Adam Garfinkle highlights a problematic trend. And it’s not a partisan one. It includes Bush haters and Obama haters as targets. There’s some interesting history in the essay, as well as measured criticism of the recent “deal” with Iran (which is not some much a deal as an agreement to work toward a deal, at least as I understand it). But that is not the main point. Here’s part of what he says:
Whatever else they do, the internet and kindred social media technologies seem to have democratized the popularity of politics as bloodsport. The bottom-feeding frenzy seems to intensify day by day, judging by most of the from-the-hip commentary that trawls beneath the waterline of feature essays. Its crypto-theological dogmatism is unmistakable, and not surprising in an age when politics so often trumps religion as creedal anchor number one. It does so in the case of the Iran portfolio despite the leavening details of the prospective framework accord with Iran, and despite Friedman’s interview of President Obama this past Saturday.
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