The Atlantic has gotten so bad it makes me long for the days of Douthat, McArdle, and Sully:
It’s 2020, four years from now.
[….]As the presidential primaries unfold, Kanye West is leading a fractured field of Democrats. The Republican front-runner is Phil Robertson, of Duck Dynasty fame. Elected governor of Louisiana only a few months ago, he is promising to defy the Washington establishment by never trimming his beard. Party elders have given up all pretense of being more than spectators, and most of the candidates have given up all pretense of party loyalty. On the debate stages, and everywhere else, anything goes.
I could continue, but you get the gist. Yes, the political future I’ve described is unreal. But it is also a linear extrapolation of several trends on vivid display right now.
What possible purpose could this kind of sub-Borowtiz material serve?
Yes, our political system has gone crazy but someday it may be sane, and Jonathan Rauch will still be a pompous idiot.
Wag
don’t slag the entirety of the Atlantic. They have some really good writers who have been holding Trump’s feet tot fire for months. James Fallows comes to mind
RaflW
The precipitous decline in media goes hand in hand with the failure of our democracy. Twilight of the Elites is turning out to have been pretty much bang-on. I was thinking this morning about how TV in particular, but also shitshow web ‘news’ outlets, have been so culpable. They’ll put on anyone to debate various issues, even if their track record of analysis, prediction or expertise is utter garbage.
The press used to have a role of gatekeeper, preventing all this hogwash from having the imprimatur of truthiness. Completely out the window.
I know, these hacks could go say all this directly on the internet! But they’d be Shouty McEcho if CNN, Fox, BuzzFeed, et all didn’t have them on all the time getting eyeballs and credibility.
JPL
Nigel Farage is going to campaign with Trump in Mississippi. Trump will insist, it’s his way of reaching out to minorities and MSM will talk about the Clinton Foundation.
Mike in NC
@JPL:
All Mrs. Greenspan wants to talk about 24/7 are the emails.
amorphous
Please, by all means I would like to know the metrics that are being “linearly extrapolated” here. Democrats have elected one of the best Presidents of all time, have nominated a hyper-qualified follow-up… so the linear extrapolation is Kanye? Wtf is he trying to say?
On the other hand I don’t doubt the likelihood of the Republican scenario. I’d put money on it if you gave me reasonable odds.
And Doug, let’s be real, you don’t want McMegan back.
Joel
@Wag: fallows is it, now that Coates stopped writing there.
Turgidson
I continue to monitor the Atlantic for Fallows, TNC, and to a lesser extent Goldberg (I disagree with him frequently, but he covers a lot of interesting ground and for whatever reason has had more access to Obama than any other journalist, and his writing on Obama’s foreign policy has been fascinating and surprisingly straight-shooting) and Beinart. And now that David Frum has stopped larding up every column with anti-Obama stupidity in the hopes of being invited back into the Wurlitzer (he’s given up that dream, I think), he has been somewhat interesting during Trump Season.
But then Ron Fournier pops his head in there and says something painfully stupid and predictable. And there’s Young Conor and his mostly coherent but always empty-headed libertarianish musings. So, yeah, lots of embarrassing filler.
Jewish Steel
How American *Politics* Went Insane.
Both sides!
Chyron HR
Could Yeezy even write an entire stump speech without excessively sampling President Obama and/or Steely Dan?
dmsilev
@amorphous: Here’s how he “justifies” it:
So, Bernie Sanders, who for all of his issues is a long-time Representative and then Senator, is representative of the same trends that horked up Trump.
Doug!
@dmsilev:
Plus Bernie lost.
Peale
@JPL: Hmmm. I guess Mississippi is in play? Whatever. A real man would go to the swing state of PA and get Nigel talking about the peril of Polish immigrants. That would be brave. Anyone can develop a Mexican phobia – they make such spicy food and enjoy music that sounds like polkas. Go after the ones with the bland food and polka music and I’ll give them credit for speaking truth to power.
