by Patrick Appel
Conor Friedersdorf is surprised by those on the left who have defended Van Jones. I agree with this:
[J]ust as the grassroots right traffics in its paranoid nonsense, the grassroots left has subsections of people who are sympathetic to militant Marxism, 9/11 trutherism, and other idiocies that don’t seem to hurt their rise in that movement. This is why the average American is deeply suspicious of career political activists and people who rise via both parties into low level administration posts. They’re right to be! A lot of true believers climb ideological ladders in this country and wind up in government, leaving the average citizen upset because they suspect there are plenty of folks who aren’t ideological extremists, but are nevertheless qualified to fill those posts they just don’t happen work in circles with connections to a partisan political world where loyalty to the cause is prized above all else.