Weigel

We Get Letters

Reader Paul writes in:

I have read slate offhand for a good two years and have known it was always leaned liberal. But your recent article on the budget agreement reached between congress is so draped in a cloak of cynicism I’m surprised you let it leave your desk. It shocks me that slate seems incapable of praising a moderate progression in simple function of our government, but would instead like to point out how Ryan broke his earlier promise on increased revenue and how the debt ceiling remains fixed for now (another press conference! Haha). I know you are surrounded by liberal talking heads everyday at slate, but please contemplate giving praise and highlighting what this country desperately needs, compromise.

I consider myself a real American in regards to politics, a disenfranchised and disillusioned moderate. We want compromise, and journalist like yourself need to realize the tone of the American people has a whole. Again, I know the people you work with must be a wall of NY LA liberal, but be aware of this and don’t let it distort your abilities as a journalist to see something positive come out of Washington in a long time.

D.C. liberal, but regardless: I take the point. Yesterday’s budget agreement was, indeed, the sort of kludge that Congress should have been passing since 2009. It was a welcome respite from the Age of December Crises, though until the House votes, we don’t know how much of a respite. It’s fair to focus on the positive: Congress punting is generally less harmful than Congress falling all over a ball and causing massive injuries, which had become the norm.