Much as we all love to bash wingnut pundits, some of the most damaging and aggressively silly punditry in American comes courtesy of self-described moderates whose shtik consists of finding false equivalencies while dragging the Overton Window steadily rightward.
And one of the most egregious of these "moderates" is the historian Gil Troy, who spent last year blogging the presidential race. Last October 26, in a post entitled "Partisan Myopia Test," Troy used his blog to argue that Sarah Palin and Al Franken were equally unqualified for the offices they sought, and, further, to demand that everyone agree with him or reveal themselves to be fatally partisan:
How many people are willing to denounce both Sarah Palin and Al Franken as unqualified for the respective positions they seek? Even at this late date, it is important to test ourselves and each other for consistency, to see if we have any objective standards – or it is all a matter of partisan positioning.
Gil Troy really ought to know better. Troy is a Harvard PhD and a Professor of History at McGill University. His academic work is well-enough respected that he was asked to speak on the plenary panel at this year's Organization of American Historian's Meeting on "The 2008 Presidential Election as History".
In fact, even Troy's academic work reflects his dogmatic "centrism." His books include Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents (Basic Books, 2008), Hillary Clinton: Polarizing First Lady (UP of Kansas, 2006), and Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s(Princeton: Princeton UP, 2005).
And Troy used that OAH plenary appearance last spring to repeat the demand of his "Bipartisan Myopia Test" blog post (follow the links above for a video of his performance).
Here in the real world, however, Al Franken has shown himself to be anything but unqualified to be a Senator. His smackdown of Diana Furchtgott-Roth this week is just another small addition to the Franken highlight reel.
So isn't it time that Gil Troy revisit his "Partisan Myopia Test"? Shouldn't he be asking why he was so myopic about Al Franken's qualifications?
Since I doubt that Troy will do so, let me do it for him.
Gil Troy's Bipartisan Myopia had, I think, at least two independent sources:
- A typical "centrist" need to find absolute equivalence on both sides of the major-party partisan divide. Sarah Palin outrageously unqualified to be VP? There must be a Democrat who's exactly like her (preferably someone from the liberal wing of the party for maximum equivalence).
- An equally typical "centrist" need to suggest that qualification and inside-the-Beltway experience are the same thing. Why is Al Franken unqualified? Because he's a (frequently shrill!) comedian. The notion that our government should be run by informed citizens not Beltway insiders is utterly foreign to serious "moderates."
I'd love to see Troy step up to the plate and offer his own explanation of why he was so utterly wrong about Franken. But I expect he will fail this Bipartisan Myopia Test.