His Mind Is Open, And The Sound Of The Wind 'Tween His Ears Proves It...

This week's theme amongst many progressive Young Partisan Hacks has been The Closing of the Conservative Mind. Which, unsurprisingly, hasn't actually involved the closing of any conservative minds. No it's simply the rather portentous labeling of Young Partisan Hacks waxing vacuously on why conservatives can't seem to understand (as YPHs do) that the only good Republican is a Democrat.

Example? Try this bit o' Matthew piffle on for size:

Charlie Crist and the Closing of the Republican Mind

It’s official—Charlie Crist is becoming an independent.

It’s another sign of the striking moves to the right the Republican Party has taken since Barack Obama’s inauguration. Crist was always on the less-conservative half of the GOP spectrum, but his main sins have been things that would have been considered banal a few years ago. There used to be a bunch of Republicans who supported climate change legislation and “governor of cash-strapped state supports federal law to help close the hole in his budget” is like the ultimate dog bites man story. But in today’s “everything Barack Obama supports must be evil” climate on the right, there’s no room for Crist.

Still, this isn’t nearly as shocking as the way Utah Senator Bob Bennett has gotten drummed out of the party. Bennett isn’t even a slightly moderate Republican—his sin is to have cosponsored a bill that would have replaced public sector insurance programs with private insurance, and then given private insurance to people who currently have no insurance.

If conventional pundit wisdom about how politics works were correct, this new much-more-rightwing GOP would be heading for an electoral debacle. Fortunately for conservatives, however, in the real world economic fundamentals trump policy positions and they should do fine in 2010 unless the economy starts growing faster than expected.

A closing of the conservative mind, eh? Well, Matthew, let me respond by way of exactly two words:

Joseph Lieberman

How have you and the rest of the progressive Young Partisan Hacks treated Senator Lieberman over the past seven years or so? Have you admired his open-mindedness in supporting George W. Bush's administration on the issue of war against Iraq and Afghanistan (Remember, Matthew, that was back when you were being told you were against wars of occupation. As opposed to now, where you've being told your for 'em.). Did you bewail the closing of the progressive mind when Markos Moulitsas and much of the progressive commentariat gave Ned Lamont their blessing back in 2006? Did you praise the suppleness of Lieberman's intellect during the debate over health care and/or insurance reform?

Of course not.

So answer me this, Matthew: What are you babbling on about? Republican voters in Utah and Florida are reacting to political apostasy in exactly the same way you and all your clever little friends reacted to political apostasy by Joe Lieberman. You didn't consider that close-mindedness then, and I doubt you consider it such now. If you don't have the intellectual wherewithall to provide meaningful analysis of what the Bennett and Crist situations actually might mean for the Republican Party, then please, go back to writing commentary on issues you really know something about...

Like banking reform.

Comments

[Eric Blair]

It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

[Randy Rager]

That boy's dumber than a biscuit.

[PDS]

DTP: perhaps we should all pause to recall a couple Emerson's dictums:

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

The more he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

Rinse and repeat.

[BillT]

Note that Emerson spoke of *foolish* consistency.

Such as proudly voting Democrat because your daddy voted Democrat, as did *his* daddy before him, and *his* daddy before *him* -- even though you disagree with every element of the current Democrat platform and consider your local Democrat incumbent to be a lying, corrupt crapweasel.

Apologies to any innocent readers of the mustelid persuasion...

[Dave]

Since when does "voters choosing to support a different candidate, other than the incumbent"="Drumming the incumbent out of the party"? Nobody asked Bennett or Crist to leave the Republican Party, they just chose to vote (or indicated they will vote, to be accurate) for other people. This writer is an apocalyptic dingleberry!

[Guesst]

Much more "rightwing GOP"?

Oh.my.sides.

[Coomanche Voter]

You're beating this insufferable little twit like a Persian rug. On the other hand, he just loves to hang out on the clothes line in the backyard, and a man's got to do what he's got to do with the rug beater.

[Randy Rager]

"apocalyptic dingleberry" - I LOL'ed, I sure did!

Nice turn of phrase. I may have to steal that one.

[aelfheld]

Ahhh, but Democrats can never be close-minded.

Their empty-headedness precludes that.

[Eric Blair]

I wonder how much Yglesias actually gets paid to spew that stuff. Anybody got any ideas?

[Dennis the Peasant]

Whatever it is it's clearly less than an investment banker makes.

[Randy Rager]

So the only cure for envy driven politics is to pay "journalists" like Matthew an obscenely large wage?

Meh.

I'll live with the envy driven politics. That retard isn't worth minimum wage.

[Joel]

If conventional pundit wisdom about how politics works were correct, this new much-more-rightwing GOP would be heading for an electoral debacle. Fortunately for conservatives, however, in the real world economic fundamentals trump policy positions and they should do fine in 2010 unless the economy starts growing faster than expected.

What?? "How politics work" often, even mostly, pivots on the state of the economy, or perception of it. How does Yglesias think his otherwise green behind the ears with a sparse and not reassuring record candidate could successfully vie for the most powerful office on earth? Obama got elected during a sudden financial meltdown and attendant campaign media hand-wringing over Bush's reach-around bi-partisan wartime spending that led to d-word damn/debt/decline/debacle deficits.

Apparently now, with FAR more unchecked and irresponsible spending, the new d-word is Democratic/demanded/distributist so deal kind of deficits.

[Bilejones]

You must admit it's impressive how Tweety Matthews has managed to turn mindless mediocrity into well paid mediocrity. I gather that he's the least watched talking head on the least watched channel but he's still there. The boy obviously has pictures of someone with small boys: Lindsay Graham perhaps?

[TmjUtah]

I think that MY is missing what Crist is ignoring. Namely, that the electorate isn't aligned by partisan preferences, but is instead awakening to the threat posed by the entrenched political class... with some left over attention beginning to be paid to public employee unions and the bureaucracies that will have to be dismantled to get our Republic back on some kind of survivable footing.

I'd say sustainable, but I understand that that particular word is already taken.

[Brett]

The "entrenched political class" includes most of the teachers, professors, and academic auxiliaries. It's time to privatize education. It has become ten million sinecures with the wherewithal to petition the government to "[erect]a multitude of New Offices, and [send] hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.