Can't Debate, Busy Pummeling Strawmen

Friedersdorf enjoyed Matthew Continetti's article on the tea parties and Glenn Beck. He adds:

Mr. Continetti focuses on the political cost associated with this kindof rhetoric. I submit that it also exacts a cost in the world of ideas.Insofar as the conservative rank-and-file confronts an imagined cabalof leftists intent on destroying America from within, it'll remainutterly unequipped to argue with, persuade, or even intelligentlyoppose the actual liberals and progressives who compose the...