"...partisan hacks..." "...wretched hive..."

This comment richly illustrates the partisan divide mentioned in the article. In particular, it reflects the Left's dismissive attitude toward conservative think tanks.

Whether or not you agree with their views and orientation, the American Enterprise Institute is a prestigious organization. I was motivated by this comment in fact to visit aei.org which I've never read before, and I was quite impressed by the kinds of scholars contributing pretty intelligent commentary to the institute:

- a Yale professor of Asian studies, commenting on the Japan-China-Korea summit happening this weekend.

- a former Defense Dept. analyst discussing the tiny military team the U.S. has sent to Syria, and proposing more realistic strategies.

- a professor of military history at West Point, critiquing the current U.S. policy on missile defense

- a GWU professor of emergency medicine and previous advisor to the CBO, commissioner on Maryland's Health Services Cost Review Commission, etc. etc., discussing Medicare's future funding problems.

- a resident fellow, previous commissioner of education for Florida, secretary of education for Virginia, president and (current) chairman of the Black Alliance for Education Options, commenting on Brown v. Board of Education 60 Years Later.

And on and on.

These are not lightweights at all. They're serious, highly influential shakers and movers and to dismiss them as "partisan hacks" or bribed to say things because of "easy availability of money" is to dismiss the roughly 50% of the country with whose views you just happen to disagree.

This, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with the intellectual climate in the university and in the greater society in the U.S. today. There is a "closing of the American mind", as Alan Bloom phrased it, a preference for assumed agreement rather than polite disagreement or debate.

Once upon a time, in the 1970s and earlier (I came of intellectual age in the 1970s so experienced perhaps the last vestiges of this era) there was a kind of open mindedness among the 60-70% of people in the middle.

There were of course the very right wing bigoted "John Birchers", Southern racists, and their ilk, as well as the fanatically left wing Marxists and traditional socialists (Bernie Sanders is perhaps an example of the latter).

But in the middle, people were willing to debate the issues and listen politely to the opposition. It appears that this willingness has disappeared, just as that generation of Depression babies and WWII soldiers have largely disappeared.

Younger generations raised during the passionate us-versus-them demonstrations of the 1960s, the "me generation" 1970s, and the self-absorbed materialism of the 1980s-90s, do not have that kind of training and orientation. Furthermore, their teachers largely have a left/liberal orientation (something like 80-90% of K-12 teachers in the U.S. are Democrats, and similarly the professors on college campuses).

I really miss the days when you could actually sit down and debate the issues with someone, over a beer. It seems that today, people are loathe to even bring up politics unless they know they're among likeminded company and then it's like an echo chamber.