Get in the game

The Boston Globe suggests—despite the cautionary tale—that more academics should do as Michael Ignatieff did.

Ignatieff deserves a measure of praise for doing something few commentators on public affairs ever do: subject his ideas to scrutiny in legislative chambers and at the ballot box ... despite Ignatieff’s defeat, more public intellectuals should do what he did. Just as the political debate would benefit from more thinkers, writers would benefit from having to solicit support for their own ideas and put them into practice.