March 2017.

     Todd Culbertson was a longtime editorialist for The Richmond Times-Dispatch.  This letter was inspired by his misreading of Thomas Frank’s Listen, Liberal, in my view 2016’s most on-point and useful polemic.  Mr. Culbertson posited an equivalence in how each political party has careered from its philosophical and policy roots.  No such equivalence exists.  Despite its manifold defects, the Democratic Party retains a utilitarian ethos.  It is perhaps unsurprising that Mr. Culbertson could not bring himself to acknowledge the intellectual bankruptcy of movement conservatism.  My response is harsh but neither unfair nor inaccurate.  As with David Brooks, I invite a comparison of our respective assessments of the two major parties and a judgment regarding which proved closer to the mark.

     I was correspondent du jour again.  Cool, I guess.

Here’s Todd Culbertson’s editorial:

Todd Culbertson, “Frank Talk Declares Class Warfare,” The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 23 March 2017, A9 (https://richmond.com/opinion/editorial/todd-culbertson-column-thomas-frank-talk-declares-class-warfare/article_f321824f-210f-57da-bb8f-fd301ad8e9d5.html).

Here’s the letter:

“On Dialogue and Empty Vessels,” The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 3 April 2017, A8 (https://richmond.com/opinion/letters-to-editor/cod-april-3-2017-on-dialogue-and-empty-vessels/article_c7a878f2-f54c-5568-9719-54e262af5aef.html).