In his monologue yesterday, Rush Limbaugh reflected on a theme which John Podhoretz considered in his column on the Supreme Court arguments over Obamacare and, as I put it yesterday, “the failure of all too many in the chattering classes to appreciate the merits of conservative arguments“.
On the astonished reaction of liberals to the poor arguments the administration made before the Supreme Court in defense of the president’s signature initiative, the talker explained:
It’s eye-opening. I really want to be serious about this. They’re a bunch of overhyped know-nothings who do not have an expansive view of the world. They’re in a prison that’s created by their own conceit. They’re in a prison that’s the result of their own arrogance and they live in a place where there is no reality.
. . . .
Now, let me go through some of Hayward’s piece here to try to be illustrative of what I’m talking about. “The Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Month for the Left.”[*] I’m not gonna read the whole thing. I’m gonna take excerpts here. “It is typical for politically engaged people to note the weaknesses and defects of their own side…” No, that’s what’s remarkable; they don’t. There are no weaknesses. There are no defects, until they’re confronted with them. They do not conceive them. (Continuing reading excerpt) “…while overestimating the strength and prowess of their opponents.” That’s us. That’s what we have always done, and hopefully no more. There’s no reason to ever feel inferior to these people. There’s no reason to grant them superior or elite status in any way.
Via Powerline picks. And Rush invites the question: why do some on the left refuse to acknowledge the weaknesses in their own arguments? Or the merits of their opponents’?
*Link not in original.
The reason is they are fundamentally dishonest persons.
As the saying goes, conservatives think liberals are misguided; liberals think conservatives are evil.
Conservatives, raised in an environment of accountability and mistakes, learn the value of seeing all sides, of changing one’s mind, and of accepting the opinions of others.
Liberals, raised in an environment of curved grading, participation trophies, and grievance-mongering, learn only that they are always right, that everyone else should yield to them, and that if something bad happens, it’s someone else’s fault.
Conservatives learn how to argue and debate. Liberals learn how to throw temper tantrums.
There’s an old story about a film critic for the NYT or WaPo who, on Nixon’s victory, said she didn’t know how Nixon could’ve won – she didn’t know anyone who voted for him.
I’ve spent some time here and there reading comments on liberal blogs (I’ have my limit, though) and it’s occurred to me that, more often than not, they don’t have an argument.
What many do have is a high opinion of themselves and their ability to run the lives of other people; or utter contempt for people not like them (e.g. southerners or people from ND, NE, KS, MT…); or deep-seated jealousy of others they believe are better off.
The Trayvon controversy is a good example: a liberal can’t explain why, in this case, a mob lynching of the shooter is a good idea – they just rant about white(-Hispanic) privilege and racism on the part of those who think the case should be fairly investigated like any other, without political interference – with the chips falling where they may.
Pauline Kael.
I’m not sure they’re fundamentally dishonest so much as fundamentally deluded. Don’t get me wrong. I do see a great deal of dishonesty on the left. I too struggle to understand the leftist mindset. Like many who read and comment on this blog I have good friends whom I love and respect – and they are leftists. I struggle to understand how someone who is so groovy much of the time can become obtuse – occasionally mean – when it comes to politics.
On another note = I tried to track down the “no reason to ever feel inferior” quote and had no success. Is there a link to Rush? or is this a personal transcription? It’s a good quote and I’d like to know where to find it.
The funny part about it is that the left, for all their belief in “education”, worships a Supreme Court justice who insists that education is irrelevant and that skin color, aka “wise Latina”, trumps everything else.
The Left lives in a perpetual fantasy world of their own making; in Obama & the Obama Democrats’ case, it’s ObamaLand. They refuse to acknowledge reality even when their fragile fantasy is crumbling all around them.
Rick 67: Here is the Rush transcript-
“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” – Ronald Reagan
I’ll say it again – complaining about your opponent not accepting the merits of your argument is the surest sign that your arguments are incredibly weak, if they can even be considered arguments at all. Take the conservatives’ arguments against evolution – what merit do they have? Scientists can belly up to the table with 2 centuries worth of observations, conclusion, evidence, and fieldwork, and all conservatives can do is beg to be taken seriously because their religion is very important to them and it hurts their feelings when people suggest their God may not exist. Oh yes please, I’ll be right over here acknowledging the merit of that argument.
How about supply side economics? That’s blown up in our collective faces, and here conservatives treat us to some kind of half-baked conspiracy theories about how it’s all the fault of Democrats who, despite being in the minority, were able to force the government and the banks to hand out free houses to poor minorities because they wanted the poor minorities to vote for them because as we all know Democrats do absolutely horrible with the poor minority constituency every election…. or something? Too much government regulation resulted in the economic collapse? Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction? Sarah Palin is an intelligent human being that should be the Vice President? Which of these conservative arguments would you consider meritous?
And here goes the misogynist projecting again.
Kepler, Galilio unavailable for comment. Neither was the Piltdown Man.
These scientists might have something to say though.
Confirmed, yet Levi keeps trotting out the big lie.
So now she’s not even human? Does your hatred of women know no bounds little boy? Of course Levi can’t answer. Since I have years “of observations, concluson(s), evidence, and fieldwork” to prove my point. It must be true, by his standards.
Now hush Levi, the adults are talking.
It is not so much complaining as it is pointing out their ignorance and myopia.
Again, Levi conflates conservatives with people who don’t believe in science.
When was this? Also, please cite an example of an instance in which Keynesian economics didn’t.