The soft bigotry of low expectations Michael Gerson More Quotes by Michael Gerson More Quotes From Michael Gerson Atheists can be good people; they just have no objective way to judge the conduct of those who are not. Michael Gerson atheist judging people Parenthood offers many lessons in patience and sacrifice. But ultimately, it is a lesson in humility. The very best thing about your life is a short stage in someone else’s story. Michael Gerson sacrifice humility stories The Republican Party has become more conservative. The Democratic Party has become marginally more liberal. There's almost no overlap in the middle, ideological overlap, in either house of Congress. That leaves moderates homeless. We have had a hollowing out of the middle in the U.S. Congress. There's less opportunity for compromise. Michael Gerson party house opportunity The NSA is not looking through people's address books and Visa bills and violating the rights of average citizens. That's not what the NSA does. Michael Gerson rights average book This has all the appearance of a foreign power trying to undermine structures of legitimacy of an American election. That is a serious matter. If I were the media, I would be wary of using anything that came out of these document dumps which serves the purpose of a foreign power. But, at the very least, Americans have to discount this. This is an attempt to hijack and change American democracy by a foreign power. It can't be accepted. Michael Gerson democracy purpose trying The problem with these presidential debates like this is that you can't really prepare for them, because the questions are so individual and personal or even idiosyncratic. Secretary Hillary Clinton has a lot richer and deeper experience in doing these, obviously, than Donald Trump. Michael Gerson debate presidential problem When you analyze it, Mike Pence could only defend Donald Trump in some circumstances by projecting an image of himself, as though he were - that Trump held his views on Russia or his views on Syria. And that's really not true. So, it was a weird way to defend the person at the top of your ticket. Michael Gerson syria circumstances There is some of the paradox of foreign policy polling. So on Iraq and Syria, the President is pretty much doing what Americans want, he's not very engaged, but they don't like the results, his polling numbers are going down. Americans may be ambivalent and disengaged with the world, they don't want a President who is ambivalent and disengaged with the world. Michael Gerson paradox president world It's hard when the worst people in the country are cheering, the people with the confederate flag, the people that do anti-Semitism on Twitter, that's difficult for a lot of people in this country. But, you know, I do think an inaugural, for example, is almost always an act of national healing. Michael Gerson cheer healing country When your goal is to bring together the country in a substantive way to say that we're united by values and more - that are - you know, stronger than the things that divide us. That could be a moment. Michael Gerson goal together country This is a terrible danger. We have one party at the national level that is not committed to accepting the outcome of legitimate elections, that's not something that you can tolerate in the long run ; that is a recipe for edging towards authoritarianism. So I think that it is a stark choice. Michael Gerson
