It’s an election year so nonsense is afoot no matter where you turn. But I just read a very common sense argument for the common good. And it was not at Sojourners or a lefty news outfit. It was from Fox’s Bill Kristol.
In my most recent article at the Huffington Post, I had some harsh things to say about Fox News & the right wing radio crowd. I honestly think Fox has grown to fully resemble the caricature of themselves we used to see on SNL. It used to be a joke. Now it’s all too real. When your viewers are consistently less informed than people who get all of their news from satirical news shows like the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, it’s probably time to stop calling yourself fair and balanced… I’m just saying. Why not just get a new tagline like, “News That’s Right,” or “The Conservative Perspective,” and be proud of it?
Nevertheless, I’ve always kind of like Kristol. He doesn’t froth at the mouth and although I agree with very little of his politics, he’s always seemed like a reasonable guy. Kristol had an extremely piece in The Weekly Standard. Remember Kristol is a Fox contributor and conservative/neo-con leader. He’s writing in The Weekly Standard, which is an extremely conservative publication.
In the article Kristol writes:
“Post 2008, capitalism needs its strong defenders—but its defenders need also to be its constructive critics. The Tea Party was right. What’s needed is a critique of Big Government above all, but also of Big Business and Big Finance and Big Labor (and Big Education and Big Media and all the rest)—and especially a critique of all those occasions when one or more of these institutions conspire against the common good. What’s needed is a willingness to put Main Street (at least slightly) ahead of Wall Street, and a reform agenda for capitalism that strengthens it, alongside an even more dramatic reform agenda for government that limits it.”
I seriously almost fell out of my chair. For one thing, it’s nearly word for word what I wrote in my critique of the Tea Party in the Huffington Post. The common good is under siege. For another thing, a leading conservative just made a cogent argument for the reform of capitalism and the common good… what the what?
He recommends “a reform agenda for capitalism,” and says that the critique of big government must also extend to “Big Business and Big Finance, and Big Labor… especially when one or more of these institutions conspire against the common good.” I think Kristol will have some serious trouble on his right flank (I didn’t know he had one!) – but I say, go for it William! You are making some sense.
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