...If you want to believe in intellectual freedom and the progress of knowledge and the advancement of science and all those other good things, then you must swallow hard and accept this: for as thickheaded and wayward an animal as us, the realistic question is how to make the best of prejudice, not how to eradicate it....

American author and journalist. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Rauch earned a B.A. at Yale University before commencing his journalism career at the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina. Now a contributing editor for the National Journal in Washington, D.C., Rauch writes about the contemporary American political scene. His essays have appeared in the New Republic, the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. His books include The Outnation: A Search for the Soul of Japan (1992), Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (1993), Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working (1994, 2000), and most recently Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America (2004). An outspoken gay activist, Rauch is a vice president of the Independent Gay Forum. See also jonathanrauch.com.