Quote of the day

(I mention this only because I had a conversation yesterday with someone about "the tyranny of neighborhood parochialism. She countered that elected officials need to show leadership, that elected officials also need to not be so Ward-enthralled, and look out and consider city-wider concerns.)

In a profound and disturbing way though our worship of The People has grown so rigid that we are in danger of losing touch with our own history. It is one thing to pay ordinary people the respect due them as human beings, quite another to pretend that everything they believe is beyond questioning. We used to understand this, but no longer seem to.

-- GMU professor Rick Shenkman, author of Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter, in the History News Network feature, "We're All Populists Now. That's Unfortunate."