Modern Conservatism Is A Disease, Matthew

by tristero

Throughout his blogging career – which has been highly successful and on many occasions, insightful – Matt Yglesias has often made the fundamental mistake of confusing modern conservatism with an actual philosophical stance that one must consider seriously and with which one should argue. He’s still at it:

I don’t think it makes sense to reason “all conservatives are wrong about important things, therefore all conservatives are equally pernicious.” Tyler Cowen on economics has a lot more to offer than Larry Kudlow on economics, even though I agree with neither of them. I think that’s common sense, and I don’t think it makes one a traitor to progressive politics to point this kind of thing out or to think it’s a good thing when conservatives-who-offer-more replace conservatives-who-offer-less.

Sigh.

Modern conservatives like Kristol bring nothing of substance to the table, Matt. Whether Ross Douthat brings twice the nothing that Kristol does, or ten times the nothing Kristol does, still means that Douthat brings nothing to the table. That’s not only common sense: that’s basic arithmetic.

I would be remiss if I did not also point out that the Katha Pollitt piece which inspired Matt’s post gets off to an extremely asinine start:

Liberal blogger men are thrilled with the New York Times’s appointment of 29-year-old Atlantic blogger Ross Douthat to replace William Kristol on the op-ed page.

Not true. Last I checked, I am a liberal, I’m a blogger, and I’m still male. I’m not thrilled Ross Douthat’s replacing Kristol and for all of the same reasons Pollitt points to, and more. I’m not the only liberal blogger man who thinks this, not by a long shot.

Nor, as Pollitt thinks, do I believe it would have been great to retain Kristol. The Times needs good ideas, not bad ones, on its op-ed pages. There are none to be had in the modern conservative movement, which is not the same as saying that all good ideas are liberal and progressive ones (although most are). Therefore, neither Kristol nor Douthat nor any other rightwing nut deserves regular access to the Times op-ed pages.