The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
NOTE: The excerpt below is from the 12/29/10 BOTW archives.
A True Nolabelist Defends the Phony Ones
Here’s something we never thought we’d see: a defense of the ridiculous “No Labels” movement, which has united left and right in well-founded scorn. The defender is Cathy Young, who writes in the Boston Globe that she is dismayed by the “surprisingly nasty attacks” on the Nolabelists and “their noble goals”:
Whatever its weaknesses, No Labels is at least trying to address a very real problem: the debasement of our political culture to something between a playground squabble and a war zone. Columnist George F. Will, who mocks the No Labelers as would-be “national scolds,” argues that democratic politics are driven by “intensely interested . . . partisans of various causes.” True; but No Labels co-founder John Avlon, a former speechwriter for Republican New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is also right to stress that “our domestic political opponents are not our sworn enemies.” If we cannot agree on at least this, we are on a dangerous path.
We have known Cathy Young for many years, and we can attest that she lives up to the Nolabelists’ stated ideals. In her writings, she deals with almost any issue in a spirit of compromise, offering gentle criticism to both sides and coming down squarely in the middle. To our mind, this approach sometimes seems more formulaic than truly thoughtful–surely there are occasions on which the truth is on one side or the other–but our point here is that Young is consistently civil and respectful in tone.
If she has joined the Nolabelists, however, she has fallen in with a bad crowd. John Avlon, whom she cites approvingly, is a prime example. This is a man whose signature is the label “wingnut,” which he applies to those–usually, though not always, on the right–whose politics he opposes. Last March, as we noted, he went so far as to invoke Nazi Germany in an effort to discredit opponents of ObamaCare. He preaches moderation and civility while practicing the opposite, sort of like a Unitarian Elmer Gantry.
One might object that this is an argumentum ad hominem–that Avlon’s hypocrisy does not invalidate the beliefs he claims to hold. But then you encounter David Frum’s hypocrisy, and Michael Bloomberg’s, and Joe Scarborough’s, and you begin to suspect that Nolabelism is simply a fraud–that the Nolabelists are merely seeking an exclusive license to act like jerks. And then you wonder if it makes more sense to think of Cathy Young as being its only sincere exponent or its only real victim.
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