When in the journalism profession someone rises to the level of being a syndicated columnist, those of us with a newspaper subscription and an interest in public affiars are sentenced to becoming familiar with his regard for himself. Charles Krauthammer, for example, sees himself as a hardheaded crusader against the effeminate know-nothings who coddle terrorists when of course the thing is to kill all of them before they kill all of us, which they are perpetually on the cusp of achieving. Woe is us!
At least Jesus doesn't seem to have much to do with it. For that, we have Michael Gerson, of the Washington Post. He is one of those who probably thinks there is a Christian angle to trigonometry. The Christian angle to this and that is almost his only topic. He feels obliged to work it into every piece. When he strays too far in his choice of subject, we readers are witness to the strain. In a recent column on Tim Pawlenty, the governor of our state and early campaigner in the 2012 presidential sweepstakes, Gerson manages to notice Pawlenty's "quiet evangelical Christianity"--the phrase is an oxymoron--and that, when trying to feign tea party anger on the stump, he can "come across like a Baptist trying to swear." Religion, besides providing Gerson with a favorite subject, is his only allusive resource.
I should not criticize, because Gerson is such an outstanding Christian, but it is possible that his enthusiasm for religion has prevented him from becoming acquainted with things he purports to know about. Consider the following paragraph:
Pawlenty is the successful conservative governor of one of the most liberal states in the union -- as if Ronald Reagan had been elected in Sweden. One explanation is his disarming, beer-sharing niceness, which is among Minnesota's main exports to the nation (exception: the seething Sen. Al Franken).
Allow me to state my objections in no particular order.
The deployment of "beer-sharing" reminds one of what Gerson himself says about Pawlenty trying to sound angry. Gerson is trying to sound regular, but it doesn't work for him, because he's not. Regular people are interested in more than religion. I shouldn't have said that religion is his only allusive resource. It's the only one easily within reach. Anything else and you notice the stretching.
The whole "Minnesota-nice" thing: what a load of rubbish! If Gerson wants to adopt the views of Garrison Keillor, there are better candidates. I've lived here my whole life and am not nice at all. I don't even consider it a virtue. Justice is a virtue.
Consider that last paragraph a defense against the gratuitous swipe at Al Franken. About some things a morally alive person has to be angry--"seething," if you will. Religion--if an outsider may broach the topic--permits it. See, for example, the Book of Amos.
The timing of Gerson's column is--I don't know whether to say awful or delectable. On the day it appeared in the local paper, the headlines concerned the decision, of the Minnesota Supreme Court, that Pawlenty had violated state law when, in the last legislative session, he stonewalled the Democratic majority's solution to the state's budget problems and then did an endrun around the Legislature by "unallotting" once the session had ended. Pawlenty criticized the opinion, which was written by the Chief Justice, whom he appointed. It seems he should take the blame for something. I would have thought that being a "successful conservative governor" might include following the law--or, at least, not being busted for breaking it by your own appointee.
What evidence is there for the claim that Minnesota is "one of the most liberal states in the union"? We've got Power Line and Michele Bachmann. We have not had a Democratic governor in twenty years. Obama's share of the popular vote here was lower than in 18 other states. It's possible that Gerson was so infatuated with the quip about Reagan and Sweden that he couldn't let facts stop him. It's also possible that he just doesn't know what he's talking about. There is a tendency among the faithful to regard their religious commitment as a substitute for the trouble associated with actually finding things out. In this respect, Gerson's columns are representative cultural artifacts.
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