Douthat Chatter and Frum Chatter are as twin expressions of the self-destroying elan of the American Republican Party. Although, Frum Chatter, in this instance, opts for a shift of focus to his proclaimed victory of British Conservative governance, and the fading of the blight of Socialism: the favorite strategy of American Conservatism when confronted with failure or looming failure is to change the subject. Misdirection a favorite rhetorical strategy.

In Mr. D.’s argument American Conservatives are frustrated by the political fact that The New Deal and The Great Society are permanent fixtures of the American political landscape. The Republican Nihilists , with the aid of Koch,Rove and Club for Growth money, have attacked, by means of of a government shutdown, the very practice of governance. Is it  mere tautology to call it a Pyrrhic victory?  Underneath the avalanche of words, Mr. Douthat does not practice brevity in his blog posts, the reader confronts, at the essay’s end, what looks something like cynical resignation or even nihilistic fatalism. 

Political Cynic