None of the People, None of the Time

Matthew Yglesias doesn't get it:

This is a big structural failing of the American elite. It reflects in part the fact that conservative elites have refused to play the role of honest brokers, the preference of the right's main institutions to propagandize their audience rather than seeking to inform them with an honest, factually accurate presentation of the hawkish view of Middle East policy. It also reflects a large failure of our non-ideological institutions, a completely inability of "the establishment" to succeed in setting national discourse on an even keel. And last it reflects the fact that for several years the main opposition institutions in the United States -- most of all the Democratic Party -- failed for years to aggressively push back. For the year months or so after 9/11, "respectable" folks were expected to spend more time and energy worrying about marginal leftists than about the dangerous radicals peddling made-up facts who just so happened to control the institutions of government.

(1) Of course the establishment spits propaganda. That's what makes them the establishment.

(2) Is it really on the Right's "main institutions" that are guilty of this? Never the Left? The Democratic Party never seeks to sway public opinion in order to further its political agenda? Follow-up question: how many cells in Guantanamo Bay has Nancy Pelosi closed this week?

c/o Ioz