When Conservatives Are and Are Not Conservatives

We, the crack young staff of “The Hatemonger’s Quarterly,” must sheepishly admit that we seldom read The American Prospect, a dullish left-wing rag. Neither as insightful as The New Republic nor as loony as The Nation, The American Prospect doesn’t really clamor for attention.

Yet a recent gander at its “website” suggests that we should check out this ho-hum publication more often. For, as far as we can intuit, its editorial staff is blessed with a complete lack of concern for intellectual coherence.

Allow us to explain what we mean. Among the articles “posted” on The American Prospect’s “website” a few Thursdays ago are the following:

Cruisin' With Miltie by Eric Alterman A personal memory of Milton Friedman, whose legacy modern-day "conservatives" have left in tatters.

The Right's Denial by Harold Meyerson
So George Bush isn't a real conservative, and conservatism was vindicated in this election? Right-wingers, get real.

Does anyone else see a problem with consistency here? In the former piece, Eric Alterman, The Nation’s incessantly enraged media critic, argues that the “conservatives” in power are not true conservatives like the late Milton Friedman. In the latter piece, Harold Meyerson claims that today’s conservatives are full of it when they say that the “conservatives” in power are not true conservatives.

Gee: Maybe Messrs. Alterman and Meyerson would care to get their talking points together before the folks at The American Prospect lay it on all of us. It’s hard to figure out what the party line is.

Now, we suppose it’s possible that the folks at The American Prospect like to offer disparate views in order to make their readers think. You know, like The Spectator includes both pro- and anti-Iraq War voices.

But we think that’s giving them way too much credit. It’s more likely that they’re just throwing as much they can at the proverbial barn, and seeing what sticks. No wonder no one reads this also-ran lefty magazine.