Churchill’s Antidote to Political Rage: New at Reason

What lessons might Winston Churchill have for today’s political climate in America?

A. Barton Hinkle writes:

“I’ve never in my adult life,” observes David French, a writer for National Review, “seen so many people so angry about things they cannot control.” The current hour is one of “defining people by their mistakes,” he says, and “hating our ideological enemies.”

This is not new information. Many others across the ideological spectrum have uttered the same lament. But the laments have not diminished the volume of rage.

To some degree the rage is understandable. People have plenty to be angry about. But much of the animosity seems out of all proportion. It is one thing to despise and vilify a foreign tyrant who tortures innocent children. It is something else again to despise and vilify someone who didn’t vote for the same political candidate you did. You have to take politics extremely seriously for that.

But as serious as politics might seem today, it cannot be more serious than it was in Britain in 1940—when the wrong political choices could threaten the nation’s very existence.

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