A Frown for Smiley

One of the many, many reasons I consider myself a liberal in the classical mode, rather than what you might call the Coastal-American mode, is because our coasters so often express their bleeding hearts with such subtle respect for human complexity and vulnerability. Take the opening paragraph of this piece by Jane Smiley on that shining example of level-headed discourse, The Huffington Post:

Back in 2004, when Bush seemed to win the Presidential election for the first time, I made a vow. It was that in future years, if I happened to see an elderly homeless person holding out his hat, I would lean down and ask him who he voted for in 2004. If he said "Bush", I planned to step over him and walk on.

Nice.