This quote from one of Stacy’s posts seems a perfect introduction to another announcement:
By slow and imperceptible degrees, like a vine climbing a wall, a stultifying artificiality has crept into American intellectual life, which is governed by a set of unspoken rules that prohibit engagement on terms that are honest, honorable and manly. Our discourse has become dishonest, dishonorable and effeminate, in the manner of vicious third-grade schoolgirls on the playground, whispering behind each other’s backs.
This nasty girlishness is the reason why David Kuo could get more than a million dollars to waste on Culture11, why Ace fiercely guards his privacy, and why I am out here shaking the tip jar (please give today) instead of composing columns for National Review. Am I the only one who remembers that, when Ann Coulter got axed from NRO, she denounced Rich Lowry as a “girly boy”? And am I the only one who knows exactly what she meant?
Now, the announcement: Ross Douthat will take William Kristol’s place on the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times.
I’ve never met Douthat. I have no reason to believe he’s anything but a good, earnest, hard-working, upright human being who loves his Mama and is respectful to his elders. But I don’t see his apointment to the Op-Ed pages of the Times as a triumph for conservatism or anything like that. I’m pretty underwhelmed.
I know why the Times chose him. He’s young, bright, fairly conservative, and doesn’t know how to throw a punch at all. He’ll light up their pages with a nice turn of phrase for a while and he’ll talk about moderates and running to the center, which is stuff the left eats up like pudding because it always means that the right runs to the left instead of vice-versa. He’ll spend as much time criticizing conservatives as he does progressives. He won’t mix it up with anyone else over conservative principles (at least I’ve never seen him do it in any of his writing). Instead, he’s more likely to turn up his rhetorical nose at the churlish Rush Limbaugh, the uncouth Anne Coulter, and the tens of millions of people who think they have a point (I have seen him do that). That’s why he’s been hired by the Times. He’s there because because he’s a conservative who won’t get all out of hand with his conservative principles because, from what I’ve seen, he values tactics more than principles. I suspect that’s because he’s never been in a situation in his life where conservative principles really mattered.
Douthat is 30 years old. All he’s ever done is write. He’s lived in the relatively upscale enclaves of Connecticut and Washington, DC. He hasn’t had any real dealings with the “working class” he’s been praised for writing about. My guess is that he’s never had to sweat a rent payment in his life. He’s not had reason to be thankful there was a Walmart around where he could get the stuff he needed cheaply. That’s fine. If you can live that sort of life, more power to you. That’s not the sort of upbringing that’s going to breed a willingness to throw the necessary sharp elbow, which is what we conservatives need right now. Heck, he’s barely willing to admit that just perhaps Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter might have something important to say in our national debate.
Basically, he’s kind of like David Brooks, but younger and hipper. That’s perfect for the Times but not so great for the rest of us.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin says the Times is simply delighted that it’s found a conservative who’s not actually conservative.
Tags: Conservatives, Media Bias, New York Times, Ross Douthat
Dead on analysis. I’m just sick to death of supposed conservatives that do nothing but trash talk the real conservatives. Just another reason to ignore the New York Times.
It’s what MSM “conservatives” do. That’s how they get the gigs in the first place.
“Douthat is 30 years old. All he’s ever done is write. He’s lived in the relatively upscale enclaves of Connecticut and Washington, DC. He hasn’t had any real dealings with the “working class” he’s been praised for writing about. My guess is that he’s never had to sweat a rent payment in his life. He’s not had reason to be thankful there was a Walmart around where he could get the stuff he needed cheaply. That’s fine. If you can live that sort of life, more power to you. That’s not the sort of upbringing that’s going to breed a willingness to throw the necessary sharp elbow, which is what we conservatives need right now. Heck, he’s barely willing to admit that just perhaps Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter might have something important to say in our national debate.”
You could have not possibly said it better in that paragraph. Well done.
Ross Douthat is not a conservative?
Have you read any Douthat? Seriously.
Not that anecdote is substitute for data or anything, but the man went skinny-dipping with William F. Buckley for chrissakes.
Effete, sure.
Elite, absolutely.
But not a conservative?
FAIL.