As for sacred cows, I went through a collection of Chekhov's letters a few weeks ago. He was one of the kindest men who ever lived, but merciless on writers. Here is his take on a fashionable writer of his time:
"If you are looking for insincerity, you will find tons of it in her letter [Sazonova]… “The aim of life is life itself.” Or: “I believe in life, in its bright moments, for the sake of which one can, indeed one must live; I believe in man, in that part of his soul which is good…” Can all this be sincere, and does it mean anything? This isn’t an outlook, it’s caramels."
West's speech was not a political outlook; it was caramels, which are not good for political clarity because political clarity is the opposite of cloying self satisfaction.
Joanna