5 Laws of the Crazy Tree

Jesse Walker takes on the perception, recently articulated by Rick Perlstein in the Washington Post, that "the crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy, and...elites exploit the crazy for their own narrow interests."

Walker makes a couple of salient points, notably that Perlstein confuses the actual kooks with protesters of the tea-bagging ilk, and that the roots of the crazy tree grow only on the right. Neither is true, and Walker makes a convincing case in rebuttal.

So what does Walker believe are the core components of the crazy tree?

1. It's always blooming somewhere.
2. Lots of people try to exploit it.
3. It has a life of its own.
4. It isn't completely crazy.
5. It blooms in the center, too.

I agree with Walker - I'd much rather pick my own way through the information as opposed to having centrists maintain their ability to dismiss positions other than their own as coming from fanatical extremists and thereby insinuating that there's no value to considering alternate views.

Iamge by a natural thing via flickr