Dear John,

Do you have an ideology?

The nightmare of American politics is that we're all trapped on an island with people who consistently imagine how much better the world would be if they were in charge. 

The fantasizers can be heard on talk radio, read on editorial pages, and seen on Facebook and Twitter. 

Worse, their schemes won’t work or they’ll come with awful side effects. 

This fevered fantasizing infects everyone who has a preferred policy, political program, or ideology. But it doesn’t infect everyone. How can you tell if you’re infected?