Shorter Ross Douthat: We should pay for more police to watch and intimidate young black men so we don't have to pay for their incarceration.
Really. His solutions for the social problems of young black men are either police state or jail. Because, you see, young black men are criminals and what we need to discuss is the cheapest way to keep them from the rape and pillage that lives in the heart of every young black man except those he knows and therefore are acceptable.
God! The Times just hired a racist, sexist douchebag for its op-ed page! Can't the entire damn world see that and explode with disgust? Those "liberal bloggers" who praised him are morons.
What is wrong with this country, that such mediocre men can be treated with so much respect? That a Texas housewife with a blog read by six people realizes this, yet our elite do not?
Well, there I go answering my own question. The elite and its wanna-bes will always protect their own, to everyone else's detriment.
Ezra Klein: Congratulations to Ross Douthat, who will be replacing Bill Kristol at The New York Times. It's a great choice for many reasons, but what I've come to appreciate most in Ross's writing and look forward to most in his column is his deeply held and well-defended faith.
Ta-Nehisi Coates: Ross Douthat is going to work for the New York Times as a columnist. Ross and I fight under different flags. But I expect he'll be at the Times, what he always was here--a swordsman of great caliber and greater honor. Here's to him. The roster won't be the same once he's gone.
Kevin Drum: Marc Ambinder reports that the New York Times has hired his Atlantic colleague Ross Douthat as an op-ed columnist. This is basically to take Bill Kristol's place as their #2 conservative columnist (alongside David Brooks) and it seems like a pretty good choice to me for a couple of reasons. First, Ross has a fluid, intelligent writing style that's well suited to the 800-word op-ed format. Second, he fits the post-Bush zeitgeist: he is, at core, a conservative Barack Obama.
Matthew Yglesias: I’d say congratulations are in order to Ross Douthat, the new hire at The New York Times. Dumping Bill Kristol in favor of Ross is a very smart move—probably the smartest one (Virginia Postrel?) the Times could have made—and will generate a conservative column that progressives will have reason to read and take seriously.
UPDATE: Oh for God's sake. Coates supports Douthat, while disagreeing with everyone Douthat agrees with. Idiot. You deserve your Atlantic position. Enjoy toadying to someone who calls you an exception to your inferior race.
er into the Douchehat oeruvre and apologize for their earlier enthusiasm, as Sensible Centrist Brad DeLong did?
ReplyDeleteIt would be bad for their careers, so probably not. Maybe they agree with him, too.
ReplyDeleteCoates is going to have to make a decision some day soon about the company he keeps.
I guess Douthat makes it easier for them by throwing in lines like "Well, of course, black men like Coates' friend are occasionally shot by 'overzealous' officers." And yet he acknowledges that particular reality but still insists on a larger police presence without qualification.
ReplyDeleteIt's so transparent, but of course people like Ezra Klein and Matthew Yglesias will keep acting like they don't see through it (and maybe some of them don't).
It's hard to believe that all you have to do is throw in a conciliatory sentence or two and you can get away with so much. But people don't like risking disapproval--they need it too much. They don't want to be thrown out of the club. And they don't think much of women or blacks anyway, at least not enough to wash their hands of someone over it.
ReplyDeletea swordsman of great caliber
ReplyDeleteWhat?
Heh. It's become common to use caliber that way, but it's still a bit awkward.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I wouldn't say Douthat was high caliber. More like a .22.