I’ve always said that that there really is no such thing as a Reasonable Republican anymore. When it comes to modern American conservatism, the most respectable people in the world spout the same nonsense that the wingnuts do. This is what John Cochrane said last week about the African American community:
America has a real problem on the lower income end, epitomized by Charles Murray’s “Fishtown.” A segment of America is stuck in widespread single motherhood, leading to terrible early-child experiences, awful education, substance abuse, and criminality. 70% of male black high school dropouts will end up in prison, hence essentially unemployable and poor marriage prospects. Less than half are even looking for legal work.
This is what Ted Nugent said yesterday about the African American community:
Based on crime stats in Ferguson and elsewhere, it would be a safe bet to assume the two thugs the police are looking for are black males between the age of 15 and 25.
It would also be a safe bet the two thugs being searched for were raised by a single parent, have criminal records, are high school dropouts, don’t have jobs and are very likely to be members of a gang.
Basically, they are both based on the same aristocratic idea that the rich are deserving and the poor are not. The rich are just better. And just as always in this country, that largely depends upon carefully crafted racism, now most often pitched by Charles Murray.
Hey! Cool that Reed Richardson put your e-mail in his latest!
Yeah, he asked if he could publish it. I thought he might edit it a bit (he didn’t); I told him it was kind of a muddle but I think he liked the comparison of the debt and education “reform” movements. The truth is, I was kind of drunk when I wrote it… Anyway, he’s a very approachable guy and I’ve been a big booster of his for a few years — as have you been, if I recall right. But in general, I’ve found people in the actual liberal media, The Nation especially, to be very good about responding to mail as long as you make it short and aren’t stupid. (Although Eric Alterman did answer a stupid question of mine about why Matt Taibbi had made a snarky comment about him. I had assumed they had some relationship. But that was not the case. I could get an article out of it if I could find the quote!)
That’s great about The Nation responding to mail. Their comment boards are such a mess, I’d be disheartened if authors there read that junk. (Some good posters but lots of really hateful shit. Where are the thoughtful conservatives? Elsewhere, I s’pose.)
Hmm, short, not stupid, and half-buzzed . . . well I always fail at the first, bat about .333 on the latter two. (Perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned?) I was really happy to see your stuff posted by R.R., I do think he’s terrific, and he included your blog links! What a nice surprise for this reader of both, and botherer of one . . . ;)
Partly I’m basing my ideas about how to get responses on my own experiences. There’s nothing especially bad about long emails, but personally, I put them to the side and can take forever to get back to them. And sometimes they just get lost. Also people often ramble. That’s probably truer of people writing to me, where they feel they have a lot in common because of the books. But mostly, people are very nice. It’s strange, because in the past, when it was very easy to find my email address, I got a lot of hate mail. Now I don’t really. So people hate me, but not enough to spend 30 seconds to find my contact info!
But the main thing is: if people have a simple question or comment, I usually get back right away. And I try to go it regardless if they are in trouble, as a lot of people are — the ones who write to me.
If I can manage a one sentence email, I do. That’s especially true with Dean Baker and other economists. Usually, I’m just trying to get confirmation about some idea. I still think it is amazing that Jared Bernstein answers my questions. I mean, he was chief economist for Joe Biden. You’d think he’d be too busy hanging out in hot tubs with babes.
On the other hand, maybe it isn’t that surprising. These people doubtless get a lot of crazy hate mail. People writing to tell them how much you liked something they wrote and asking a question that shows you engaged with it has to be flattering. The only surprise is that I always assume these people are deluged to email, but maybe that’s not right. I never write to Johnny Depp…