Wonk Brigade to the Rescue

Paul Krugman claims himself, Ezra Klein, Jonathan Cohn, and Jonathan Chait are part of a "wonk brigade," and that among "the differences between right and left in America is that the progressive infrastructure includes a contingent of genuine wonks—commentators on policy who really do make models and crunch numbers, and sometimes come up with answers that aren’t fully predictable from their politics."

I guess mixing varieties of third wayism and cultural Marxism doesn't qualify as being fully predictable, but not being fully predictable is a abysmal, irrelevant standard. No one is fully predictable. Being better than establishment Republicans is also a very, very low bar.

The wonk brigade writes mostly about politics, not policies, defending the deforms and token reforms of third wayism.

For years, Third Wayers acted as if major reforms were impractical, no matter the public support. At what point do reforms become probable? Or are we supporsed to accept endless decay? And why should we citizens accept being part of an empire that continues to get worse?

Krugman is right to criticize progressive overemphasis on Glass-Steagall, but this is what major financial reforms resemble, and the reforms have little in common with wonk brigade writings.

Krugman doesn't mention a major reason progressives and Third Wayers have more wonks: the groupthink situation in academia. Almost anyone who dissents from Marxism, third wayism, libertarianism, and neoconservatism is unlikely to have an academic career. Krugman spewed thousands of ethnoracial views over the years, but Krugman almost never provides good evidence for those views. Multiculturalists treat cultural Marxism as off limits to well-reasoned wonkery. Multiculturalism serves as a holy fanaticism, even among wonks.

If you asked the wonk brigade about which eugenic policies are best and why, you'd probably get ad hominem attacks and other fallacies in return.