Bipartisan Misery

(cc photo by kevindooley)

Robert Farley wades into a comment threat on a conservative blog where people fume about the likely ratification of New START:

The post itself isn't particularly interesting, but the comment thread is fascinating in that it reads almost as a direct mirror image of dozens of comment threads that you'd find on progressives blogs decrying the latest "surrender" by Democratic office holders. I find it fascinating because beliefs in the incompetence of the Democratic party, and a set of related beliefs about the political ruthlessness of the GOP, simply aren't shared by movement conservatives; they believe that the GOP is full of weak-kneed traitors kneeling before Reid/Pelosi/Obama and willing to surrender its most cherished principles etc. etc. etc.

To be sure, I'm not surprised by this; the GOP faithful have demonstrated an admirable (?) willingness to destroy any politician who wanders, however briefly, into "moderate" territory. What's interesting is that the subjective interpretations of both progressives and movement conservatives regarding their Congressional delegations are almost identical.

In part, this kind of thing is inevitable in politics. But in part I think it's a psychological pathology that's distinctly caused by some of the odd aspects of our political system. Counter-majoritarianism further exacerbates politicians' natural desire to want to have it both ways. In a more majoritarian system it's more straightforward to assess whether or not elected officials are fulfilling their campaign pledges, so there's a stronger incentive to try to bring your pledges in line with what you can actually deliver.