If I could get a decent advance, I think I could write a decent book about what’s wrong with the Drew Westen piece. It’s really that epically bad. But it’s more than bad. It’s bad in a way that kind of perfectly illustrates everything I’ve ever written about progressive politics. It’s bad in a way that I could go on about for long enough to create a book. It seems to encompass every bad idea that progressives cling to like zombie lies. It’s lazy. It’s wrong. It’s myopic and forgetful. It’s stupid. It’s counter-factual. It involves magical thinking. It’s ungenerous and uncharitable. And it raises the power of rhetoric above the power of organizing. And, yet, it is so incredibly seductive, isn’t it?
It needs to be demolished. I wish I had the time and money to demolish it.
