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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Yeah, Ed, We Actually Already Noticed That

Longtime Republican strategist Ed Rogers, writing in the Washington Post in a matter-of-fact way about the psychology of his party:
Republicans are hierarchical, and we like order… And we don't have much tolerance for too many facts or too much information. In politics, a bumper sticker always beats an essay.
I find this quite bizarre. Why isn't this statement an indictment immediately preceding Rogers' permanent rejection of the party with which he has been associated all his life? Are these confessions the equivalent for him of another Rogers, Will's famous rueful observation, "I don't belong to an organized party -- I'm a Democrat?" Democrats might not be thrilled about our occasionally inefficacious lack of organizational focus, but to the extent that it arises out of our celebration of diversity it is a price we are usually more than willing to pay. Does Rogers think that the authoritarian idiocy he is recognizing in his party is a comparably charming quality? I am baffled.

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