The political spectrum

Through See the Forest, I find a link to Matt Stoller’s excellent post on different forms of partisanship. I don’t think he’s entirely fair in his critique of league of wonkish centrist bloggers (Yglesias/Drum/Kleiman/Marshall), although he’s certainly on to something there. That part of the argument (that for a host of reasons professional moderate centrists can’t bring themselves to come to terms with the depths of incompetence and dishonesty the current GOP leadership has sunk to) works much more unproblematically when applied to the allegedly left of center in the traditional media. You’re Sam Donaldsons and Nick Kristoffs and so on.

The key graf deals with the other side of the coin:

Gore’s attitude, one shared by Paul Krugman, Atrios, Al Franken Daily Kos, and what is inaccurately deemed the extreme left of the party, is that this is a definitive zero sum fight where the other side has adequately demonstrated its contempt for the rule of law and deserves no quarter, no analysis, and no discourse – only exposure of its dishonesty and ruthlessness. While countercultural in origin, the attitude that the right is not simply an opponent but an illegitimate opponent no longer draws any strength from its hippy dreamy pacifist beginnings. It is instead the province of moderate professionals like Paul Krugman, Brad DeLong, Jeralyn Merritt or Richard Holbrooke – those who don’t shy away from the use of American force, believe in profit and wealth creation, and care intensely about professional ethics and intellectual responsibility. There’s little patience for ‘the media’ among this crowd, and corruption is understood as an axiomatic massive force in contemporary American life.

I have little to add here, except that it’s worth reemphasizing the extent to which the way one’s position on the political spectrum is determined in our political discourse. It seems largely based on two things: Position on the Iraq war and how stridently you critique your opponents. This is, needless to say, a terribly inaccurate way of determining political identities. And it hasn’t just been picked up by the media, it has filtered down and taken root. How many people understand that if we look at their governing records, Kerry is clearly and squarely to the left of Dean? Not many, I’ll wager.

This needs to stop. Paul Krugman is a national treasure, but not because he gives the left a voice. It’s because he does what a serious moderate is supposed to do.