The Desolation of Smug

A stunner from Emmett Rensin of Vox on the progressive adoption of smugness over empathy:

The smug style in American liberalism

There is a smug style in American liberalism. It has been growing these past decades. It is a way of conducting politics, predicated on the belief that American life is not divided by moral difference or policy divergence — not really — but by the failure of half the country to know what's good for them.

Wait, is this an essay or the Vox mission statement? Pressing on.

The development of the smug style ties in to the Democratic abandonment of the white working class, which itself has some history:

Richard Hofstadter, the historian whose most famous work, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, this essay exists in some obvious reference to, advanced a similar line in writing not so well-remembered today. His then-influential history writing drips with disdain for rubes who regard themselves as victimized by economics and history, who have failed to maintain correct political attitudes.

But 60 years ago, American liberalism relied too much on the support of working people to let these ideas take too much hold. Even its elitists, its Schlesingers and Bells, were tempered by the power of the labor movement, by the role Marxism still played in even liberal politics — forces too powerful to allow non-elite concerns to entirely escape the liberal mental horizon. Walter Reuther, and Bayard Rustin, and A. Philip Randolph were still in the room, and they mattered.

As to the new members of the Democratic coalition, well...

The consequence was a shift in liberalism's center of intellectual gravity. A movement once fleshed out in union halls and little magazines shifted into universities and major press, from the center of the country to its cities and elite enclaves. Minority voters remained, but bereft of the material and social capital required to dominate elite decision-making, they were largely excluded from an agenda driven by the new Democratic core: the educated, the coastal, and the professional.

I would say this smugness piece is sailing in similar waters to those charted earlier by Jonathan Chait in his piece on the return of PC culture and the progressive thought police:

But it would be a mistake to categorize today’s p.c. culture as only an academic phenomenon. Political correctness is a style of politics in which the more radical members of the left attempt to regulate political discourse by defining opposing views as bigoted and illegitimate. Two decades ago, the only communities where the left could exert such hegemonic control lay within academia, which gave it an influence on intellectual life far out of proportion to its numeric size. Today’s political correctness flourishes most consequentially on social media, where it enjoys a frisson of cool and vast new cultural reach. And since social media is also now the milieu that hosts most political debate, the new p.c. has attained an influence over mainstream journalism and commentary beyond that of the old.

Lots to take in. And a certain type of smugness is hardly the exclusive possession of the left. Just off-hand, the "makers and takers" dichotomy alluded to by Romney in 2012 is not a particularly empathetic way of thinking about the large numbers of people for whom the American system of schools and jobs has not working.

John Sexton at Hot Air has more.

 

Comments

[jimmyk]

Wait, is this an essay or the Vox mission statement?

LOL, brilliant, TM, as usual.

[Theo]

From the prior thread:

Ignatz --

At the risk of taking your 3:01 post more seriously than you intended it, I am absolutely certain that a society that engages in physical extermination of a significant part of its population on the grounds of political disagreement will quickly descend into barbarism and Mad Max-style dystopianism, to be followed by the most fearsome tyranny.

One hopes that you were speaking in jest or for effect.

[NK]

TomM-- with respect -- you are REALLY missing the boat here. Deliberately? this is the schism between 'Old White Libs' like Chait who came of age honoring PC in the breach (socialism only for public consumption not private belief) and the New Progs like Rensin, who are flat out socialists and true haters of Western Canon. The predictable thing is that both the Old White Libs and hardcore Progs accuse each other of smugness. Rensin accuses faux centrists like Chait of being phonies who profess liberal sympathy for the poor/wanting but don't do anything in substance about it (the OWLibs are phonies) Chait accuses the Progs of smugness because as they cannot win the political debate as the voters won't adopt socialism, he accuses the Progs of trying to shut down debate to eventually force socialism on the people by non democratic means (Chait is correct about that.) Chait wants softcore socialism where cronies like journolisters get paid by the TP, so Chait needs a functioning market economy host to pay him off. rensin wants revolution so we become Venezuela. Rensin 'wins' the debate with the Old White Libs because he's far more honest about his objectives and means. I asked 'deliberately' above because of the not so nice gratuitous shot at conservatives you take at the end Tom. Gratuitous and misguided; where have schools and jobs failed worst? In the Blue Hells, and how are we responsible for that? Is Mrs TM getting on your case for being too right wing recently? Jeez.

[James D]

since Theo is reposting...

Theo, our society ALREADY engages in wholescale physical extermination of lives it considers undesirable or unworthy. It's one of the core tenets of the Left.

And they're pushing to expand it with "assisted suicide" (which will surely move to "encouraged suicide" before too long). And with calls to prosecute citizens who dare to disagree publicly on issues the Left seems "settled" (or did you miss 20 attorneys general working together with enviro groups to work out how to go after "climate change deniers" ?

The way things are headed right now, if there's going to be any extermination of political opponents, it's going to be led by the left, and people like us - and you, too, regardless of how moderate you think you are - will be the victims.

[jimmyk]

Speaking of smug:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/upshot/a-new-policy-disagreement-between-clinton-and-sanders-soda-taxes.html

[NK]

JamesD: c'mon, if the Left really wanted to perpetrate violence on conservatives and moderates, they'd militarize police forces to avoid Posse Comitatus using sympathetic unionized police, and simultaneously disarm citizens to render them defenseless. So obviously.....?????...... wait one second!

