Some of the new mood may reflect a certain Puritanism—there's always a little of that in the American character. And some of it is mere PR. But not all of it is strategic. Economic collapse concentrates the mind. Some of it is maybe "agenbite of inwit," the Middle English phrase meaning remorse of conscience. The new mood seems to involve a new modesty, and something a little more humane. I am not including our newly famous Blago. Rarely has there been such a case in which the sin is perfectly represented by the physical presence of the sinner. I had never seen him until the news this week, and there he was, a lipless, dull-featured, wig-wearing moron with a foul-mouthed harridan of a wife. (Oh, maybe it's not a wig, but I think Chicago should know everyone in New York thinks it is.) The minute I saw him I thought, That's exactly what a guy like that would look like! And then I thought: Oh, God bless him, because it's kind of a gift when things look as they are. Not all is shade and shadow, some things are hearteningly obvious.
He really was abusive. He really was selfish. He really gives you something to react against, a sense of "That's what not to be." Rectitude chic, coming to a statehouse near you. Another part of the big reaction.