Charles Pierce has something to say as 2011 comes to an end–his post is titled America Will Only Get Better When It Is Ours Again.
[O]f course, we must never make the perfect the enemy of the good. But you know what else is the enemy of good? Timidity is the enemy of the good. Cruelty is the enemy of the good, and so are selfishness, bigotry, and ignorance. Why perfection is the only enemy of the good that ever seems worth fighting is a good question with which to launch the new year.
It is a dead-level time for us as a people. There are now 146 million Americans who are ranked as “low-income” or “poor.” Somebody really should do something about that. How we treat them in our politics is going to be the ultimate test of our moral credibility as a nation.
As Robert Braun says in the comments:
Thank you, Charlie. Bless you. Happy new year, to us, one and all.