[antistoic]

The Daily Beast -- apparently some kind of hideous web 2.0 abortion of internet journalism -- recently came out with a piece celebrating the most inane middle-of-the-road voices in American politics today, calling it The Top 25 Centrist Columnists and Commentators (linked here on our very own shoutbox). Of course, such a target was too tempting to resist (I just so happened to get to it before Udolpho did). John Avalon, who profiles these middlebrow bores, claims that they represent a 'powerful backlash' against 'play-to-the-base politics' and political extremism. While I wholeheartedly agree that the conservative/liberal, Republican/Democrat partisan pigeonholing can be exasperating and even damaging to political discourse, the two dozen or so commentators featured are anything but a chorus of fresh and innovative thinkers who break the dichotomic mold. They are unimaginative, zealous sycophants of the third 'party' in American politics -- the media class.

These commentators masquerade as populists too clear-headed and reasonable to be seduced into the bickering and endless partisan sniping of party politics, but most of them fall into four groups -- people who have capriciously picked-and-chosen from the two mainstream policy responses on offer like they were at the salad bar in Sizzlers (Harold Ford, Jr., Christopher Buckley); corporate Republicans and internet libertarians who love low taxes but think opposing gay marriage is for superstitious rubes (Robert Guest, Charles Johnson, Joe Scarborough, Ronn Owens, David Frum, Brooks); unscrupulous careerists who drift through multiple administrations and campaigns without a word of dissent, too timid to rock the boat that keeps the money flowing (David Gergen, Douglas Schoen); and dull-minded media creeps who have recently fallen in love with the idea of 'bipartisanship' and 'moderation' as a means of preserving the technocratic status quo (everyone else, pretty much).

Despite their laughable 'rebel' image, everyone profiled, with the exception of Peggy Noonan, shares a broad political orthodoxy -- Progress is Good, Technology is Good, Religious Morality is Bad, Capitalism is Good, Racism is Bad, Immigration is Good, and most importantly, the Media is Really, Really Good. In other words, their ideology is little else than diluted bourgeois idealism, and they hew to this ideology as passionately and single-mindedly as the most rabid of party faithful.

Among those mentioned are:

Kathleen Parker

Kathleen is your average conservative commentator - nary an original thought or idea has fallen from her mouth or found its way into her columns for years. Well, actually, there was that one time she said "...Palin didn't make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it." That was kind of funny -- and that, along with some recent favorable remarks directed towards tea partiers and political independents, was probably enough to get her on this list.

David Brooks

Neocon extraordinaire-turned-Obama enthusiast. Turns out the Democrats aren't nearly as averse to global military policing and alienating the working class as he thought they were, so he switched camps. Hooray for 'centrism'!

Michael Smerconish

'Conservative' talk radio host who wants Republicans to stop being so picky about abortion and gay marriage. Another moron who thinks that social traditionalism is what is really holding back GOP success (despite all evidence to the contrary).

Matt Miller

We can have all the benefits of a welfare state -- without exorbitant government spending! Miller's retch-inducing neo-liberal optimism makes George Soros look like Oswald Spengler. Oh, and he supports the Iraq War.

David Frum

Another Jewish neocon who soured on the Republican party after it started to go goy on him. Like Brooks, his welfare-warfare platform found a surprisingly warm reception in the Obama administration, so another 'centrist' is born.

One of the smartest people in politics on either side of the aisle, Frum is a committed conservative but a principled patriot first.

Read: social and cultural issues come last -- war is the only thing that matters.

Irshad Manji

Dykish-looking Muslim feminist recruited by Canadian liberals as a living advertisement for Western-led 'reform' in the Middle East. Her book The Trouble with Islam is the Muslim equivalent of Bishop Spong's A New Christianity for a New World -- another screed on why religions should jettison long-standing moral attitudes in the name of egalitarian freedom. Neocons may also find her useful, too -- first we bomb their houses, then we send in brown Gloria Steinems to dissolve their families.

Jon Stewart

Stewart's patended brand of smug, pseudo-journalistic comedy is among one of the many reasons why I no longer bother watching television. Apparently, a few token attacks on fellow liberal blowhard Keith Olbermann were enough to merit him the centrist crown.

Joe Scarborough

Token MSNBC 'conservative' who was vetted for any controversial or thought-provoking opinions before his placement as the host of the Morning Joe program. Ignore.

Andrew Sullivan

With Glenn Reynolds, the leader of the libertarian blog community. Left the Republican party because it made him uncomfortable in his embrace of the buttsex lifestyle. Famous for fondling his own ass on national television.

Ron Brownstein

Ho-hum political analyst whose columns share a chief focus on party fortunes. Unlikely to inspire any emotions, good or bad, on either side of the party aisle.

Mark McKinnon

But he announced in advance that if Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination, he would ride off into the sunset rather than participate in the negative attacks he knew would be required.

