One of the things I’ll have less time to do when I’m working is watch Bloggingheads.tv. That’s too bad –I’ve learned a lot by watching these things, but I probably won’t have the hours to spare and/or I’ll use my time differently when I have less of it.
In any case, I hope you’ll watch a few minutes of a recent debate here. I’ve watched several Bloggingheads with these guys, they’re completely fascinating.
Glenn Loury — As a brilliant young economist in the late 70’s and 80’s he was adored by conservatives for his contrarian opinions on affirmative action and entrepreneurial (not governmental) solutions to endemic poverty among inner city blacks. He enjoyed being a “thorn in the side of the civil rights establishment”, and did pretty well as a “token” black conservative, but after going through several startling personal crises he came out the other side more liberal, more friendly to Jesse Jackson, and far less likely to blame blacks for their predicament. The full NYT bio on him is here, and it’s one of the most interesting things I read all year.
John McWhorter — John writes for the NY Sun and has think-tank spot at the Manhattan Institute, and now and then gets tagged as a token conservative black, a label he’s pretty good at fighting off. He’s definitely more conservative than Glenn is these days, though, and dialog between the two of them is sometimes like Glenn arguing with himself from 25 years ago. I don’t know as much about John’s history, but their conversations have been enlightening.
In this clip they’re discussing their Democratic nominee choices. Glenn likes Hillary, John’s a fan of Obama — for some of the same reasons I like him, as it happens. Obama to me represents something “new”, a fresh start to our politics, a chance to rethink the way we see each other and the rest of the world. I understand why people have concerns about his experience, but I don’t worry about that myself; I’d much rather have someone in the office whose judgement, personality, charisma and political instincts are more to my liking than a experienced, mainstream centrist like Hillary Clinton.
In part 2 of the diavlog, to be posted next week, they’ll talk about Bill Cosby’s Come On People, a book that I’m guessing made Glenn pretty mad.
PS: I really wish I could embed the bloggingheads player in my blog, but I can’t figure out how to do that yet.
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