Thursday, September 11, 2003

So, I learned a new thing today. I learned that it's categorically impossible for the government to do two things at once.

I always thought the need to handle multiple tasks simultaneously was why we had a large government in the first place, but Lawrence Kaplan, writing for The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, assures us that's not so.

You see, people were asked in a couple of polls which should be a bigger priority for government -- terrorism or the economy. Far more Democrats than Republicans chose the economy. Now, according to Kaplan, if the government prioritizes the economy, that means it can't do anything whatsoever about terrorism.

At least that's how I interpret Kaplan's argument that if Democrats want the economy to be the bigger priority, that means we completely lack "a willingness to do something about [terrorism]." (His exact words are "Fear of terrorism cuts across all demographic sub-groups. Yet a willingness to do something about it, to adjust our priorities, does not.")

Apparently, if you don't make something the #1 priority, you're unwilling to do anything about it at all. And if that something is terrorism and you're a Democrat, then you're a dangerous "September 10 American."

Or maybe I'm being too literal-minded -- after all, this is an article on The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, and Kaplan, though he's an editor at The New Republic, wrote a book recently with William Kristol and got it published by David Horowitz's old partner, Peter Collier.

So maybe this is just more right-wing group slander, and not to be taken seriously at all.

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