Much harmless merriment today over Joe Hagan's New York mag piece about the "blue cruise" of the Caribbean under the auspices of the National Review. Fair enough, but the best part seems to me to be this throwaway sbout "a phenomenon that was common on the cruise." That is: "the conservative pundits and columnists from the National Review attempting to gently disinter their followers from unhelpful conservative propaganda."
Link. Let' try to resist the coffee-snort possibilities immanent here and consider the bigger picture. I mean--isn't this usually the case in politics? Isn't it customary (albeit not universal) for the insiders to be more detached, more deflated, than he rank of file?
I'm not entirely sure why this might be true (if true it is) and my guess is there may be several overlapping reasons. I suppose they might be "more sophisticated" to begin with. Or brute reality may have taught them just how damn hard it is to govern (or, what is not the same thing, to win an election). Or maybe they are just worrying about their perks and the pensions. Anyway, I'd say it is entirely familiar--and transcends political boundaries--to imagine the sharps trying to cool the mark out while they go on to finish the game. If there is any surprise here, perhaps it is only the surprise in discovering that such insight has invaded the purlieus of the National Review.
Link. Let' try to resist the coffee-snort possibilities immanent here and consider the bigger picture. I mean--isn't this usually the case in politics? Isn't it customary (albeit not universal) for the insiders to be more detached, more deflated, than he rank of file?
I'm not entirely sure why this might be true (if true it is) and my guess is there may be several overlapping reasons. I suppose they might be "more sophisticated" to begin with. Or brute reality may have taught them just how damn hard it is to govern (or, what is not the same thing, to win an election). Or maybe they are just worrying about their perks and the pensions. Anyway, I'd say it is entirely familiar--and transcends political boundaries--to imagine the sharps trying to cool the mark out while they go on to finish the game. If there is any surprise here, perhaps it is only the surprise in discovering that such insight has invaded the purlieus of the National Review.
1 comment:
The fun part of it is that it breaks about half-and-half: half trying to disabuse (including Ralph Bloody Reed, of all people!) and half (Hassett, Murdock, Goldberg, Liekis, Rasmussen) trying to reinforce.
Judging by the age and tax bracket of the attendees--neither of which should be surprising, or probably varied much from the previous years--Reed had the right approach; the grand dame from Old Greenwich likely expects to get a decent return on her monies, and isn't likely to stay with losing strategies.
Otoh, the "buy a house in Krakow" strategy isn't a bad idea--though it was a better one 15 years ago and you could probably find a safer equivalent investment in the Miami area.
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