Each Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal features columns by Holman Jenkins,Jr. and Thomas Frank. That makes for a jarring juxtaposition. There on the same page are pieces by one writer who digs for facts and writes intelligibly about their implications and another who specializes in sarcasm directed at anyone who doesn’t share his beliefs. Jenkins is the first and Frank the second.
Today’s pairing caused me to send this letter to the editor:
I regularly read Thomas Frank’s columns; I also regularly read Holman Jenkins’ columns. They make a strange pair. Jenkins invariably deals in facts and arguments, whereas Frank seldom does anything but poke verbal sticks in the eyes of people he deems his intellectual inferiors — such as those who recently protested against the Obamacare monstrosity.
Jenkins always makes Frank look foolish and immature, but especially so when they’re both writing on the same subject.
Hey, Frank — here’s a suggestion. Instead of doing your usual thing of beating up on the rhetoric of people like Jon Voight or Rush Limbaugh, why not cross swords with Holman Jenkins or any of the many other serious scholars who maintain that the socialistic interventions you favor have the nation racing towards a fiscal train wreck?
George Leef
Raleigh, NC
