Atrios says:
I don't want to go to deeply into *why* so many people seem to be charter members in one of the many End Times clubs, though I do imagine it has something to do with it being the ultimate affirmation of some deeply held belief.
We all have our own version, I suppose, which says something about us. But in any case I was struck by Kevin Drum's version of the apocalypse, which was kind of a new one.
Now this should be really fun, especially since I can't access the page (Washington Monthly's site seems to be down right now), but I'll hazard an off the wall guess anyway:
I bet Drum's version of the apocalypse is that anyone to his left gets any political power in this country whatsoever.
After all, it hasn't happened since 1944, and Drum sleeps much easier because of that fact. Compared to Kevin Drum, the average New Dealer, say, was extreme left -- which says not so much about the objective leftism of the New Deal as much as it says about Kevin Drum's brand of "acceptable liberalism" centrism.
It's an easy conclusion to draw.
By the way, I never blogged on the content of the last link. I regret it. Irony is seldom found so richly in these matters; Drum, the quintessential modern centrist, actually taking to task one of the godfathers of squishy-centrist technocrat liberalism for not being technocrat enough! Sweet.
Schlesinger, hagiographer of our country's first technocrat administration, is apparently too shrill for Drum's tastes (but then Drum is on the record as admiring Max fucking Boot; as is the case with most squishy centrists, they are comfy indeed finding themselves in admiring "opposition" of the far right). Read Drum make the Aww, Bush Isn't All That Bad case and try to contain your urge to vomit.
Has Schlesinger changed? Hard to tell. He had a personal interest in being apologist for the objectively right-wing Democratic administration he served. His President was son of a Nazi-phile, ran to the right of Nixon, nearly helped to blow up the world. Now, with little personal interest clouding the issue, and geopolitical and domestic shenanigans coming from their traditional Republican sources, it's easier for Schlesinger to see the awfulness of it all. Also, the Grim Reaper approaches; others from that era have been making their mea culpas as they hear the skeletal hand begin to rap on their doors. But Drum doesn't care about that -- he'd have been right there with the Bundys, Berlin, Schlesinger, McNamara, et al, anyway; they were his type -- he cares about the context, dammit! See, Arthur, Drum says, you have listed the cases of awful wartime adminstrations in the past, but you havent made the case that Bush is as bad or worse, so nyah. And George, John, Dick, Donald and Alberto say thank you, Kevin.
Anyway, neoliberals: Fuck em and feed em fish heads.
*Update: Ahh, now the page loads for me. His version of the apocalypse is interesting and has little to do with politics (though you could say it's yet more ammo for luddists -- not a bad thing). Oh well, I wanted to rip him for a while anyway.: he's gotta pay for that "left bias" and "admirable Max Boot" shit.
posted by RETARDO MONTALBAN @ 4:53 AM
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