Cheers to the differences

It’s very Asteroids Club when things get all mixed up in politics – when the tribes don’t align neatly and the American ideal is alive and well. That’s when it’s most clear that democracy has to get back to its messy and inspired roots. Where we meet and talk and listen. You know, an Asteroids Club meeting. It’s that wonderful moment when you find awe with someone you think is entirely incorrect. There is nothing that is more quintessentially the stuff of our founding fathers. That’s gotta be a good thing.

“I may not have the attitude of a Rand Paul, but I worship his right to have it. I would never put down that attitude because I think there is a bit of right wing paranoia attached to that guy. Why? Because in some college dorm somewhere… there are young people arguing about it. And I say thank God for that.”

— Chris Matthews, Hardball

Tom Edsall’s Guide to What Each Side Gets Right

Tom Edsall, a journalism professor at Columbia who writes for the New York Times' "Campaign Stops" blog, recently undertook an illuminating project. He asked a few liberals to say what they think conservatives are right about, and he asked a few conservatives to say what they thought liberals were right about.

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