I could lump the mandatory community service requirement of some school systems into this, but I don't want to be ranting all night.

In fact, the economic benefits you describe are condemned as rent-seeking by me and my kind, and are part of the populist fury directed against the bailout.

The United States is complex, yes. The notion that any one man can hope to move it in any particular direction without persuading/coercing Congress to go along is a dangerous illusion, and the current occupant is a good example of this. His greatest political mistakes have come when he's forgotten this.

the material question is, have albert gore and richard cheney changed the prerequisites of the vice-presidency? if so, what you wrote to your younger fraternity brother stands. if not?

True or false. The nomination of Joseph Biden has changed Obama into an establishment candidate.

With any luck, young man, you will soon be working for one of America's better institutions. What you will learn there is how to build and or maintain some part of this great civilization. You will be paid greatly, more than most. And you will come to appreciate exactly how complex and sophisticated are the disciplines required for all that to work. You will also, eventually recognize how important it is for ordinary people to respect your skill and accomplishment for doing that special thing you will do, which obviously required investments of time, effort and money on your behalf. Whether you are an art historian, engineer, attorney, business manager, banker, doctor – whatever. You will approach the state of the art in a field that inherits hundreds of years of evolution.

Populists don't care about that, they don't see the strength of a nation in its ability to hold the ceiling high, rather its ability to keep the floor warm. They will demonize you, your training, your intellect, your institution and the products of your labor merely to outnumber you and dismiss all that you do. They will insinuate that any and every sophisticated thing you do is worthless unless is makes Joe Blow on the floor warm and comfortable.

They will do so in defiance of logic, and even the laws of supply and demand. They will demand for Joe, even if he wants what you make. And if Joe gets too uppity, they will demonize him too. They'll say Joe's SUV is evil, they'll say Joe's job is not a good job unless it's a 'green' job. And the populist will always argue that there are more of them than you, and that the majority should always rule. It leads to mobocracy because all of the grasshoppers will live for the summer, while ants like you will work hard all year for the winter.

Since when has the United States lacked in quality education? People from all over the world come to our universities? Since when has America lacked health care? The populist wants to continually raise the minimum wage for the masses without requiring that the masses make efforts. And they always want to take it out of the pockets of those who do make the efforts.

The easiest way to make the floor warm in this big tent is to collapse the roof. You don't want to see what it's like when lions and tigers and bears, trapeze artists and tightrope walkers, acrobats and fire eaters are all in the same cramped space with the clowns. You need people to raise the roof and give all of us air to breathe. That requires, as any graduate student should know, a recognition of the extraordinary efforts of the few, of the elites, of the aristocracy of merit.

What populists seek to destroy is the delicate integrity of the interdependence of the talented with the misfortunate. They will have the masses believe that to be an elite is to be a criminal. That the elites are all, always up to no good and that they must be brought down low. Every corporation is Enron. Every politician is Nixon. Every rich man is Scrooge.

They will ignore your respect and concern for the common man. They will say that your ambition can be nothing but selfish. They will say that people like you, because you have bothered to distinguish yourself, operate out of pure hatred and disgust for people who don't. They say your dreams are dishonest because they're not everybody's dreams. They will say your work is conniving because you use insider information that everyone can't immediately understand. They will say that you are sinister and can't be trusted, and they will demand that you explain your every move.

Populism is the National Enquirer version of democracy. It's a big lie, and you know it.
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I don't object to Palin's selection. I didn't select her. I do not claim the party that did. YOU claim that. Now if you don't think the United States is a particularly complex institution that requires a certain type of intellect and skillset, then you shouldn't be upset. There is no contradiction.

And hell, there is a great deal of time between today and….the 27 or so days ago that you wrote the above note. Things could've changed….

There's no backtracking or inconsistency here. She's the Republican choice and that includes those two sorts of conservatives and others as well.

I don't see how anyone who claims to value shared responsibility, community and life can object to a grass roots politician like Palin who started at the PTA and ended up at the statehouse.