Celebrating Our Reality-Based Community
The prudent progressive would not at this point be doing wild war dances over the election results, poking fingers in eyes, or otherwise gloating at the seeming setbacks suffered by that other (being tactful, further distinguishing us) "misguided" party. That is simply good sportsmanship, though, yes, they have seemingly bedded down with folks who chortle at the Marquess of Queensberry or really any sort of discipline on their instinctive selfishness and narcissism and find their errant gunshot wounds to the head of their chums amusing, And, yes, I agree, there is ever so much more brutal in-humanness and absolute criminality that any even vaguely-impartial accounting would hold them responsible for.
Still and all, who could blame us for a little quiet smugness (with the blinds closed, of course). Buttressed, for sure, with some serious angst over the possibility that we will spend the next year watching from the sidelines while yet more fruitless efforts at bipartisanship and congeniality fritter away far more of a mandate than W ever had.
But for the moment please allow me to invoke a spirit that I believe binds many of us: implausible as that Prodigal Son story can seem (to me, anyway), it does resonate. We should be prepared to welcome the prodigals back into the human fold.
Mr. K, he of the Nobel, was my original source for this. And clearly he has a horse in the race, being applauded in the article for being right about all this stuff all along. This is a major "conservative" voice actually upchucking the kool-aid and speaking plain.
This is an extensive confessional by Bruce Bartlett, long-time conservative former actotum who has increasingly come to regret what his former party has engaged in. Based on this article, Krugman dubs him a Mensch, and perhaps rightly so. I am excerpting here, but you owe it to yourself to read the whole thing, which appeared under the intriguing title Revenge of the Reality-Based Community, invoking the infamous quote reported by Ron Suskind:
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On the plus side, I think I had a very clear understanding of the economic crisis from day one. I even wrote another op-ed for the New York Times in December 2008 advocating a Keynesian cure that holds up very well in light of history. Annoyingly, however, I found myself joined at the hip to Paul Krugman, whose analysis was identical to my own. I had previously viewed Krugman as an intellectual enemy and attacked him rather colorfully in an old column that he still remembers.
For the record, no one has been more correct in his analysis and prescriptions for the economy’s problems than Paul Krugman. The blind hatred for him on the right simply pushed me further away from my old allies and comrades.
The final line for me to cross in complete alienation from the right was my recognition that Obama is not a leftist. In fact, he’s barely a liberal—and only because the political spectrum has moved so far to the right that moderate Republicans from the past are now considered hardcore leftists by right-wing standards today. Viewed in historical context, I see Obama as actually being on the center-right.
At this point, I lost every last friend I had on the right. Some have been known to pass me in silence at the supermarket or even to cross the street when they see me coming. People who were as close to me as brothers and sisters have disowned me.
I think they believe they are just disciplining me, hoping I will admit error and ask for forgiveness. They clearly don’t know me very well. My attitude is that anyone who puts politics above friendship is not someone I care to have in my life.
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The economy continues to conform to textbook Keynesianism. We still need more aggregate demand, and the Republican idea that tax cuts for the rich will save us becomes more ridiculous by the day. People will long remember Mitt Romney’s politically tone-deaf attack on half the nation’s population for being losers, leeches, and moochers because he accurately articulated the right-wing worldview.
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Still and all, who could blame us for a little quiet smugness (with the blinds closed, of course). Buttressed, for sure, with some serious angst over the possibility that we will spend the next year watching from the sidelines while yet more fruitless efforts at bipartisanship and congeniality fritter away far more of a mandate than W ever had.
But for the moment please allow me to invoke a spirit that I believe binds many of us: implausible as that Prodigal Son story can seem (to me, anyway), it does resonate. We should be prepared to welcome the prodigals back into the human fold.
Mr. K, he of the Nobel, was my original source for this. And clearly he has a horse in the race, being applauded in the article for being right about all this stuff all along. This is a major "conservative" voice actually upchucking the kool-aid and speaking plain.
This is an extensive confessional by Bruce Bartlett, long-time conservative former actotum who has increasingly come to regret what his former party has engaged in. Based on this article, Krugman dubs him a Mensch, and perhaps rightly so. I am excerpting here, but you owe it to yourself to read the whole thing, which appeared under the intriguing title Revenge of the Reality-Based Community, invoking the infamous quote reported by Ron Suskind:
-clip-
On the plus side, I think I had a very clear understanding of the economic crisis from day one. I even wrote another op-ed for the New York Times in December 2008 advocating a Keynesian cure that holds up very well in light of history. Annoyingly, however, I found myself joined at the hip to Paul Krugman, whose analysis was identical to my own. I had previously viewed Krugman as an intellectual enemy and attacked him rather colorfully in an old column that he still remembers.
For the record, no one has been more correct in his analysis and prescriptions for the economy’s problems than Paul Krugman. The blind hatred for him on the right simply pushed me further away from my old allies and comrades.
The final line for me to cross in complete alienation from the right was my recognition that Obama is not a leftist. In fact, he’s barely a liberal—and only because the political spectrum has moved so far to the right that moderate Republicans from the past are now considered hardcore leftists by right-wing standards today. Viewed in historical context, I see Obama as actually being on the center-right.
At this point, I lost every last friend I had on the right. Some have been known to pass me in silence at the supermarket or even to cross the street when they see me coming. People who were as close to me as brothers and sisters have disowned me.
I think they believe they are just disciplining me, hoping I will admit error and ask for forgiveness. They clearly don’t know me very well. My attitude is that anyone who puts politics above friendship is not someone I care to have in my life.
-clip-
The economy continues to conform to textbook Keynesianism. We still need more aggregate demand, and the Republican idea that tax cuts for the rich will save us becomes more ridiculous by the day. People will long remember Mitt Romney’s politically tone-deaf attack on half the nation’s population for being losers, leeches, and moochers because he accurately articulated the right-wing worldview.
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posted by Sir Gumbo at 11:51 PM
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