I’ve talked to top music people. Not the people in charge, but top people who were clearly tough and I respected that and they could clean up our tubaphone problem in a week if we’d just let them do their jobs.
glory b
I read somewhere that Kanye West is on the autism spectrum. That’s the reason his mother, who was the head of an English Department at a college whose name escapes me, left her profession to manage him. He’s not a street guy like he tries to seem, they spent a year in China (she was a visiting scholar) when he was a kid.
Its also why he seemed to lose a lot of control after her death. Her friends said she would have been very unhappy with his association with the Kardashians (but a couple of grandkids would likely have softened that).
Her reaction to him dropping out of college was the reason for the names of his first 3 CDs.
catclub
Robert Reich’s book from 2010 or 2012 has a pretty good impersonator of Trump as one choice to be taken in 2020.
Cutting trade, and America First!
JPL
@Peale: That would be awesome!
schrodinger's cat
What about the modest swim wear that Christian fundies like, is that banned too?
catclub
@Peale: I like the sound of your ideas, Cut of jib, newsletter, et cetera, et cetera.
Major Major Major Major
@amorphous:
I think you know exactly what he’s trying to say. There’s just something about the last two Democratic nominees that’s… Different…
schrodinger's cat
@schrodinger’s cat: Oops wrong thread!
Wag
@Joel:
Molly Ball is pretty good, and it is entertaining to read young Conner take on Trump
Villago Delenda Est
Um, given that the prospect of a second President Clinton is high, why would anyone but the incumbent be running in a “fractured” Democratic field in 2020?
The stupid. It burns.
Major Major Major Major
@Peale: Norteño doesn’t just sound like polish polka, it IS polish polka. History is weird.
NorthLeft12
I did not read the full article but the examples I read that he used were all Republicans except for Bernie Sanders. Really?
Altogether now…….Both Sides Are The Same!
catclub
@Villago Delenda Est: I assume Clinton and Kaine were killed by Monica Lewinsky. That is probably in the prologue you missed.
PaulW
The quality of the place has declined in proportion to the lack of new Ta-Nehisi Coates works. They need to bring him back more often.
RaflW
@dmsilev:
Bernie Sanders, Kayne West, who can tell the difference these days?
Jounamanalysmicly speaking, of course.
Major Major Major Major
@NorthLeft12: slate had a piece a while back that they just wouldn’t take off their front page about how democrats would totally support the nominee if it were Sean Penn, so both sides do it!
Peale
If Phil Robertson ran for president after being elected governor of Louisiana, that would actually be step up in terms of qualifications for republicans. He would be both a celebrity and a politician! The actual trajectory based on this round is that in 2020 the GOP will nominate someone who is neither a political office holder nor a celebrity. I’d start listing potential names, but given that the winner will be a complete political novice and be a complete social unknown, it’s hard to come up with a name.
Turgidson
@Villago Delenda Est:
The premise is that Hillary would become so disastrously unpopular and ineffective that she would announce that she would only serve one term. Yes, it is a burningly stupid premise. But one that would make Beltway circle-jerkoffs like this guy and Cillizza and the rest of them die of happiness if it came to pass. They’d vomit so much BothSiderist sludge over it, the resulting mess could be seen from space.
RaflW
@Peale: Chauncey Gardner, of course!
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
And while Sanders has not been a registered Democrat, his status as an independent has been more or less a show. He caucuses with the Democrats, and his politics aren’t far outside the Democratic mainstream.
Turgidson
@Peale:
Dinesh D’Souza, maybe. A barking mad conspiracy theorist, an adulterer, and a felon. Sounds like the next logical place for the GOP to turn.
Edit: Plus, they’d think they get bonus points that they could hold him up as proof that they’re totally not racist.
Schlemazel
@Peale:
Chancy Gardner. Not hard at all
Edit: gottammit! Raf beat me to it
Villago Delenda Est
@Turgidson: It’s crap like this from Villagers that inspired my nym.
Wipe them out. All of them.
Roger Moore
@Peale:
I would say their actual trajectory would be closer to nominating one of the Kardashians: somebody who lacks even Trump’s accomplishments to justify their celebrity.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@Peale:
Ah. the Slavic enemy with in that marches to the 3/4 beat of the accordion.
