![]() THE DECADE OF WHAT DIFFERENCE! What difference could it possibly make? So our press corps asked: // link // print // previous // next //
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2009 The year of discussing ineptly: Tomorrow, well name our person of the yearthe journalist who did the most, in the past year, to induce morbid depression among our young analysts. But first, a note on the general character of this past pitiful year:
With brutal inefficiency, this past year showed us who we arean unintelligent, un-serious people. To examine one tiny piece of this puzzle, consider a letter the New York Times chose to publish this Monday. The letter, composed in perfect good faith, responded to an editorial about impending health care reform. What will happen, the writer asked, if a new, Republican Congress simply repeals the whole thing?
What will happen if the next Congress simply repeals the whole health reform bill? No doubt, the writer was sincere. But the answer to her question is obvious: To state what is blindingly obvious, President Obama would veto such a repeal. Since it takes a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress to override a presidents veto, there is simply no chance that a newly elected Congress would be able to nullify any health reform bill. Obama would veto such an attempt! Presumably, the writer hadnt considered this point. That said, why on earth would a New York Times editor decide to put this letter in print? On Monday morning, many readers of the Times began to worry about this readers question. Its hard to know why a newspaper would want to float this concern, since the answer to the writers concern is so blindingly obvious. That said, might we pose our own question here? Is it possible that this New York Times editor, like this Times reader, didnt know what would happen next? As a news professional, youd have to be ginormously clueless to be stumped by that letters question. But has there ever been a year when the cluelessness of the professional press corps became so ginormously clear? In this past year, the press corps pseudo-discussion of health care has been a tribute to human frailty. And alas! When it comes to framing a serious discussion, the liberal world has performed just as poorly as the mainstream press corps has done. When it comes to policy matters, were stupid and ugly and nobody likes us! Has there ever been a year when these facts became quite so clear? Next week, well review the past years discussion of health care, building upon a recent re-reading of T. R. Reids The Healing of America. (Well also suggest what progressives should doif they want to build intelligent frameworks for future health care reform.) But, just as a general matter, how poorly does the press corps reason? In the two mornings since weve returned from Maine, weve been stunned by the silly work on the op-ed page of the Washington Post. Who do we have in mind? In the spirit of the season, lets not name any names! But Julianna Baggotts piece about the years top books is almost devoid of any attempt to gather evidence in support of a (fairly aggressive) thesis. Meanwhile, heres the headline which currently sits on Ruth Marcus sad-sack piece:
People! Its all about feelings! Feelings draw the reader in! They make blood rush through the veins! Meanwhile, in the New York Times, Maureen Dowd is back to calling Obama Barryand in her obsessive gender-kook way, she cant help mentioning the oddly feminine-looking underpants of last weeks thwarted bomber. No, a nation cant survive with kooks like Dowd at the top of the heap, defining the parameters of its public discussions. Below, we briefly discuss the shape of the decade which is ending this week. This gruesome decade was strongly enabled by the people atop our mainstream press corpsand by the failure of other elites to challenge this groups fatuous culture and mental infirmity. That said: Weve often asked why our academic elites didnt speak up in the past several decades, challenging the ludicrous work on display in the mainstream press corps. On December 7, the New York Times finally gave us our answer. In this Opinionator post, Stanley Fish discussed Sarah Palins new book, Going Rogue. Like us, he thought the book was very well done. (We pause here so liberals can cry: But she didnt write it herself!) But good God! Autobiographers cannot lie, Fish absurdly says in his piece, thereby answering our question. Stanley Fish is a very famous academic. He was writing in our leading newspaper. An elite which churns such nonsense straight from the top will never rescue our lives. Some of you will search for ways in which Fishs ludicrous claim can be right. Our heartfelt advice: Abandon your search. Worry about your failed culture. THE DECADE OF WHAT DIFFERENCE: Since weve all agreed that a decade is ending, we thought we would identify same. Whats ending is The Decade of Bush. Less pithily stated, weve reached the end of an embarrassing era: The Decade of What Difference Could It Possibly Make. What Difference Could It Possibly Make? So the nations pundits asked all though the last year of the previous decade, all through the first year of this decade. Candidate Gore or Candidate Bush? What Difference Could It Possibly Make? the nations savants asked. Somehow, they had convinced themselves of the what difference hypothesis. And for the record, were talking about the mainstream press and its liberal pundits, not about Fox or Rush or Drudge. At this site, we consider the liberal pundit Frank Rich to be the dumbest man of the past several decades. In March 2000, at the start of this decade, Rich captured the prevailing mood of his low-IQ cohort. Super Tuesdays results had eliminated Candidates Bradley and McCain, the pair of straight-shooting straight-talking authentics whom Rich and his utterly daffy pals had invented in previous years. In this passage, you see the thinking which gave you the decade which now endsThe Decade of George W. Bush:
Since you asked us, we will answer. No, we humans cant get dumber. What Difference Could It Possibly Make? Thats the question Rich asked this day, and in subsequent columns. (Candidate Bush was Banana Republicand Candidate Gore was J. Crew!) But in fairness, it wasnt just Rich who was pushing this silly, too-cool-for-school outlook. Such thinking pervaded our mainstream press corps as this gruesome decade began. Its stunning to see what the mainstream press corps liberal pundits were saying seven months later, in October 2000, as history neared. And no, it wasnt just Rich. It was Herbert, and King, and Jonathan Alterand it was Lawrence ODonnell. It was Cokie and Sam, clowning hard. Needless to say, it was Dowd. These people probably voted for Gore. But they called him a liar right to the end, helping us choose The Banana Republic in the place of J. Crew. What difference could it possibly make? A decade later, sane people have learned. What difference could it possibly make? The pundit and press corps expressed this outlook in another way during this decade. In 1998, they had devoted a solid year to their obsession with Bill Clintons shorts. In 1999 and 2000, they extended their angry obsession about Miss Lewinsky, punishing Gore for the troubling matter. (He hadnt condemned Clinton strongly enough.) In 2001, they staged a dim-witted revival; they spent the summer inventing evidence to suggest that Gary Condit may have murdered Chandra Levy, the (former) intern with whom hed been lustily getting it on. Both Clintons, of course, had been murderers too. Our upper-end opinion leaders were able to follow such narratives. The brain-dead chatter about Gary Condit extended through the evening of September 10, 2001. The next day, our savants dropped the topic; they swore that all would be different. But soon, they were back to their greatest lovethe culture of inane pseudo-discussion. Indeed: You can tune in Keith tonight, to watch tape of Carrie and Sarah! What difference could it make if its Gore or Bush? What difference could it make if we clown after viewers? What difference could it make if we dumb liberals down? The decade which ends tomorrow evening was built around such questions.
Absent aggressive intervention, the decade which starts the day after that will rest on that same foundation. Joan Walsh, its all up to you!
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