Jonathan Chait Asks: "When Did Liberals Become So Unreasonable"

Jonathan Chait has written another critique of liberals. In a recent New York Magazine column, he asks "When Did Liberals Become So Unreasonable"? Unreasonable, of course, means criticizing President Obama for taking rightwing or centrist positions.

Several others have written this jaded analysis before. The details are quite mundane (see relevant commentary on Dissenting Justice).

But here is a not-so-mundane response to Chait. With respect to US history, I believe that "liberals" became "unreasonable" when they demanded full suffrage and emancipation for blacks in the early 19th Century. Thankfully, some folks in US history had courage.

Chait's essay is just another strained analysis by political moderates, who are so threatened by progressive criticism that they feel a constant need to defend so-called liberal politicians and condemn the Left.