Alas, They’re Not Sociologists

The boss around here, R.R. Reno, has a very smart article On the Square this morning: ” Does the Tea Party Have a Religion Problem ?”  His criticism of Professors Campbell and Putnam, authors of a recent New York Times op-ed on the Tea Party , is spot on.  Except for one thing: I’m sorry to say that Campbell and Putnam are not sociologists, as Reno says more than once.  They are both political scientists, members of the discipline to which I have belonged for three decades and more.  Readers may find little to distinguish between the two academic disciplines, but to folks in academe these differences matter a good deal.

Campbell and Putnam’s observations are as tendentious as our esteemed editor says.  I only wish I could say they were sociologists . . .