December 17, 2004
76 trombones led the big parade....
A friend writes, concerning my recent jab at Andrew Sullivan:
Andrew
Why don't you just come clean? It's good for the soul.
When you backed Kerry because of the FMA you essentially sold out most of your conservative principles. You are now trying to save face (or recoup) on what's left of them by nit-picking, monday-morning quarterbacking, ignoring some of your earlier positions on Iraq (remember the flypaper theory?) and everything else under the sun to make it appear your presidential choice was somehow principled and based on issues other than the FMA..
Forget it Babe. Nobody's buying. (Yes, you were always a deficit hawk - raise taxes in a recession?? - what a great idea!). But as Bush gets rolling in his 2nd term as a fiscal reformer, you are going to be more and more a "renegade" without a pew. And you don't deserve a pew until you level with your readers.
I think Andrew will scurry and elbow his way back to the front of the conservative parade, and then proudly brandish his staff like a drum major, and say, "Look! everybody's following me!" (He recently wrote an article on how things in Iraq are better than they look.)
To the Bush-haters, Sullivan has no value, except as a novelty. He's only interesting only because he's a turncoat, and they will secretly look forward to the day when they can send him to the gulag. But as a gay conservative pundit, he has a nice ecological niche pretty much all to himself. I myself would roll my eyes, but welcome him back—anyone who writes as well as he does gets a couple of Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free cards from me...
Posted by John Weidner at December 17, 2004 07:48 AM | TrackBackPerhaps you can explain this to me, John. I keep reading statements such as yours about how well Andrew Sullivan writes. I simply don't see it, and I've read as much of his stuff as I can lay my hands on. Certainly he expresses himself clearly, but his emissions don't strike me as possessing either unique insights or unusual power.
Could you provide links to a few pieces that, in your estimation, rise above simple clarity and attain either extraordinary penetration or superior persuasive effect? For clarity alone doesn't strike me as an adequate reason to lionize a writer. As we mathematicians like to say, it's necessary, but it's not sufficient.
Posted by: Francis W. Porretto at December 17, 2004 08:07 AMWell, I was speaking loosely, and don't mean to "lionize" him as anything. I don't look to him as a prose stylist or a deep thinker.
But, there have been many times in the past when I would quote him because he captured some issue with especial clarity and compactness.
For examples, see here here here and here
It might be more accurate to call him a good writer of blog-posts.
Posted by: John Weidner at December 17, 2004 10:45 AMThat's funny -- As someone who is nonpartisan and not sitting on one of the ideological extremes, I found Sullivan to be a true articulator of conservative principles, as opposed to hack cheerleaders such as the Belmont Club or Powerline.
Posted by: Joe at December 17, 2004 12:23 PMNonpartisan. Why of course. Who better to perceive "true conservative principles" than someone without principles.
I myself would be reluctant to make such declarations, but luckily we have a "nonpartisan" to enlighten us. someone whow swings like weathervane in response to this year's lefty fad is a true Con. People who hold the same views year after year are just hacks...
Posted by: John Weidner at December 18, 2004 07:57 AMI agree with John that Sullivan is a great writer, and not just of blogs. Despite the fact that Sullivan can sometimes get long-winded when writing about his pet topics (FMA), he can also say in a sentence what it would take most to say in an entire essay.
My favorite example was early in the War on Terror when it started to become clear how nations were lining up in that war. Sullivan simply wrote, "Once again, it's the English speaking peoples against the tyrants."
That simple sentence sums up the situation quite well and provides insightful historical perspective as well.
Posted by: Mike Plaiss at December 18, 2004 10:11 AM
