The American Spectator

Old Texican| 6.11.09 @ 2:14PM

I linked to the article you posted.

That nit picky article won't change one mind!

Why not try to write something that might help us change minds?

JP| 6.11.09 @ 2:23PM

One could also ask in a poll, at which level should one's "social ideas or pointds of view" be implemented at? I seriously doubt most social conservatives want the Federal Government involved in the marriage debate. Just the same, 30 years ago no one imagined the level at which the Federal Government is involved in education.

MattSwartz| 6.11.09 @ 3:25PM

Texican,

Why should the objective always be to "change people's minds"?

Writing should be about what it's about, not about somebody's else's hypothetical reaction to it. If you can talk someone into something with a neat, persuasive article, then the next guy can talk him out of it with another persuasive article.

JvA3 and Larison both ask questions and make a big deal out of doing justice to the questions they pose. Things like that have a longer, if less superficially persuasive, impact.

Conservativism should be about building brick houses for good ideas to live in. Some of the stuff that gets offered up in the name of "persuasion" is more like a slipshod, off-code McMansion, and that isn't cool.

MattSwartz| 6.11.09 @ 3:26PM

PS: I'm definitely against stuff rather than for it.

Old Texican| 6.11.09 @ 3:32PM

Hi Matt
You better make up your mind...or the gubmint will change it for you...

Please quit being sooooo mature.
I want a hundred million "changed minds" showing up in DC on July 4th for a "peaceful assembly"...to change the communists minds about us being sheep...and so mature dumbbunnies.