A tweestorm on conservative intellectuals, inspired by Ross Douthat's brave but I think incomplete essay 1/

Missing from the essay are two things, which I think are related flaws: any actual names of modern conservative intellectuals, and 2/

any acknowledgement of the huge role big money's influence, especially via lavishly funded think tanks, plays in conservative life 3/

Take economics, an area I know. Who are the right's intellectual leaders here? Judged by influence, you'd have to say Kudlow/Moore etc 4/

The problem with these guys isn't failure to face up to populism; it's the fact that they are incompetent, dishonest hacks 5/

But they thrive because they tell big donors what they want to hear. In fact, incompetence may be a feature, not a bug, for donors 6/

who want unquestioning dogmatism, with no risk of principled defection by someone with independent reputation 7/ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/the-mystery-of-moore/ …

And even economists with professional reps toe the line. Think of the "QE will debase the dollar" crew, not one of whom will admit error 8/

So the movement has bought itself apparatchiks posing as intellectuals. Independent thought (Bartlett/Frum) is excommunicated 9/

So movement would be intellectually bankrupt even if it didn't depend on white nationalism to win elections 10/

And this bankruptcy explains weakness in the academy: supply-side cranks, climate deniers etc don't get tenure but are what GOP wants 11/

So reform not going to happen: paymasters don't want it. These days caring about inconvenient truth makes you a ... Democrat 12/