Sunday, February 7, 2010

Condescension…a winning strategy?

Gerard Alexander has a nice opinion piece in this morning’s Washington Post.

Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of serious consideration. Indeed, all the appeals to bipartisanship notwithstanding, President Obama and other leading liberal voices have joined in a chorus of intellectual condescension.

We’ve seen this before, of course…history repeats itself. The overreaching of the present legislative majority, though, and the acute tone deafness of the present administration, have exacerbated the situation. Let’s not leave the bloggers off the hook, either. While I can’t stomach more than a few minutes of the Daily Kos (which bravely carries the tag line “State of the Nation”) or the Huffington Post at a time; a browse of their comments section reveals the maturity and tenor of the discussion among the left’s cognoscenti.

I highly recommend reading the entire column….