Peale
@Turgidson: Yeah. I guess. If Bill Kristol was openly pushing for David French to be his NeverTrump, and then there was that great hope out of Utah who was a CIA something or other who was briefly the NeverTrump…Dinesh would fit right in. As would the great grandpuppy of the bitch that played Eddie on Frasier. I guess that would be 2024’s choice.
Anoniminous
The SheDevilFromHell has been regularly seen masticating in public AND “using” homophones.
I would continue, but you get the gist.
Kay
Seething with jealousy :)
He’s as transparent as a 4 year old. He loves celebrities. Ha, ha. You get NO celebrities.
Joel
@Major Major Major Major: I remember that piece; someone on my FB feed posted it. The succinct response is: if my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle.
Kylroy
@RaflW: @Major Major Major Major: I think the racism is massively overshadowed by the quantity of wishful thinking that national Democrats are as disconnected from their voters as national Republicans. When your “revolution” candidate has a quarter-century of experience on Capitol Hill, it indicates that the idea people and the process people are pretty well acquainted.
Peale
@Kay: I don’t think he even means “hot” in terms of Q number. He taking a swipe at Cher for not being as sexy as she once was. Unlike his daughter, who is, well, hot right now.
cleek
that opening aside, the article is actually pretty interesting.
which isn’t to say i buy all of its conclusions, but that there’s a lot of stuff in there worth thinking about.
for example:
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Enhanced Voting Techinques:
Polka will never die!
Kay
@Peale:
He’s such a fool though, because it destroys the whole criticism. If he’s making fun of her for having celebrity supporters it doesn’t matter if they’re “hot” or not. He’s not supposed to care about them.
He gives himself away. It’s like listening to a child.
PST
@dmsilev:
The point is not that Sanders is like Trump. It’s that the party elders have lost so much control that no one knows what either party might hork up one of these days. The fact that Sanders lost doesn’t change this. He might have won if something unexpected had emerged about Clinton late in the game. Moreover, there has been pressure to change the Democratic rules in the direction of fewer uncommitted delegates and more open primaries, both of which would make the nomination of a celebritician more likely.
Any publication that carries James Fallows is okay in my book, and he’s not the only person worth reading at the Atlantic. I see Fallows has a lot of followers here.
Kay
Yeah, I’m horribly embarrassed of the classy, smart Obama’s. I’ll be less ashamed when petty, childish, stupid people are bellowing nonsense as representatives of the US.
catclub
@Roger Moore:
The money is the key thing that gets the press coverage and the respect. It worked a little for Jon Huntsman. Trump was much more of a celbrity, obviously. But the ability to self-fund (or claim to be able to) is necessary. It cuts out a lot of people. Somebody who owns a nascar team
could be next for the GOP.
Ronnie Pudding
@PST: So you think the author of this piece has a point? That both parties have gone crazy and the Dems are just as likely to nominate Kanye as the GOP was to nominate The Donald?
enplaned
As if politics progressed linearly…
schrodinger's cat
@cleek: Its not just Americans. See the buffoon with the broom that people in Delhi have elected as their Chief Minister (like the Governor of a state here).
drdavechemist
@Kay:
“…and the portions are so small.” (Old joke, I know)
MCA1
What, exactly, is the message or campaign theme that Kanye West is going to use to capture this imaginary fractured Democratic Party that managed to get the first black president elected, twice? “F* you, honky?” Is one of the author’s underlying premises that there’s as much latent racism, pointed in a uniform direction, on the D side as there is in the 90% lily white GOP? That’s blindingly stupid, and a remarkable feat in both-sides-do-it one-upsmanship, if so.
Perhaps he instead thinks the Democratic Party is dumb enough and bereft of talent enough to put itself in a position where there are literally 15 non-entity candidates in its next open primary, so that some shoot from the hip embarrassment could run roughshod over all of them? Not bloody likely, and even less so after we’ve seen what the GOP’s uncaged monster has done after turning on them. Not to mention the fact that, while the GOP’s base feels angry at and betrayed by other elements within the GOP, Democrats’ anger is almost exclusively directed at the Republican Party.
