I read Bob Somerby every day. I don’t always agree with him, but I think he often has something interesting or important to say. But today I was really struck by this:
In short, we liberals have done a miserable job over the past fifteen years. But we remain very good at one thing; we’re very good at telling everyone else how stupid and foolish they are! Those who disagree with us are “wing-nuts”–and now, they’re “tea-baggers” too. We call them names every chance we get, then marvel at the wing-nutty way they reject our advanced ideas.
Let’s face it: This has always been the principal “joy of liberalism.” Among a certain type of white pseudo-liberal, the very point of being a liberal is the opportunity it gives us to name-call working-class whites. This is our one undeniable skill–and it reaches its fullest flower when we get to call them racists. Indeed, a certain type of white pseudo-liberal lives for the pleasures this practice provides. It’s the only political play we seem to know. We’re like a football team which runs off right tackle every play–then wonders why it can’t score.
I think there’s a wise point in here about the limits of mockery for Democrats–particularly in a country in which white people of all incomes like to identify with working class whites and the other party is getting whiter and whiter. Still, it was at this moment it occurred to me that the “principal joy” of Bob Somerby’s liberalism is being able to call other liberals idiots.
— A. Serwer
