Some six-and-a-half years ago I attended an leftish academic conference staged by an organization with which Davidson is (or was?) involved. At the dinner "banquet" the keynote speech was delivered by an eminence grise sociologist, one with decidedly social democratic politics. The speech was incredibly tedious: an overly long and statistics-heavy "expose" of what was already obvious to everyone in attendance: that 30 years of neo-liberalism in Latin America had exacerbated inequality and hence violent crime. When at long last, the sociologist of some renown wound down, very light but polite applause followed. We all returned to our chicken kiev or creme brulee or whatever.
After the event was over, as the banquet attendees were ambling away from the restaurant, Davidson was positively raving about one of the more sterile presentations I've ever witnessed: "XXXXXX really socked it to those gangster capitalists!"
That's really neither here nor there, though... Carl is just another friendly guy with pretty sucky politics.