QOTD: Breetish political humor

Don't want to cause any offence here, but if the Prime Minister is implying that "ordinary" means "the norm", then he's misleading us. Brown is Scottish. And he's Scottish in a very Scottish way, what with being "a son of the manse".

The average voter doesn't know what a manse is. How many of you have even laid eyes on one? I haven't, though I'm guessing it looks like a vicarage with a little black cloud hovering over it, raining Calvinist guilt down the chimney. - Damian Thompson

Liberaltarians found

A new meme is circulating political blogs showing lots of fun looking graphs from OKCupid (aren't they the dating company, yes)

 

Will Wilkinson of Cato and Marketplace fame examines the graphs and makes some hypothetical conclusions. (emphasis is my own)

Let's look at the overlap of these two charts in the libertarian quadrant:

Let's call the pink triangle the "libertarian contested zone." If you're a Baby Boomer or older with views in the contested zone, you probably lean Republican. If you're Gen-X or younger and fall in the contested zone, you probably lean Democrat. 20 year-olds and 50 year-olds occupying the exact same point on the matrix may have relatively large differences in major party sympathies.

Because older libertarians in the contested zone lean Republican, they probably feel comfortable with elements of right-wing political culture that may have little or nothing to do with their opinions on issues which determined their place on the grid. They'll be fairly patriotic, find Founder worship relatively unproblematic, feel a bit antagonized by "political correctness" and relatively untroubled by casual "commonsense" race and gender stereotypes, and will generally  feel sympathetic to conservative assumptions about American identity. They're a bit hawkish and worried about Islamism. They might make a show of enjoying guns, steaks, and cigars. They're inclined to get a kick out of Glenn Beck. Or so I conjecture.

Because younger libertarians in the contested zone lean Democratic, they probably feel comfortable with elements of left-wing political culture  that may have little or nothing to do with their opinions on issues which determined their place on the grid. They'll probably be relatively cosmopolitan, inclined to celebrate diversity, and sensitive to ongoing discrimination against women, ethnic minorities, and gays.  They'll be relatively unimpressed with rhetorical appeals to the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, and the virtues of really real American red-state American identity. They're a bit dovish and worried about civil liberties under the Patriot Act. The might make a show of eating ethically, a penchant for indie rock, and a well-worn passport. They're inclined to think Glenn Beck is a maudlin fool. So I say.

So what does all this suggest?

One thing it suggests that the neo-Fusionist elements of the Tea Party movement are attractive primarily to older people. And I suspect that the more strongly certain libertarian ideas and tendencies are associated with the cultural politics of Baby Boomer conservative Republicans, the more strongly young people with libertarian inclinations will tend to identify with the Democratic Party and take on cultural assumptions and characteristics common to liberals. Here's my bottom line. Democratic-leaning libertarian young adults are the primary "liberaltarian" constituency. They are to my mind who liberaltarianism is intended for. Liberaltarianism or libertarian-liberal fusionism is not about some ridiculous practical political coalition between Larry Kudlow and Bill Galston. It is about building a coherent, appealing,  practical ideological identity for all those libertarian-ish young folks who don't want a damn thing to do with the party of old, angry religious white people.

Amen.

 

I found this assessment explains my own political situation, and the background explains why my dad thinks I'm a raging liberal when I'm not.

 

(via the daily dish)

Election Day Open Thread, Columbia edition

As the old saying goes vote early and vote often.

Polls open at 7am in Columbia, and close at 7pm. Check the State here for a map of polling places. We're voting for Mayor, one at-large member, and districts 1 & 4. The District 2 election is on hold for voting rights violation -- which considering the history of the voting rights act and the persons who are responsible for the violation is ironic.

What's your experience at the polls today. Who are you voting for? See any problems? It's an open thread.

Waldo whacks Boy Fogle... again

My friend Waldo leads an almost Quixotic quest to show just how hypocritical, underhanded, and shady the world of political blogging in South Carolina is. Most are blogger-cum-consultants, being paid to spin daily what their masters feed them while offering the pretense of being "news" outlets, by posting fluff to drive traffic, as opposed to being opinion sites. Well, at least one acknowledges his site is more opinion than fact.

Any who, today Waldo offers us what can only be an exhaustive breakdown of the homophobia-for- hire which is Adam Fogle's Palmetto Scoop, a wholly owned subsidiary of former representative, now super consultant, Rick Quinn.

Full disclosure: Fogle "outed" me as anonymous blogger in 2008... because having prior been featured on The State Newspaper online as blog of the week and having linked to the blog on my facebook page says I strive for anonymity. (that's about as sarcastic as I get folks)

The Hipsters got a promotion

The hipsters of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY have gotten a promotion. Librarians aren't out of vogue, but perhaps just a career stepping stone. Per the NY Times:

Visitors to the show are relatively young, somewhere in their 30s on average, which makes them a decade younger than usual for MoMA, recent surveys showed. And a surprising one-third of this audience had never stepped foot in the museum before.

“We’d never done anything like this,” said Rajendra Roy, the museum’s chief curator of film, who was one of the show’s organizers. “There’s always a learning curve. Would I have done things differently? I don’t think so.”

For a 37-year-old curator, Mr. Roy seems pretty cool about it all, considering that only a few years ago he started his professional life selling tickets at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Yet as museum directors have come to realize, younger minds attract younger audiences. And Mr. Roy is just one of a growing group of rising curatorial stars cutting quite a different figure from the age-old image of museum curator as a fusty academic.

That's right, hipsters have now taken over art and history museums (go figure). Now that's interesting.