Liberal Snark

I want royalties on this term because I think it's a winner. One of the byproducts of the Bush administration is a political pose I first witnessed at cocktail parties and now notice has found it's into liberal news coverage. It borrows attitude from the Daily Show and infuses it with a self righteousness, which I presume comes from the numerous failures of the Bush administration. Olberman was the first, but Rachel Maddow is the smoother, more polished version. I call this phenomenon: Liberal Snark.

The first clue you are listening to a Liberal Snark is that you can't shake the feeling they think you're a total idiot. A cocked head, pitying eyes, and a slight frown suggesting "oh, I feel so sorry for you, you actually had a thought, but you're such a stupid, unsophisticated ogre, I can't believe we actually live in the same time period, where were you raised, the Jim Crow South? Did you attend underfunded public schools? No wonder you thought that. You probably don't even know who David Foster Wallace is."

You receive this look should you bother to question not only the basic liberal assumptions - Iraq war was wrong, gay marriage is good, more progressive taxation, no oil drilling, end global warning at all costs, etc, etc - but even if you try to frame the question a bit differently than the way they were taught to answer.

See the Liberal Snark is a different breed than the crazy, Michael Moore unhinged left and definitely different than the no-scruples political insiders like the Clintons. The Liberal Snark went to a great college, most likely private, either Ivy, Liberal Arts, or Stanford and did amazing in class. They detest the idea of fighting and love the idea, but not the practice of "multiculturalism." I imagine a Liberal Snark writes essays that deserve and get an A and are utterly without risk. I imagine they would never cheat on the SAT, but would take the most expensive prep classes to teach them how master the test.

They have tons of answers pre-prepared and toss out the one closest to the question. They make it sound like the powers-that-be are dumb beyond description and scold them as if they were second graders.

I'm wise to snark, people. And I don't buy in. The snark avoids the hard questions because the worst thing for the snark is to sound ill-informed. The Snark is hiding. The Snark mistakes platitudes for wisdom. The Snark is a critic and a person who "after the battle goes to field and shoots the wounded."