This post is in answer to these comments to my November Prize post on Tuesday:

Fred, you didn’t say what word you are defining there – could be another definition of pluralism. But the fact is that Bush and the people who voted for him don’t stand for pluralism. They stand for people who think like they do; there’s no encouragement in their hearts and minds of any divergent ideas at all. And what’s worse, they think that dissenting viewpoints are inherently immoral. They think – and this is really stupid and offensive – that Liberalism is immoral. The populist ethic of social welfare has been made immoral by men and women who command and aspire to no greater rhetoric that to sneer when they say Liberal. Bush is king of this: calling Kerry the most liberal senator from the most liberal state, as though it were an insult. Shame.

And what I’m saying is that by getting us to give up our pluralism – our willingness to let everyone believe as s/he wishes – the extremists like bin Laden get exactly what they want. It’s not our belief in something better that separates us from them; it’s our unconditional belief in each other.