SHATTERING KRISTOL
I'm a great fan of Billy Crystal, the actor, the humorist, the director. He manages to plumb the depths of human compassion in whatever he does. Not so, William Krystol, the neo-con and conservative commentator. I have been at odds with Krystol my entire adult life. I'm pretty sure that I have seldom been at odds with Billy, the better, Crystal. William Krystol has announced that he is now a Democrat. I welcome him, cautiously. That is what Democrats do. We have a broad coalition which prevents us from getting the things many of us want, but tries to offer hope to those who have been made to fear FDR-style Democratic Socialism. What these people fear puzzles some of us but we continue to play the long game. Usually it works. In short, we have an active if not populous reform wing. Republicans no longer have that small group of loud reformers. They have been taken over by a reform-school wing of right-wing reactionaries that offended even John McCain. We can thank such luminari...