Many people have no interest in philosophical challenges to their settled political preferences. They do not wish to ask themselves whether they can square those preferences with principles about life and dignity that they would be uncomfortable rejecting. They treat their politics as a matter of flat allegiance, not reasoned decision, as fans treat baseball teams. They delight in cartoons of a simian President Bush dragging his hands on the ground or in books with titles like How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must). Real argument or introspection is the last thing they have in mind. They achieve this state of mind through a rigid intellectual compartmentalization: they lock their personal ideals of value and dignity in a separate chamber of their personalities that is well insulated from their politics. They can embrace fully humane ideas about the importance of human life and then vote for politicians who promise to cut social welfare programs; they can insist on their own personal responsibility for religious faith and then applaud politicians who promise to create a Christian country.
(Ronald Dworkin, Is Democracy Possible Here? Principles for a New Political Debate [Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006], 162-3 [endnote omitted])
Note from KBJ: Here are some books that Dworkin conveniently omitted: (1) Bush's Brain; (2) The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder; (3) Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush; (4) The Bush Tragedy; (5) The Madness of George W. Bush; (6) The 12-Step Bush Recovery Program: A Lifesaving Guide to Shaking Off the Horrors of the Last Eight Years, with Practical Advice on Relapse, Remission, and Recounts; (7) The Lies of George W. Bush; (8) The I Hate George W. Bush Reader; (9) The President of Good & Evil: The Ethics of George W. Bush; and (10) George W. Bush, War Criminal? Does Dworkin think that only conservatives "treat their politics as a matter of flat allegience"? If so, then he hasn't been paying attention for the past eight years. Most progressives suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome.
