Over a decade ago, the phrase “Liberal Cocoon” was first put into wide play, with an assist from Mickey Kaus:
Slate journalist Mickey Kaus has developed an explanation for why Democrats tend to disappoint on Election Day — “liberal cocooning.” Kaus explains: “The point is that reporters and editors at papers like the Times (either one!) are exquisitely sensitive to any sign that Democrats might win, but don’t cultivate equivalent sensitivity when it comes to discerning signs Republicans might win. (Who wants to read that?) The result, in recent years, is the Liberal Cocoon, in which Democratic partisans are kept happy and hopeful until they are slaughtered every other November.” Kaus’ subject was an article in the L.A. Times, but his theory applies equally well to the paper’s New York namesake.
At the Corner today, David French explores how thick the walls of that cocoon can be, and how such insular thinking can lead to disastrous results:
It is a truism of American life that unless a conservative turns off all technology, grabs a gun and a dog, and heads for the hills, he will be exposed to an avalanche of liberal thought and ideas — in education, television, movies, and the Internet. Liberals, by contrast, can and often do live lives isolated from conservative thought, and their ignorance of our ideas is starting to show.
I was first exposed to liberal ignorance of conservatism way back in 1991. I was a new law student and had just walked out of a class with my ears still ringing from the boos, hisses, and jeers at my conservative arguments. A classmate came up to me and said, “I wish they’d let you speak. I’d never heard anything like what you were saying and wanted to hear more.”
I was shocked. I was merely making a standard conservative argument — breaking no new ideological ground. “You’ve never heard an argument like that? Where did you go to college?”
“Princeton.”
Read the whole thing.
Update: “Video: Protester Disrupts Wisconsin Event, Spits on Romney Supporter.”
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