Dribble Down -- The Halperining

Over in The Better Universe, Mark Halperin would appreciate whatever change you can spare.

Over in our Universe, this by Eric Alterman requires no gilding:

...[Mark] Halperin’s contempt for liberals and liberalism permeates almost every page of Double Down. In describing the clownish attempt by the group Americans Elect to “drag the political conversation to the sensible center,” he and his co-author admire the ridiculous organization’s “array of heavy-hitting allies,” almost all of whom are fiscal conservatives and foreign-policy hawks. And yet these figures are portrayed by H&H as deeply “concerned that the two-party duopoly had run its course, that the Republican and Democratic parties were so tightly in the grip of the far right and the far left that good governance had become impossible.” This is “blame both sides” bullshit in its Platonic essence. Just which “far left” Democrats are in charge of anything, anywhere—save perhaps The Nation—is not explained. And yet these famed “heavy hitters” from the “sensible center” believe themselves to be living in a world in which Ralph Nader and Occupy Wall Street are no less powerful and influential than Ted Cruz and the Tea Party.

...

The "Blame Both Sides" fortress is the last and most formidable redoubt remaining from which Conservatives are free to snipe from leisurely cover.  It is huge, fortified with gargantuan bales of money, well-provisioned and staffed will thousands of loyal Centrist stooges but I am confident that once people like Mr. Halperin begin to wake up every day so freaked out at the thought of Liberal reprisals that he forces Young Luke Russert to start tasting his food for him, this bullshit will come to an end.