Right Truth went big for this set of Watchers posts, asking if there are any interesting answers that we can discover for ourselves. Given the current political climate that might be five or six dozen steps too far. The traditional way we untangle political problems is by arguing about them. But for that to work certain things have to be in place – consistency, sincerity, etc. Deliberation has to have a certain weight. Instead of that we’ve MSNBC desk jockeys mouthing predictable slogans on their way to banal rants.
It’s not just old identity politics nonsense (though there was something nostalgic about Cheat Seeking Missiles’s news that California is back to embracing colorblindness except when it interferes with affirmative action). And it’s not just the “he’s so lively and charismatic” Obama cult catechism, though as Bookroom Room suggests the President is far from being genuinely hopeful and optimism.
It’s a kind of deliberative emptiness that gets cashed out in two ways.
(1) Partisans aren’t expected to be consistent. For a decade you couldn’t walk past a law school without hearing peons to how we’re a nation of laws. The letter of the law was supposed to trump the spirit of the law even – and especially – in wartime. But inaugurate a Democratic Executive and suddenly the Constitution, per the Colossus of Rhodey, doesn’t matter all that much. Better to just get out of the President’s way while he reserves for himself the Executive powers that the Provocateur shows he railed against Bush for using. And that’s before we even get to Razor’s “seriously – do any Democrats pay taxes” corruption post and Rhymes With Rights “if the Democrats were actually serious about helping people” stimulus post.
In the immediate aftermath of Katrina Bush got tangled in bureacratic inertia and jurisdictional controversies. Technocracy, as The Glittering Eye wrote in a different context, has its problems. But it’s nonetheless the President’s job to maneuver around those problems. The resulting coverage, though, disproportionately emphasized the Administration’s incompetence and obfuscated Democratic culpability in Louisiana. The drip drip drip of ensuing coverage detonated his Presidents. But as JoshuaPundit shows Obama out and out ignored the disaster in Kentucky. Nada.
(2) Even more basically – partisans don’t even have to be accurate any more. My post dealt with how missile defense is a viable and necessary technology. But it’s getting shut down because the left has decreed that it’s unnecessary and impossible. Oh well. Soccer Dad’s post pointed out that Tom Friedman is wrong about the current Israeli-Arab conflict to the point of incoherence. But he still gets to be an expert. Because why not?
References and previously after the jump…
References:
* God’s Will [Right Truth]
* Calling All Conservative Attorneys! [Cheat Seeking Missiles]
* What a cigarette will tell you about a man *UPDATED* [Bookworm Room]
* Lawyer: OK for prez to ditch Constitution if he’s “popular” [Colossus Of Rhodey]
* President Obama and Executive Power [The Provocateur]
* Musings over Forms and Schedules [The Razor]
* My Stimulus Proposal [Rhymes With Right]
* Three Thoughts About the Obama Administration [Glittering Eye]
* Obama: " Screw Kentucky" [Joshua Pundit]
* Video: Israeli Missile Defense Group Emphasizes Need, Technological Feasibility Of Anti-Missile Systems [MR]
* The no-state solution [Soccer Dad]
Previously:
* Watchers Council Nominations – Shameless Hypocrisy Doesn’t Make MSM Liberals Wrong. But It Does Make Them Shameless Hypocrites.
* Watchers Council Nominations – Has Deja Vu Always Been This Depressing?
* Watchers Council Nominations – Power Grabs Defended By Rank Populism Defended By Incoherent Nonsense
