UNLIKE DOUTHAT, AMBINDER SEEMS TO GET IT

The fault with conservative ideology lies in the krazy people that are the major outlets for conservative thinking and that notion may be catching on if even someone like Marc Ambinder can admit that.

Have Conservatives Gone Mad?

Apr 23 2010, 1:10 PM ET

The issue, to put it in terms that even I can understand, because I didn't study philosophy much in college: has the conservative base gone mad?

It is absolutely a condition of the age of the triumph of conservative personality politics, where entertainers shouting slogans are taken seriously as political actors, and where the incentive structures exist to stomp on dissent and nuance, causing experimental voices to retrench and allowing a lot of people to pretend that the world around them is not changing.

Conor Friedersdorf thinks the problem lies with the conservative movement's major spokespeople -- its radio/net news nexus -- and the "overwhelming evidence that their very existence as popular entertainers hinges on an ability to persuade listeners that they are "'worth taking seriously as political and intellectual actors.'" That is why the constant failures of these men to live up to their billing is so offensive, destructive, and ruinous to conservatives. There are plenty of women, too, is all I'll say.

I think it's because there's so much misinformation out there -- most of it spread by the conservative echo-chamber.