Swinging the Axe Into the National Psyche

“This resorting to a knee-jerk superiority of sensibilities is itself a display of neurotic insecurity,” writes Elizabeth Scalia of the press and the center-left punditry, in today’s “On the Square” article, Rhetorical Axes and Park51 .

[B]ut more importantly, it is the destructive and reckless swinging of an axe into the psyche of a fevered nation which desperately needs the attendance of a delicate physician, and a bit of rest, or her breakdown will become unsurvivable.

What has been said by national leaders, including the president, and what should have been said are very different, she argues. There was a way to address the people upset by the building of the mosque, but no one took it, and the results may be dangerous.