A Dying Breed.

I've recently been reading some books by George Will (The Woven Figure) and William F. Buckley (Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription), in reading their writings I can't help but be struck by the contrast between the tone and approach to political thought taken by these elder statesmen of the conservative movement and that taken by most of the popular political writers today. The late Mr. Buckley's style was one of laying out rational arguments for his worldview. This is a far cry from the current crop on the right and the left. It seems that the entire conservative movement has become a moral crusade, while the left is driven by a guilt-based crusade. A good percentage of the political books I've read in the last year have consisted of attacks on the morality (or intelligence) of the other side rather than a comprehensive case for the author's own political views. There are exceptions, like Christopher Hitchens, but he's persona non grata on the left due to his unflinching support for the Iraq War and the right probably isn't crazy about his anti theism. There are still intelligent people in both movements, but it seems that raw emotion is the driving factor in the political discourse. I find this to be one of the more disturbing developments in politics over the last 15 years or so.