The Fear of Reason

This is from the New Republic and I will start with the quote from Leon Wieseltier.

"The problem with reason, he explained, was that it claimed to settle matters once and for all, and that this was arrogant, and that it left him with nothing more to say.  Rationalism made him feel excluded and late.  I replied, that he had it backward.  It is not reason, but unreason, that shuts things down.  You cannot argue against an emotion, but you can argue against an argument.  That is why we were still contending with Maimonides, and why he is still contending with Aristotle.  A reasoned discussion is always open and a reasoned intervention is always timely.  Unreason is more arrogant, more impatient, more cruel than reason.  Since reason is general, it is inclusive."

This is the problem with politics today.  Sound bites almost inevitably appeal to emotion.  They do not explain or advance the case for an argument.  The solutions for our problems require voters to understand the differences in the details for how each party plans to provide for an affordable safety net.  Sadly, neither party will elucidate the voters with rational details and we are left with the scrum in Congress which serves no respect for either party.