Caplan continues

Or actually Horwitz

"The next time you're engaged in a political discussion with someone who has very strong views different from your own, ask them if they can name two famous thinkers or politicians whose politics are opposed to theirs who they also think are very smart and genuinely concerned with making the world a better place. If they can't, it's not clear they are able to grant the good faith such discussions should have."

- Reagan would be one. I don't agree with most of his politics, but I'd probably park him in the top 10 US Presidencies anyway. FDR would be another (though I wouldn't park him in the top 10 Presidencies, somewhere in the middle of the pack)

- Bertrand Russell isn't opposed (he's very liberal in the same cut on most things as me). But he's a lot more socialistic than I am.

- Krugman is occasionally clever. When he's not being dismissive.

- Rothbard/Rand do pose some interesting questions. Even I find objectivists occasionally far too reactionary.

- I don't think drug warriors and others are actually unconcerned with that problem. They're just wrong about the solution. Actually this is pretty common, people using corner solutions to solve particular problems and disregarding effects and effectiveness. Abortion has the same. Education, immigration, etc.

- John Rawls. JK Galbraith. Keynes. Marginal to major disagreements here and there, but lots of interesting insights.