Richard Rodriguez Speaks Truth to Power

"Because we can't face the complicated great world, we entertain ourselves with a political parlor game called 'conservatives versus progressives,'" he writes — Corporate Big Guys Winners in War of Words. "In fact," he writes, "it is corporate America that is profiting mightily from the uncivil war Americans are waging against each other," later suggesting that "the fierce entertainment of our national life - conservatives versus liberals - will continue until the corporate big guys call a halt in the game."

He rightly has nothing but contempt for both sides: "If the Right is inclined to hero worship in comic-book America, the Left plays Sad Sack, entangled in a politics and upholding ideas that were worn out a generation ago."