Everybody is a rational actor who does the good thing as their perceive it to be, even racists and Nazis.
That's what the National Review, I guess, is trying to say. The only problem is that they don't extend this kind of understanding to everyone. For example, I'm sure many National Review readers believe Palestinians fight the Israelis out of inherit evil and hatred, and not because they feel oppressed by a foreign government stealing their land. Or that gays are interested in pursuing destruction of other families, as opposed to pursuing families of their own.
Rational actors is a truth that politicos only believe when it's convenient for them.
The millions of Germans who went along with Hitler's agenda without complaint weren't rational actors. Being rational requires some sort of critical thought process and those people did not use one. They did what they were told, they got a kind of high from being part of all the rallies and the banners and the pageantry of the Nazi state. It made them feel special and made them feel like their country was powerful and important after several years in which it had lost both of those things. If you asked an average Johann on the street to explain Nazi racial theory or the tenets of national socialism to you, he wouldn't be able to. It's not unlike the way most Tea Partiers have probably never read Ayn Rand or any of the Austrian economists; they just tell you they stand for "faith, family and freedom" or some combination. If you had asked an Obama delegate at the DNC last year to explain why they support him, they would have just given you some filler about how he's an "inspirational figure" who is "transforming America." Maybe the nifty logo got them on board.
