By Way of Introduction

by Michael Negron & James Weingarten

We are all pragmatists now. That is, the consequences of law and policy for people’s lives are simply too vital to be subjugated to ideology. This review begins from the premise that we live in an era in which many of our leaders govern by ideology, not reason. For our generation, it often appears that the battles of the 1960s and 70s are reborn in other guises in high-profile struggles over culture, foreign policy, and judicial philosophy. The end results are budgets inattentive to arithmetic, environmental policies blind to established science, and education reforms adrift from classroom needs. The invasion and occupation of Iraq is the most tragic example of this approach—the belief that fervor and power alone can resolve intractable problems. The fault does not lie solely with the Bush Administration; the left and right alike have minted polemic as the chief currency of our discourse.

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