I’ll skip the standard analysis of the Dems’ first night \u2013 OK, Al Gore was kinda funny, Bill Clinton was kinda funny \u2013 and focus on a face in the crowd. At one point, Clinton said something ostensibly inspiring \u2013 I can’t remember what, which is probably comment enough \u2013 and the camera glommed on a middle-aged delegate who was beaming as if she had just regained the gift of sight. Her smile was bright, earnest, and unsettling. For behind that smile (and we’ll see more of them a month from now in New York) was the timeless hope that some Great Man holds the remedy. Make jobs! Heal the sick! End hate! Stop terror! Defeat evil!<\/p>\n
And I would forgive these folks for insulting my intelligence if their fantasies didn’t entail stealing my money, shrinking my freedom, and encouraging foreigners to kill me. Which is not to say that I find all of the bright, earnest, smilers’ goals<\/i> repugnant. As Christopher Preble and Justin Logan wrote regarding one do-gooder project in a Cato Institute op-ed<\/a> Monday,<\/p>\nIf the neoconservatives were simply seeking to head up a liberal Lincoln Brigade to fight tyranny across the globe, we would happily lend them our moral support and well wishes. But the U.S. military is not a Lincoln Brigade. It exists to defend the country from threats.<\/ul>\n