Jonah Goldberg posts this email from a reader:
Jonah,
I’m in my 40s. My IRAs and 401Ks are in the toilet and will take years to recover. We still have a ways to go on the DJIA before it approaches post-9/11, but I have faith we can get down there without much effort. Between me and my wife and 2 kids, we are on the hook for $40k for the bailout…
Based on this, I would wonder what planet we were living on if I heard McCain or Obama Friday night waxing poetic about reengaging North Korea to re-give up their nuclear ambitions, who was for the surge before the other guy was against it, or what to do about Iran, or Georgia or Chavez for that matter. My tolerance for these crackpots is nil. My tolerance for questions about what are now abstractions is even less. Our adversaries are creating additional crisis and are engaged in a defacto war already. Cancel the debate and earn your paycheck as a US Senator first. Secure the financial system. As to the foreign policy—the zeitgeist could be turning away from nuance and a lot more people could be ready to kick a little tail. The mood is changing and people are ticked. We don’t have an enemy like we had on 9/12 in this case, but I pity the next tin-pot that pushes a little too hard.
And then Goldberg updates the post with another email in response:
Amen! Amen! Amen!
Sometimes I think I’m alone and then I see an entry like this and I think – Thank God.
Holy crap. It’s at moments like this I fervently pray I’m correct that America is too fat for fascism. But even if we are, we’re not too fat for Timothy McVeigh X 10, particularly with a black-Arab-Muslim president.
Speaking of which: I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess both of Goldberg’s confused, angry monkeys are white.
—Jonathan Schwarz