Blind Adherence

John Cole at is the leader at one of the most vociferous Republican bashing blogs on the Internet at Balloon Juice. It used to be a fun place, but any more I just skim the posts on there and, when I see terms like "Galtian overlords” and “east coast elites” I recognize another piece of anti-conservative froth and move on. John Cole works himself to a frenzy in one such rant, leading to, “THE OTHER FUCKING PARTY IS CRAZY. And I’m not saying that just to be hyperbolic. They are nucking futs. Lunatics. Insane.” He finishes with the reason he supports Democrats,

So until we exist in a system other than a two party system, I’m with the imperfect losers, happily. At least many of them have their hearts and heads in the right place, and when your choice is them of the frothing nutters, it isn’t even a choice.

I would question that “many of them have their hearts and heads in the right place,” perhaps a few of them do, but I do question his basic premise. He admits that his party is the “imperfect losers” but thinks that the way to deal with the situation is to support them and to focus on being radically critical of the other party. It is best to be non-critical of the “imperfect losers,” to say nothing which might be construed negatively about them, and urge their election because it is important to “defeat the lunatics.”

It never occurs to him that blind acceptance of the policies and politics of his own “imperfect losers” he is perpetuating the imperfections. As long as he and his fellow cheerleaders keep waving their pompoms for them they will keep doing what they are doing.

It never occurs to John Cole that by being critical of his own “imperfect losers” he might contribute to making them better.

I don’t criticize conservatism very much here, because I don’t much care about those guys, and when they say stupid things it neither surprises or concerns me. It’s what I expect from them. I expect more from liberals, or as they call themselves today, progressives. We are supposed to hold ourselves to a standard that involves actual thinking, not the mere parroting of ideology.

I criticize my side because I expect my side to be better.