David Broder's most recent column--ick
Betsy's Page
Hi, this is Craig, Betsy’s husband, temporarily filling in. Betsy is finishing the Presidential Academy for American History & Civics and generally having a fine time, but she is currently staying at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel, which while a nice hotel, charges an arm and a leg for Internet access. Betsy, economist’s wife that she is, declines to pay. And she’s really busy these last few days of the program.
So here’s one post for today (and I expect to have a few more on the weekend). I haven’t discussed it with her, but I think she’d agree with this opinion.
Many of the mavens of the MSM argue that professional journalists are so much more qualified to report on current affairs than “pajama-wearing” bloggers. That claim seems ever more unfounded to me. I believe David Broder’s most recent piece is a case in point. I stopped reading Mr. Broder years ago, but the headline on this column drew me in against my better judgment: “Simmering Rage Within the GOP”.
In the first half of the piece, the “simmering rage” is attributed to just one person. Granted, Mr. Broder identifies him as a very prominent, very conservative Republican:
<<< “one of the founders of the postwar Republican Party in the South, one of those stubborn men who challenged the Democratic rule in his one-party state”. >>>
And what is the stubborn founder enraged about? Two things: President Bush’s vetoing of expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research—research he suggests might cure Parkinson’s disease--and Republican opposition to raising the minimum wage.
Three observations.
1. It’s difficult to assess the sincerity and the depth of this person’s “rage” because he is, following the MSM’s too common practice, anonymous. Might he have some personal ax to grind? We don’t know. Readers can’t even be sure how conservative and how (currently) Republican he is. Recall that once upon a time, David Brock was a supposedly a conservative Republican.
2. That’s important because neither position this gentleman holds seems conservative. It’s not at all clear scientifically that that research will eventually cure Parkinson’s, or even the best way to try, but even if it were, since when are all good ideas supposed to be funded by the federal government? If it’s a good idea, why won’t the private sector pursue it? (Note that the President’s veto does not extinguish embryonic stem cell research. It doesn’t even stop federal funding of that research. It's a Liberal mistake to confuse lack of federal funding with suppression.)
3. Raising the minimum wage is—and has been—opposed by virtually all conservative economists. (And many non-conservative economists, too. There are more effective ways to assist the working poor.) For a very recent example see Donald Boudreaux’s piece today (link below).
The second half of the piece adduces just two additional pieces of evidence for “simmering rage within the GOP”. Mr. Broder reports that “. . . in visiting with people in the church social hall after the funeral this spring for Lyn Nofziger” he heard this: “They [the Bush White House] never reached out to us. They never thought they needed our help. Now they're in trouble. To hell with them.”
Note that, again, the sources are anonymous. Note further that the political professionals attending Lyn Nofzinger’s funeral are probably not representative of the average GOP voter. Especially since the cited folks have a narrow and very selfish basis for their “rage”: they used to be important and they apparently aren’t any longer.
Last, Mr. Broder cites a poll conducted recently for the Pew Research Center. It found that
<<< “Democrats [are] far more motivated to vote this year than Republicans. The Democrats held a 16-point advantage over the GOP . . . exactly the reverse of the situation in 1994, the year the Republicans took over Congress.” >>>
But what did that poll show in 2002 and 2004 when, as Mr. Broder admits,
<<< “Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman and the rest of the Republican leaders demonstrated a superior ability to locate and turn out their voters”? >>>
Mr. Broder doesn’t tell us. And even if the poll turns out to be accurate, will we know that the results reflected Republican “rage”? Not by itself, no.
So Mr. Broder’s column is, to say the least, light on evidence. Mr. Broder is the Dean of Washington Punditry and one of the "greatest journalists of our day".
I’ll take the blogosphere, any day.
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