All you need to know, really.

David Gergen

Slimy, Rockefeller-type Bohemian Grove veteran whose complete absence of principle carried him unnoticed through the Nixon, Ford, and Kennedy administrations. A bureaucrat-for-life if there ever was one.

Harold Ford, Jr.

Schizophrenic blue dog Democrat who is pro-life but supportive of stem-cell research, fond of the Iraq War but anti-death penalty, and a 'fiscal conservative' who supports universal healthcare legislation.

Charles Johnson

Libertarian jazz guitarist-cum-blogger who leads Israel's online amen corner; Jewish turban-hunter known for his hysterical anti-Islamic fear-mongering, but despises gentile anti-Islamic groups like Vlaams Belaang because they set off his Shoah-meter.

Doug Schoen

No idea who this is, really. Maybe he makes a living as a professional Dick Cheney impersonator?



Peggy Noonan

The only worthwhile writer in the entire list.

Thomas Friedman -

The baron of banality. The king of commonplaces. The master of mixed metaphors.

Give a blackberry-addicted high school guidance counselor column space in the New York Times and you'll end up with someone like Thomas Friedman. His barely-contained enthusiasm for rootless globalism, and the techno-goodies it brings us (at low, low prices!, he reminds us) would be despicable in itself, but coupled with his naive belief in education-as-panacea and his gushing, 'gee willikers!' exposition Friedman easily outranks even David Brooks as the worst of the lot.

David Broder

Professional pundit with frequent appearances on shows like Meet the Press. A drooling admirer of Palin, whom he praised as cool as a cucumber, comfortable with her talking points and unrattled by anything that was thrown at her.

Joe Klein

Author of Primary Colors, a political drama about Clinton's 1992 Democratic campaign. Like most of the others listed, he's another fiscally conservative social liberal, but he gets brownie points for questioning conservatives on their ambition to '... [use] U.S. military power, U.S. lives and money, to make the world safe for Israel".

Christopher Buckley

Son of the titan of intellectual conservatism, William F. Buckley; like Frankie Schaeffer, living in daddy's shadow has pushed him into an embrace of the left, although it's good to know that (like nearly everyone else on the list) he "clings tenaciously to the idea that one ought to have balanced budgets".

Robert Guest

Another 'fiscally conservative, socially liberal' media nobody. This one writes for The Economist.

Jonathan Capehart

Otherwise unimportant black intellectual that is mentioned solely because he completes The Daily Beast's racial quota for this otherwise overwhelmingly pale (and Jewish) roster of pundits.

Joe Gandelman

Who? Apparently, another tweeting blog junkie who thinks moderation qua moderation is, like, the best thing EVER. This one runs a blog called The Moderate Voice.

Ronn Owens

From his book Voice of Reason: Why Both Right and Left Are Wrong:

..while I tend to be liberal when it comes to social issues, I'm far more conservative on foreign affairs.

See a pattern here, yet? He's a neocon radio jockey who scorns Limbaugh not because (as he claims) he is too 'far right', but because he's his major competitor. His rear book cover also features accolades from Joe Lieberman, Chris Matthews, and John McCain. Barf.

Patricia Murphy

Inoffensive columnist who seems to mostly cover political trivia and "This Week in Politics"-style briefs.



If there's one more lesson to be gained here, it's this -- to these centrists, supporting stringent controls on sexual morality and immigration is evidence of 'extremism' on the right, yet free trade fundamentalism and an invade the world, invite the world mentality somehow complement a 'moderate' mindset. Why is this? Why is a platform decked to the gills with all kinds of foolish and quixotic remedies for Big Government and foreign despotism so acceptable to people who claim the mantle of prudence and 'moderation'?

Again, with the exception of Peggy Noonan, there is not a single cultural or social traditionalist in the entire list. All of them are bland mediacrats who, contrary to their intentions, do nothing but reinforce political conventions -- by, for example, claiming pill-popping right-of-center Limbaugh as the apostle of conservative extremism, or by insisting on a ridiculous view of foreign policy that adopts Wilsonian idealism as 'right-wing', and Jeffersonian realpolitick as 'left-wing'.

Instead of opposing the meaningless din of partisan outrage to thoughtful reflection on what 'left' and 'right' even mean, or whether there are indeed any viable alternatives to the Left/Right paradigm at all, we get something even worse -- hacks complaining not that our discourse is shallow, or intellectually bankrupt, or that it is infected with groupthink and milquetoast platitudes, but that it is merely polarizing.

Far from broadening the margins of political debate, they want to narrow them to a tiny consensus of conventional opinions; they claim to be challenging the partisan status quo, yet they want to neuter what little potential for political and intellectual creativity remains. Worst of all, their success speaks to the existence of a large demographic of readers who enjoy media-conditioned horseshit analysis, who genuinely believe that it is 'extremism' that is causing our downfall, not the Thomas Friedmans and Glenn Reynolds' of the world. Needless to say, this bodes ill for the future of our democracy.