[NK]

here's a pretty good description of Rensin's hard core socialism, and explains why he dislikes Old White Libs so passionately. As I said, Tom really missed the boat here: http://www.bookwormroom.com/2014/02/21/by-attacking-jonah-goldberg-a-recent-college-grad-reveals-that-the-american-mind-is-no-longer-closing-its-closed/

[Dave (in MA)]

More smug: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/21/cheap-trick-we-got-asked-to-play-for-the-republicans-we-would-have-got-swastika-guitars-made?CMP=fb_gu

Never liked 'em anyway, aside from their nice interactions with GUS & Son.

[lyle]

Since reposting is all the rage here today, get over to PJM to catch the short video of Prince telling Kim Kardashian, "get off the stage."

Oh, and I stand with James!

[lyle]

Per the Washington Free Bacon, The Omen admits Hilligula is going to nullify the 2A and start grabbing guns. But that Trump fella sure is vulgar, huh?

[Jack is Back! (As An Officially Declared Islamaphobe)]

No smug here. All I am intereste d in after reading the trivia column in the WSJ today is what "cocktails" jimmyk and the clarice family plan on devouring this passover? Some of the ones described would curl my toes, my hair and a few other appendages:)

Never knew that was a popular undertaking during the Seder.

[Frau Arroganz]

Smug is the eternal look on the face of VA's governor, another unindicted partner in the Clinton Crime Family. There's a reason I call him Terry McOffal.

[Buckeye]

Per the Washington Free Bacon, The Omen admits Hilligula is going to nullify the 2A and start grabbing guns. But that Trump fella sure is vulgar, huh?

Exactly right lyle. I'll take vulgar all day long over that bitch.

[Appalled]

If choice is between Hillary corruptly shredding the constitution or Trump boorishly shredding the constitution, I'll choose neither. Because some portion of my rights is going up in smoke with either one of them.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

JiB, didn't see that WSJ piece, but seders are all about red wine.

[NK]

Happy Passover to all of our Jewish friends. Have a good seder.

[Jack is Back! (As An Officially Declared Islamaphobe)]

jimmyk,

http://www.wsj.com/articles/crafting-a-kosher-cocktail-during-passover-takes-creativity-1461262321

You know the google drill if its behind the paywall. But these have nothing to do with Red Wine. Must be another sect:)

[Jack is Back! (As An Officially Declared Islamaphobe)]

No only Passover but Shakespeare's death 400 years ago. If you go to Bryant Park tomorrow they are putting on all the famous death scenes from his plays.

Doesn't that make you feel good today?

[Captain Hate]

I think the ewok talked about this yesterday.

[lyle]

Trump is promising to take rights away from us? Which ones? Has Trump ever said, "you don't have fall in love, just fall in line"? Has he ever said, "we're going to take some things from you for your own good"? Oh, I forgot, he's a vulgarian who'll say just about anything.

[Truthbetold]

lyle

Trump is for eminent domain for private use.

Is that not taking away rights?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

My answer from the prior thread;

It's up to the Dems whether it was in jest.
If they reform themselves into a party that believes once again in liberal politics and self government then no camps will prove necessary.
If they continue down the road of the Totalitarian Temptation on which they have embarked at the insistence of the New Left scum that have high-jacked the party then our country will be in grave peril of that most fearsome tyranny you seem to think only happens after would be tyrants are kept from power.
I of course do not think a gulag on our side of the Bering Sea will be literally necessary but we may very well need a violent revolution to save the nation.
History didn't end in 1776.

[lyle]

Careful, Ig, that kind of talk scares all the "moderates."

[NK]

moderation in the face of tyranny is no virtue......

something like that.

[lyle]

Ace on The Omen:

She looks like an animatronic robot in Disney's least popular attraction, Hall Of People Who Look Like Webb Hubbel.

The ewok can go into the gloaming sometimes but he can burn with the best of 'em, too.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

JiB, I was going to mention vodka, but with all the wine one drinks, vodka does not appeal.

[Johns_Creek_Bill]

Ignatz,

Sadly, I believe you are correct.

The Republic is failing. Forrest Trump and Sanders are manifestations of this failure.

I was despondent over King Three Putt's re-election but it is only getting worse.

The Constitution will be fully read within our lifetimes.

[jorod]

Smug liberals feel morally superior to everyone else.

[glasater]

One cannot read/study the Bible and believe in its truth and be smug. But then academia discharged that kind of thinking decades ago.

[Tom Maguire]

)Interesting points from NK but the house lights are dimming and I lack time for a proper response.

[Catsmeat]

The Vox piece on smug liberalism is really worth reading--full of deeply obvious points but written by a real liberal to liberals as a wake-up call. If you happen to work in a humanities department of a big school as I do, you know the fumigator-level "chamois of the Alps" level santimony I'm talking about--I came across the term "virtue signaling" somewhere online last year--that's what happens continually, with no acknowledgment of the accompanying loss of judgment.

[middyfeek]

The man is entirely right that half the country doesn't know what's good for it. The trouble is he's entirely wrong as to which half.