There is no one harder to argue with than someone who (mostly) agrees with us.

Or so I claim, here.

If “our” side insists on fighting with itself, it’s no wonder we aren’t winning.  And just telling folks “let go!  just let go!” is absurd.

People are scared. Voters are looking for a new alternative, but whenever we offer them the libertarian alternative they invoke, whether they know it or not, the first rule of wing-walking. They are reluctant to let go of the “solutions” they are used to, of detaching themselves from the hoary terms of debate in which they are used to thinking. When we say that those solutions don’t work, that doesn’t offer an alternative that they can imagine, even if we are right. No one is going to let go of the familiar policy debates without something solid to grab onto instead.

In times when people are afraid of terrorism, of losing their jobs, and of the kind of life their children will inherit, we need to offer an actual alternative. We’ve been telling people, “Just let go! You won’t fall!” That isn’t working very well.