Identifying opposing thought leaders: Announcing The 2009 Oppy Awards
11 September
I am suffering a bit of health care fatigue, so I am going to take a fun detour on a Friday afternoon. I hope you will join me.
I would like to announce the creation of, and solicit nominations for, The 2009 Oppy Awards.
I pose an open question:
What thought leader most clearly and effectively presents points of view with which you frequently strongly disagree?
Please nominate candidates, either in the comments or by emailing me using this form. Nominations close Wednesday, September 16th, at 8 PM EDT. I will follow up with a poll and announce the winners Monday, September 21st. If I get an overwhelming number of nominees, I will use an arbitrary and currently undefined method to winnow down the list for the poll.
I will separate the nominees I receive into four categories:
- Left-of-center government officials
- Left-of-center non-governmental thought leaders
- Right-of-center government officials
- Right-of-center non-governmental thought leaders
My initial intent is to announce a winner in each category. If participation is high I may expand the categories.
Since on average my readers lean right, I anticipate many nominations for the two left-of-center categories. I invite left-of-center sites and bloggers to ask their readers to submit right-of-center nominees. That way we can get a good combined read from the whole spectrum. Come on, Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Slate. Step up.
I invite bloggers to post (and submit) nominees and make their case for why they deserve to win an Oppy.
Guidelines
- The people you nominate should be those whom you find the most intellectually challenging. Implicit in this is a certain grudging respect for your intellectual counterparts/opponents/adversaries. A good nominee is one who often frustrates you, yet whose arguments demand your respect.
- If you’re a conservative and you’re nominating a bunch of conservative Democrats, you’re doing it wrong. You should be nominating liberals who drive you crazy but make good arguments.
- If you think of yourself as a centrist, you can probably find someone on either (or both) extreme who drives you nuts but makes thoughtful and challenging arguments.
- Government officials can be elected or appointed, and from any level of government.
- Non-governmental thought leaders is everyone else, including but not limited to columnists, authors, bloggers, pundits, public intellectuals and other public figures.
- I hope to get nominees from the Courts, business, entertainment, sports, and academia. Nominees from outside the U.S. are welcome.
- Intellectual honesty and integrity deserve bonus points.
- Let’s stick to people who are now living.
It is easy to imagine the comment thread devolving into childish attacks or nominations from one’s own side of the policy debate. I will delete any such comments. I know it’s hard, but you have to praise your opponents in this exercise. If you want to attack someone else’s nominee, please take it elsewhere.
Since I am right-of-center, I will begin the process by nominating a few thought leaders who are left-of-center. I frequently disagree with the policies they advocate, but I follow them closely. They have attacked views that I hold and policies I have helped design, enact, and implement, attacked my former bosses, and otherwise infuriated me. At the same time, they are generally smart, well-reasoned, and intellectually honest. I always take their arguments seriously, if only to better respond to them. I am nominating them because I both strongly disagree with them and respect them as thought leaders whose views differ substantially from my own.
I nominate these left-of-center government officials for a 2009 Oppy Award:
- Rep. Barney Frank
- Rep. John Dingell
I nominate these left-of-center non-governmental thought leaders a 2009 Oppy Award:
- David Broder
- Mickey Kaus
- Mara Liasson
- Sebastian Mallaby
- Camille Paglia
Please help me elevate the policy debate by identifying opposing thought leaders. Please nominate candidates in the comments or by emailing me using this form. Nominations close Wednesday, September 16th, at 8 PM EDT.
(photo credit: @nick)
Related Posts
(best matches are listed first)
Fred Kaplan and Tim Noah (both of Slate) are often thought provoking from a left-of-center viewpoint. David Sirota is also a progressive's progressive.
Left Commentator: Yglesias, Chait
Right Commentator: Krauthammer, McArdle
Left Political: Larry Summers,
Right Political: Pawlenty
What a great post. I've always thought about asking my circle of internet friends (read facebook) on the right to tell me one good thing the Obama has done. If they can't come up with one single thing, then they're clearly not being objective. This seems to be in the same spirit.
Left NG – Glenn Greenwald
Left G –
Righ NG – Peggy Noonan
Right G – Ron Paul
I'm sure I could think about it a bit more and some up with a few others (including a Left G). But I wanted to at least get something on the board before time ran out.
It’s very hard to argue that Krugman isn’t persuasive. He’s an Ivy League Michael Moore.@ian Duncan -
Camille Paglia.
Left-of-center-thought-leader: Daniel Schorr
1. Peter Orszag
2. Bill Gale
Left-wing leaders who I have contempt for: Barney Frank–just a wise-guy; not as smart as people think; as Sonny Bono said about him, he's like Shecky Greene. Harry Reid–has taken the Senate to a new low.
Right-wing pundits who have written too much and have nothing left to say: Peggy Noonan—I'm not sure she now knows what she believes or used to believe. Pat Buchanan–has really flipped out—must be a latent virus he got when working for Nixon and has now emerged
Left Gov't – Barack Obama
Left Non-gov't – Warren Buffett
Right Gov't – No one
Right Non-gov't – Bruce Bartlett
I'm a moderate who just found your blog as I search for cogent economic arguments from the Right. A commenter at Bruce Bartlett's new blog, Capital Gains and Games, recommended you.
I'm like you. I'm left of center and was searching out health care arguments from the right and found this website. Keith's blog is definitely a good place.
I was going to put Obama as my left government, but thought that might come across as too 'in the tank' for him. I'm glad you did because I do disagree with him on several things, but he makes some really good arguments.