Speaking Truth to Nonsense

Jeff Goldstein talks to Jimmy Carter and the rest of the "dissent is patriotism" crowd. Well, more like talking at than to:

At some point, a faction of our country decided that dissent, as an end in itself, is to be celebrated and rewarded—that the “bravery” it takes to heckle the Establishment is somehow the pinnacle of patriotism. And at one point, maybe it was—if you happened to be of the wrong race or color, or you weren’t packing the right reproductive equipment.

But times, they have-a-changed, and here’s a truth that we generally dare not speak: dissent in this country is easy. And—when done almost by rote—it is a sign of the worst kind of intellectual laziness, not to mention the rather transparent desire to bank some “revolutionary” street cred. It is, in short, no more a necessary measure of one’s morality to take an adversarial stance than it is to take a stance that agrees with the Establishment.

Because what is important is not that you stand a certain way, but why.

Read all of it. Jeff pretty much nails it and on a number of fronts.