Don’t get me wrong, I like him just fine. But he fought fire with fire—angry one-sided rhetoric with angry one-sided rhetoric. His appropriation of Edward R. Murrow‘s signature sign-off “Good night, and Good Luck” was beyond pretentious.

Sure, I shared his fire from time to time…but there’s a reason I’m liberal. Not ’cause I want to “win,” or conveniently rearrange and marshall facts to match my pov against their’s. It’s because I think, on balance, that liberals are more compassionate. Less about winning and more, ironically, about getting it right.

We’re the true patriots—not because we’re more macho (we aren’t) or demonstrative or effective at PR—but because we want to strengthen the American economy, not just that of the richest citizens (and, of course, the richest among us wouldn’t have to live in such fear beyond such high gates if the middle class we’re larger, and deeper, and stronger—there’d be less crime and resentment).

I don’t love MSNBC. I think it’s the same thing as Fox—only less effective.

My kind of liberal commentator is Bill Moyers, who’s fair and gentle. Or Jon Stewart, who’s fair, caring and cuttingly funny. Let’s leave macho and bombast to the demagogues like O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Beck and Palin. Let’s play on our home court, where compassion, gentleness and objectivity are more important.

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