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Not that we need it, but Stephens and Collins continue to advance the frontiers of inanity today [1]

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Date: 2022-10-24

“The Conversation” is a continuing series at the New York Times featuring ‘Conservative’ Bret Stephens and ‘Liberal’ Gail Collins exchanging banter in a manner which the Times believes is both entertaining and enlightening.

Each installment is capped by a headline writer who apparently is either engaging in world class snark, is totally clueless, or is just stringing words together because something has to go on top of the heap of words. Their latest collaboration is titled: This Wasn’t the Vibe Shift Democrats Had in Mind.

I’ll spare you the whole thing and just share some reactions I had to it. Most of my ire is directed at Stephens who embodies cynical obliviousness to the limits of sheer obnoxious smuggery. Collins is pathologically polite to Stephens most of the time, though occasionally she does land a few hits. Other times, well…

I am reminded of that category reserved for people of a certain kind of cluelessness — “They will be first up against the wall when the Revolution comes.” Oh well.

The topics start with the downfall of Liz Truss in England, go on to student loan forgiveness, and discuss several election contests around the country.

Stephens heaps more ritual praise on the late Margaret Thatcher and the power of tax cuts while explaining where Truss went wrong. There’s so much to unpack here.

Stephens: “Tax cuts usually stimulate a sluggish economy. “

Nope. Classic trickle-down voodoo economics.

Stephens, on Truss and her mistake: “Have the courage of your convictions and the wit to defend them.”

Sounds like that observation about how the repeated failures of conservatism to deliver on its promises are always excused away: “Conservatism can never fail; it can only be failed.”

Or to put it another way, she didn’t conservatize hard enough. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Stephens on writing off $400 billion in college loans in the face of a national debt approaching $31 trillion: “It’s bad policy and worse politics.”

Not one mention of the Bush or Trump tax cuts.

Here’s something for some perspective. Cost of a Ford class supercarrier: $13 billion, $38 billion for the whole program. Cost of the Iraq War of choice? $1.1 – 3 trillion and counting depending on who you ask. Subsidies to the hugely profitable fossil fuel industry cooking the planet: $5.9 trillion (Yale 360) in 2020 alone.

Stephens: “I probably shouldn’t say this, but anyone who thought, at any age, that a degree in medieval history would lead to a life of riches needs stupidity forgiveness, not loan forgiveness.”

Translation: The only reason to pursue an education is to make lots of money.

Moving right along, Stephens’ biggest problem with J.D. Vance: “the fact that he represents the isolationist wing of the conservative movement.” No problem with his financial scams, hardly bothered by his Trump idolatry — and thought he did well in the debate.

I could go on, but just the fact that Stephens plans to vote for Zeldin for NY Governor shows how little consistency there is to his rejection of Trump. Does anyone doubt election-denier Zeldin would pardon Trump in a New York minute if he was convicted of anything in a New York court?

Stephens does support Democratic candidates in some races – as long as he thinks they won’t win. Seriously?

Gail Collins: “Bret, either you are the most fair-minded commentator in the country or this is yet another marker for how far the Republican Party has sunk. Even its defenders can’t defend many of this year’s candidates.

I’m inclined to say both are true, by the way.”

Half right Ms. Collins. Half right.

Just a thought — ease off on that reflex flattery because Mr. Stephens is starting to get questions from Mrs. Stephens on why he keeps coming home from work with hickeys on his hind parts.

And then there’s this. Sheer gobsmackery – the bit at the very end where Stephens ‘explains’ what he is doing:

“I’m rooting for Biden to succeed because we can’t allow Trump to come back, Vladimir Putin to win, or the country to come even more unglued and unhinged than it already is. Of course my way of rooting for success is to scold Biden nonstop whenever I think he’s screwing up. It’s a formula my mom has been using with me for nearly 49 years. She’s confident that, in a few years more, she might even succeed.”

That confession about Brett’s mother explains a lot about Bret Stephens. It also fits with the bit about conservatism never failing. (See above.)

A suggestion for Mr. Stephens: apply the same energy to rooting for the ‘success’ of Trump and the GOP. With ‘support’ like his, Biden doesn’t need any enemies.

And I can only imagine how fraught the parent-teacher conferences about young Brett must have been.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/24/2130854/-Not-that-we-need-it-but-Stephens-and-Collins-continue-to-advance-the-frontiers-of-inanity-today

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