If your mind is still reeling from Kristol's ability to draw the lesson of "Shut up and trust the government" out of an Orwell essay, you'll quickly recognize this as a much smaller defect in Kristol's editorial. But it's worth noting that when Orwell criticized a "permanent and pensioned opposition, as in England", he was referencing a parliamentary minority. In a parliamentary system, the Prime Minister is the leader of the ruling party. If that party has a majority of the seats in Parliament - a "majority government" - it can run roughshod over the minority party (or parties). We had something similar happen during the first six years of GW's Presidency. To conflate a parliamentary majority with control only of the executive, as Kristol did, reflects ignorance - be it actual or willful.
Why bother reading Orwell if you don't have sufficient knowledge or intellectual curiosity to figure out what he's talking about?
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