?

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, who is editor and publisher of the Nation, writes in today’s Washington Post:

Here’s a modest proposal for improving national political discussion: Stop equating our opponents with famous dictators, their chief executioners, police apparatus or ideologies. I’m all for learning from history, but times are hard enough in American politics — with war, threats to national security, the greatest divide between rich and poor in our history and deep cultural divisions. Present differences deserve to be described in contemporary terms. The purpose of public speech is not just to restate anger but to clarify the principles and evidence that fuel it — in ways that invite discussion, not inhibit it. The demons are already among us — so let’s muster up some new analogies and declare a ceasefire on such demonizing rhetoric as this:

Sounds refreshing in theory, but I don’t see it happening. Both sides appear to be too polarized at this point. What I do see happening, however, is that Vanden Heuvel doesn’t practice what she preaches. Why am I not surprised?

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