Stanley Fish in The New York Times prints Dinesh D’Souza’s responses to reader criticisms of the film 2016: Obama’s America. (My review here.)
It is an excellent read, as D’Souza eviscerates the criticisms in a very methodical and polite way.
But what I loved the most was the post-script after Fish explained how he had come under criticism for being friendly with D’Souza (italics in original, bold by me):
S.F.: Finally a question more for me than you. I was chastised repeatedly for having you as a friend, for breaking bread with you (as I am about to do again), and for giving your “crackpot” arguments the time of day. One reader hoped that my criticism of the movie (which he thought too mild) might end a friendship that brought discredit to me. The idea is that you should choose your friends or spouses or partner by applying a political litmus test. Have the right (in this case, left) views and you can be my friend. It doesn’t work that way in the world — witness Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch, Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston, James Carville and Mary Matalin, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia — and, if I can borrow from one of my own titles, it’s a good thing, too. Let’s eat.(Postscript: Our entry into the restaurant, in the heart of Greenwich Village, was delayed when people on the street recognized D’Souza and asked if he would pose for a picture with them.)
There’s something to that film which has touched a nerve, and not in a way liberals think.
When Dinesh D’Souza is stopped by passersby for a photograph in Greenwich Village, the skies are not as clear as they seem for Obama.
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