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06 August 2011

Would That We Were Smarter

In the grand tradition of the Smartest Man in the Universe, a fellow by the name of Jacob Weisberg bemoans the current state of politics because contemporary matters are complicated and people, especially those that don't agree with Mr. Weisberg, are stupid.

He starts his column thus, "It is hard to remember a more dismal moment in American politics," a fine example of historically ignorant pabulum. The article then proceeds to get worse.

"But for the federal government to spur growth or create jobs, it has to spend additional money. The antediluvian Republicans who control Congress do not think that demand can be expanded in this way." So not only are people foolish enough to disagree with Keynesian analysis ignorant, they are an anachronism as well. Unhip to the wicked smarts of our paralogical masters. Regardless of the fact that disagreement with Keynesianism is based on observed history and not pinned on some normative fantasy land.

"Some of the congressional Republicans who are preventing action to help the economy are simply intellectual primitives who reject modern economics on the same basis that they reject Darwin and climate science." I love this one because it doesn't even attempt to hide the author's smug condescension.

"Faced with Republican intransigence on taxes, Democrats are less likely than ever to give ground on Social Security or Medicare." Yes, we can all remember how willing the Democrats were to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid but for the intransigent Republicans.

"At the level of political culture, we have learned some other sobering lessons: that compromise is dead and that there's no point trying to explain complicated matters to the American people." Another desperate plea for recognition of the Sisyphean efforts to reason and educate the poor simpletons in these demotic times.
William Voegeli does a far better job than me of addressing the intellectually void and frankly insulting lines of alleged reasoning employed by Mr. Weisberg.

Oh, and a little searching brought up this little doozy previously written by Mr. Weisberg in 2008 on The End of Libertarianism, just as lacking in any intellectual vigor as the present column, and nicely torn asunder by Cato's Brink Lindsey.

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