Sambal

Here’s an analogy that came up this morning.

Liberals (Democrats) are like new CS grads.  They are excited about writing new code (laws) and disdainful of the negative predictions others make based on their hard-earned experience (believe in the perfectibility of people/software).

Conservatives are like grim old maintenance programmers.  They have seen fads and standards come and go, and know that attempting to fix one thing might break something else and make the whole system worse.  Unfortunately this sometimes leads them to defend the indefensible (States’ rights objections to the Civil Rights Act).  They’re often infatuated with process at the expense of outcome (strict constructionism).

Both views offer valuable insights and visible pitfalls.  But where is the party of refactoring?