I wanted to add some thoughts to your insightful post, Jen, regarding Michael Steele. The argument that Republicans and conservatives should not aim their criticisms at the head of the RNC (or, for that matter, any other Republican) because it will divide the GOP and help Democrats is quite wrong.

Steele’s claim that “this was a war of Obama’s choosing” that the United States never really “wanted to engage in” is indefensible and contradicted by history. Republicans and conservatives are therefore right to criticize Steele.

This incident, though, touches on a deeper matter. The “don’t-criticize-Michael-Steele” argument rests on a form of intellectual dishonesty. It concedes that what Steele said may be wrong but implies that because he’s on “our” team, he ought not be subject to criticism. All our fire ought to be directed toward Democrats and liberals, who are doing great damage to our country — or so the argument goes.

In fact, intellectual honesty compels us to criticize bad arguments regardless of which political party or which individual makes them. Politics is — or at least should be — about debating issues to discern truth and understand, as best we can, the reality of things. It is not — or at least it should not be — primarily about taking and keeping power. Power for its own sake — power detached from truth and empirical evidence — leads us down a very dangerous path.

Most of us who are active in politics have a tendency to overlook the flaws of our allies and accentuate the flaws of our opponents. That is a common human tendency, and, in some instances, it becomes entangled with the issue of loyalty. In addition, very few of us are completely detached in our analysis or are free of biases and prejudices. (That is not all bad. Burke argued that reason itself is not enough. Prejudices are “the general bank and capital of nations, and of ages” and that they help create a framework to interpret events.)

At the same time, one problem with political discourse in our age is that in the heat of debate, we too easily suspend a disinterested search for the truth and advance a more narrow, partisan aim. That leads to hypocrisy and double standards.

Very few of us are completely free of such things. We view the world through a tinted lens. But we ought to at least aspire to intellectual integrity and uphold as models those who embody it.