We liberals like to flatter ourselves by proclaiming our allegiance to fact. In the immortal words of Stephen Colbert, for us, mere "truthiness" will not suffice. We demand evidence, research, science -- Truth itself. But on so many of the social issues liberals care about, concrete fact is a rare commodity. Take education policy, a beat I've been covering for over two years. We know our schools aren't good enough: There is a dropout crisis among blacks and Latinos, colleges are forced to reteach algebra and basic essay writing, and classrooms are becoming more racially and socioecomically segregated. But beyond these observable trends, we can't agree on much. Liberals are in complete disagreement about how to fix American education, whether the topic is a national curriculum, standardized testing, or how to pay teachers. That's what has made this topic so maddening -- and fascinating -- to cover. Consider charter schools, for example. The White House and Education Secretary Arne...

Conor Friedersdorf is working on an interesting project, " The GOP Speaks ." He e-mailed questionnaires about the future of the Republican Party to county party chairs across the country. So far he's received 20 responses, and while a few are thoughtful and sane , a large portion claim Barack Obama is trampling upon the U.S. Constitution and laud Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh as sages. I'm especially fascinated by this movement toward Constitutional originalism -- not just as a judicial ideology but as a rhetorical tool to claim that almost any social spending, from health care to the creation of green jobs, is un-American. A few choice responses to Conor's survey, which asks, "What is the most worrisome part of Barack Obama's presidency?" (These are the original responses, typos and all.) Anonymous county chairperson : "The concern is Mr. Obama doesn't seem to have one check or balance put up against him. I realize that the congress and the senate are controlled by the Dem.s, but come...