This post has been edited by mlad: 06 April 2010 - 04:40 PM

[HopeAndChange44]

Peggy Noonan

[antistoic]

HopeAndChange44, 06 April 2010 - 02:58 PM:

Peggy Noonan

Why was she even included? She's far from 'centrist'.

[HopeAndChange44]

Seriously, though, the establishment Dem and GOP platforms are so close together that it's nearly impossible to be between them. So the "moderates" are mostly schizophrenics with incoherent worldviews. My impression is that Daily Beast leans towards the movement conservative platform, which explains the Republican tilt. I'm still amazed that Charles Johnson made the list, since any cursory research would reveal that he's become a comically Hangly-esque forum tyrant.

[PRCalDude]

Charles Johnson needs to be dragged out and shot. I used to follow his blog before he started throwing everyone under the bus. For some reason, gargling Israel's balls gives his pathetic life meaning.

That said, I do think Islam poses a real existential threat to all kuffar. Just look at what happened to the Byzantine, Armenian and North African Christians over time thanks to Mohammedan tyranny.

The rest are just the typical cast of Jews and their lackies.

[PLEASUREMAN]

Excellent, excellent post. Pretty much captures my thoughts exactly--although I would say they are representatives not of the media class but of the managerial class--which admittedly is just semantic nitpicking, as the mainstream media is the mouthpiece cultivated by the managerial class as its propaganda division.

David Brooks really belongs at the top of this heap of "independent" conformists. But they're mostly interchangeable due to massive inbreeding.

The liberal social views and "conservative" fiscal views are perfectly suited to their self-importance, which denies them nothing--what they want is simply their due for having the temperament and flexibility to achieve their station in life (ritual demonstration of these values are required before being accepted into their ranks).

The Daily Beast's mentality is well represented by this intro for a recent "thing" on their website (I hestitate to imply that it is writing or that it took any effort):

Quote

The latest reports say [Justice John Paul Stevens] is contemplating retirement but he’s said that before. Constitutional law professor Adam Winkler says he should stop messing around and just step down already—or else risk an even more divided Senate come November.

Here of course the "centrists" at The Daily Beast (motto: "read this skip that") know that the most important thing of all is to get the most strident leftist through the Senate and onto the court, preferably someone young and perhaps even dumber than Sotomayor if that is possible, so their social liberties may be preserved--the liberties that make real unity and a humane society impossible.

This Gawkeresque web 2.0 version of a newspaper/magazine gives plenty of insight into our ruling class, as well as the level to which journalism has sunk--it is now mainly an effort to preserve a deeply corrupt and nihilistic worldview from the forces of ignorance and mania that it has been indispensible in creating.

[HopeAndChange44]

PLEASUREMAN, 06 April 2010 - 10:46 PM:

the liberties that make real unity and a humane society impossible.

The Humane Society - euthanizing beloved family pets since 1871.

This post has been edited by HopeAndChange44: 06 April 2010 - 10:06 PM

[Major Hoople]

Peggy Noonan earned her props for her instant and visceral DNOKD! reaction to Sarah Palin.

[PLEASUREMAN]

Major Hoople, 08 April 2010 - 03:03 AM:

Peggy Noonan earned her props for her instant and visceral DNOKD! reaction to Sarah Palin.

not even Google can tell me what DNOKD stands for

[Major Hoople]

Denifitely Not Our Kind, Dear

[LXIX CDXX LXIX]

Not to belabor a point, but isn't an acronym that literally no one uses kind of useless, or are we trying to start a trend here?

This post has been edited by LXIX CDXX LXIX: 08 April 2010 - 06:07 PM

[BushrodButtram]

ITATOUIAWBF

I post on AutoAdmit, which has a number of house acronyms, some deliberately obfuscated, others unintentionally so.

CGWBT: cheerful girl with big tits
WGWAG: white girls with asian guys
ROBOCOP: rock on brother on credited original post
TITCR: this is the credited response
TITC(x): where 'x' is the credited thing, such as game, application, post, drink, etc. Style points for using it in such a way that x is both novel and clear to a smart person
TTT: third-tier toilet, a law school ranked tier 3 or lower in USNWR (and, constructively, any school you want to bash)
TTTSEF: third-tier toilet shit-eating faggot

[PLEASUREMAN]

Major Hoople, 08 April 2010 - 06:25 PM:

Denifitely Not Our Kind, Dear

that must be british

[PLEASUREMAN]

I always wondered what TTT meant on the Big Debt, Small Law blog

[Major Hoople]

My apologies. I thought all reasonable, enlightened folks knew what it meant.