I mean, I get that at some point there’s a wraparound effect to some of the “populist” feeling and the middle finger to the powers that be revolutionary fervor and all that. But Bernie Sanders captured every bit of what there was of that on the Democratic side, PLUS every bit of the (a) “I just don’t like Hillary Clinton,” (b) Clinton fatigue and (c) just would like the party to move a little further and faster leftward elements, and still was really nowhere near winning. And he’s a professional pol who knows what he’s doing.
PST
@Ronnie Pudding:
Of course not. Forgive me for saying so, but this may be a case of tl;dr. Kanye and Robertson are meant as satire. But once the author gets past his not-very-clever attempt at a humorous opening, he has a lot to say that I found thought provoking. He argues, among other points, that decay of the power of institutions and middlemen has opened the door to wildcat candidates with little connection to the parties they supposedly represent and no incentive to play well with others. He has a broader critique of ways in which well intentioned reforms may have contributed to political chaos. I didn’t agree with it all, but if you ignore a couple paragraphs of clumsy satire at the outset, the rest is quite interesting. It speaks well for the Atlantic that it is willing to sponsor this kind of extended analysis.
Keith G
@Wag: Here, here.
I find this reoccurring tic a bit petty in blogs like this: Encounter something objectionable, take out the broad brush, and begin painting.
But I wonder Doug….You did a copy/paste on 8 lines of a long piece that has 1500-1600 words. And while you focus on the silly intro, that which you did not point to are the other 450 lines (an estimate) that contain some rather thoughtful ideas about what is vexing our politics.
It’s a good piece. You should read it.
PhoenixRising
Johnathan Rauch is so fucking stupid, he offered to give away my 14th Amendment rights in the NYT to make self-styled ‘Christians’ stop feeling bad about being bigots.
5 years after I had exercised said right to marry the person of my choice. He may be the stupidest person ever graduated by an Ivy.
Anonymous patient
@Major Major Major Major:
I always thought it was German polka, since there were quite a few German immigrants to Mexico… Wiki mentions Germans with a separate heading, Poles lumped into “other”, and more recent group.
I love me some music with Tubas. They are targets of thieves lately as a good tuba costs well up in the 4 figures.
JR in WV
@Kay:
He [Trump] gives himself away. It’s like listening to a child.
An especially immature and unobservant child, too!
m0nty
The tell is that Rauch can’t even bring himself to mention Hillary by name. His premise is based on her not existing.
Enzymer
@Major Major Major Major:
Exactly,
I had that explained to me by Mexican-American friends 20y ago. In Mexico/Mexican culture, the pieces that sound like polkas are called polkas.
scav
@Major Major Major Major: & @Anonymous patient: I think Norteño is all mixed up with German and Bohemian immigrants as well. Bohemia beer isn’t exactly random naming.
NotoriousJRT
@Mike in NC:
All Mrs. Greenspan wants to talk about 24/7 are the emails.
It is important to starve Mrs. Greenspan of her audience.
Theodore Wirth
This is nothing. The future of this used-to-be-great nation has already been portayed in the selph-prophesying film IDIOCRACY.
philadelphialawyer
@PST: @Keith G: Um, no.
This “article” is nothing but the usual horseshit bothsiderism, only in long form. ONE party has gone insane. ONE party has nominated an “anti politics” POS. ONE party has nominated a completely unqualified celebrity POS. ONE party has completely jumped the fucking shark. The other party, ie our party, has not done any of that.
In fact, as much as I now have no use for Bernie Fucking Sanders, still, he is a US Senator, and was a US Rep before that, and a mayor before that. NOT a fucking con man, TV game show host, multiple bankrupt fraud. He did have actual policy positions, as opposed to racist-sexist-xenophobic applause lines.
And, at that, Sanders isn’t even our party’s nominee. Our party’s nominee is eminently qualified. And she beat the non equivalent of Trump in our party handily.
The lede is only the tip of the ice burg. Yeah, it is fucking stupid, in its own right. But no more so than the rest of the drivel.
Fuck the Atlantic.
philadelphialawyer
@m0nty: Exactly. The majority of Dems want Hillary. And, so it seems, does the majority of the country. NOT some “anti politics” celebrity fraud. So, just no…