This is the kind of talk that makes me want to scream

i consider myself an intelligent, highly-educated, articulate, well-traveled person... i teach in graduate school and my field is specialized, complex, and little understood... i can speak in academic tongues with the best of them, but i would be as phony as a three-dollar bill if i did... the following is a perfect example of what i consider to be purely academic gobbledygook... when i read or hear this kind of stuff, i automatically glaze over and, trying not to be rude, move on to something else...

I am pragmatically interested in government policies that work: that are good for America and for the world. My natural home is in the bipartisan center, arguing with center-right reality-based technocrats about whether it is center-left or center-right policies that have the best odds of moving us toward goals that we all share--world peace, world prosperity, equality of opportunity, safety nets, long and happy lifespans, rapid scientific and technological progress, and personal safety. The aim of governance, I think, is to achieve a rough consensus among the reality-based technocrats and then to frame the issues in a way that attracts the ideologues on one (or, ideally, both) wings in order to create an effective governing coalition.

i'm sure mr. delong means well and i think his heart is probably in the right place... but, speaking for myself, he is NOT the person i would want in charge of setting government policy... fortunately, we have people like atrios who, although coming from another perspective, help me to keep from bouncing off the ceiling...

This, in a nutshell, is the worldview of the Sensible Liberal. It's the belief that there are Sensible Policies concocted by Wise Men (and women), preferably ones with advanced degrees, which are Right and True and Good. Wise Men may disagree a bit about the means, and we should throw a few conferences to hash these differences out. Politics and ideologues who do not share the ideology of the Wise Men, who of course are not really tainted by ideology, get in the way of enacting policies which are Sensible.

yes, indeed, atrios... but i like the following comment of yours best...

[A]s someone who has spent a reasonable amount of time around the kinds of people DeLong is talking about, I'm not sure I want them running anything. The sensible technocrats haven't exactly had the best track record lately, in part because imagining you're above it helps to isolate you from the consequences of what you're advocating.

and, finally, he administers the coup de grâce...

I'm not pinning all of these things on DeLong, I'm just saying that the Consensus View of Sensible Technocrats has been pretty disastrous for a lot of people. Sensible Technocrats are above of all driven by the belief that They Are Right.

When the Russia collapse happened one Sensible Technocrat who was partly responsible for the disaster said it all would've worked out swimmingly if only they'd listened to everything he had said. Perhaps true, but not how the world works in practice.

when the revolution comes, please don't put brad delong in charge of anything...

(thanks to mcjoan at daily kos for pointing me to this story...)

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