A blog post today by Andrew Sullivan on his “Daily Dish”  is a perfect example of why, while I don’t share his conservative politics,  I have so much respect for the rigor and honesty with which he grapples with ideas.  Andrew doesn’t issue pronouncements. He shares   an ongoing, flexible,  and painfully honest internal debate about what he thinks is right. 

Most of all, he does this with profound humility and attention to the moral and ethical implications of his thinking.  He actually asks whether public policies are civil, are ethical,  are compassionate.

Quaint, huh?

It feels strange to express my admiration for someone with whom I so frequently disagree. I suppose I am more and more frustrated with the incivility of those bloviators who seem so willfully apathetic about the human and emotional dimensions of public policy. Andrew rarely loses track of those things.

There, I said it.