Over at Crooked Timber, Henry Farrell wrote a post about the limits of left neoliberalism, to which Brad DeLong left a snotty comment, to which Chris Bertram in turn responded with the blog equivalent of a napalm strike:
Well as usual, Brad is busy constructing boxes to put people in. Those who read his blog will know that when he isn’t sneering at those to his left, he is sighing and groaning at all those policymakers who fail to grasp that reason dictates the adoption of his preferred solution which is in the best interest of everyone. I wonder why they don’t adopt his policies then? What could the explanation be? Oh … Henry may be right and the fact is that he doesn’t have any grasp of political power and mobilization.
[…]
(Actually, I’m being unfair to Brad. He does have a theory of politics. It is that people would see the pure light of wisdom radiating from people like him, if only those pesky people to his left would shut up and stop frightening the horses.)
Fight! Fight! Fight!
