New Left Gossip

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri May 5 10:11:42 PDT 2000


Nathan Newman wrote:


>I find that conservative writers have become intellectually lazy in many
>ways

Boy, ain't dat da troot, and not just as writers. When I have rightwingers on the radio, or appear with them on someone else's radio show, I'm struck by how weak they are. It's like no one ever asks them a difficult question; I guess they've gotten soft from their victories over the last 20 years. The more imaginative of them will just lie - "A flat tax isn't a gift to the wealthy" is one of my favorites. The lesser among them will just sputter and repeat soundbites ("You wouldn't want your retirement portfolio managed by the government, would you?" one Cato hack kept repeating when Teresa Ghillarducci & I nailed her on Social Security privatization). Granted, left thought isn't too dazzling these days, but I'm really curious whom James Heartfield has in mind. Katie Roiphe?

Doug



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