Clutching at Straws that might Break the Camel's Back

In the era of liberal consensus plenty of pubic intellectuals went along received wisdom with their fingers crossed, and it wasn’t just racist Southern Democrats who defected from the New Deal coalition over the last couple of decades. I think the reverse phenomenon is occurring now. Lots of writers are supporting the new orthodoxy out of career considerations even though their temperaments and values are a poor match for conservatism. If nothing else, right wing ideas don’t offer a very inspiring prospect for an ambitious person. Free market ideology is just a hypertrophied version of a Rotary Club speech, and the notions of the religious right are literally false when they aren’t simply incoherent. A lot of folks have and will make a living as camp followers of Halliburton and Boeing, but cheer leading for empire gets old pretty fast