Big Cocoon

Not too long & not-uninteresting item on cons in their bubble, from WaMo. Actual research shows it was written over a yr. ago. Why did memeorandum go w/ it now? One or two of those involved in the late, unnoticed & unlamented Culture11 are behind yet another attempt by reactionaries to react to something, anything.

Right-wingers believe their ideas are alive and fit for implementation. All that is needed, perhaps, is new personalities and institutions able to market conservatism in the post-Bush era. At least, that is the thinking behind Ricochet, a new online effort that launches in the next few weeks and aims to advance the right-wing conversation in the age of Obama.

Hey, their ideas are solid, they just need a newer set of pimps to sell the tired old whore, & maybe a little more face powder to cover some of the pockmarks.

Here we see the ideological seriousness w/ which these insufferable toads operate:

Tellingly, one episode features a session bashing conservative apostate David Frum as a "country-club Republican" who cedes too much ground to the Democrats, and doesn't do enough "fighting, screaming and hollering," the function of right-wing writers and thinkers, according to Long.

[...]

So far, exactly one Democrat has appeared--Mickey Kaus, most famous for his denunciations of liberals. And reformist conservatives are unconvinced that Ricochet will be performing a service for the movement in merely recycling traditional ideas. "Movements activists have not even begun to grasp how and why the public has turned against them," laments Daniel Larison, a columnist for The Week magazine. It would be much more helpful to speak honestly about ourselves and stop trying to interpret every event as a great sea change in public opinion towards conservatism, he says.

[...]

But the founders of Ricochet are more interested in making conservatism fun, light-hearted and accessible than in re-evaluating their ideas, and at least in this mission, to judge by the podcasts, they seem to have succeeded. Listening to Steyn, Robinson and Long banter and joke about current events is like listening in on a few smart conservative friends having beers. There's music, there's laughing, and there's sprightly, but good-natured, debate.

Ha-fucking-hah! One can imagine the "sprightliness" of Steyn, much of whose shtick runs to "Muslim Islamists have already taken over Yurp, which was a horrible place filled w/ Not-North Americans anyway even before the 'Abs took over, & we're next if we don't outbreed them here!" Not that the constant refrain of an ideology dedicated to maintaining & increasing the power & control of the powerful & controlling through fear-mongering & divisiveness can be anything but light-hearted & accessible from the very beginning, of course.

What does the really reactionary right have to say?

What's funny, of course, is that folks on the right aren't fooled by Friedersdorf-types who aren't conservative and who in fact push far left-wing policies and ideological programs. The "Culture Shock" piece is also stuck in a 2008 mindset, wherein Bush-fatigue, Obamania, and John McCain's political campaign disaster virtually guaranteed a Democratic victory. That moment is long passed.

A March/April 2009 print issue w/ a 2008 mindset? Really?