Will plagiarizes himself

Remember aristocrat George Will on last week's edition of This Week? Read his latest column, derived from said appearance? Conclude, as I did, that he simply ignored Katrina vanden Heuvel's clever deflection of his cheap attacks on liberalism, as if it never happened, and proceeded to repeat himself? In case you didn't, and sorry, I don't have a link, he attributed the "fact" that conservatives are more "happy" than liberals largely to self-reliance, to, for instance, paying no attention to that Big Bad Global Warming in the quest for self-gratification. Here's the response I submitted to my local paper:

I could write an anti-conservative screed based on caricatures, clichés, stereotypes, half-truths, misconceptions, and condescending parody.

Instead, I'll cite the proud and anything-but-angry Garrison Keillor, from his satirical song, "We're All Republicans Now": "I've got mine; now you go get your own." Or, as I'm fond of saying, I'm fine; what's your problem?

See? Liberals can play encapsulate the other side in one simplistic slogan as well as George Will can define us in pithy sound bites. And if the components of conservative philosophy yield greater "happiness" than liberal concern for family, friends, neighbors, utter strangers, the community, foreigners, and the environment - if greed or self-absorption enables contentment while compassion impedes it - so be it.

Mr Will has spent his career afflicting the afflicted while comforting the comfortable. To those singularly focused on a shortcut to happiness, he might as well have written: Be born lucky. Stay that way. And never mind your negative impact on the rest of the world.

For a brilliant scribe, Mr. Will certainly is obtuse about liberalism. The only question is whether his cluelessness is a defense mechanism against his long-submerged charitable instinct.