One of the more peculiar characteristics of wingnuts is their obsession with being taken seriously. More than anything else, they just can't stand being laughed at. But they persist in acting like clowns.
Freakshow. Here, look at Matt Yglesias very patiently explaining certain elementary principles to Jonah Goldberg:
With all due respect (which is to say very little), Jonah Goldberg seems confused as to why liberals aren't attempting to offer well-informed, soberly-reasoned critiques of his "very serious, thoughtful, argument that has never been made in such detail or with such care." The reason is this: The book is in no way intended to be a serious commentary deserving of serious responses from serious liberals.
Consider: The cover image is a smiley face with a Hitler moustache drawn on it. The subtitle is The Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton. The publicity material states clearly that "LIBERAL FASCISM will elicit howls of indignation from the liberal establishment–and rousing cheers from the Right." Everything about the book, in short, suggests that it's just meant to poke liberals in the eye in order to provoke howls of rage that will, thereby, garner higher sales on the theory that all conservatives really care about is pissing off liberals. Which is fine, if that's what Goldberg wants to do. But, obviously, if you make it clear that you're not interested in a serious discussion of the issues at hand you're not going to generate a serious discussion of the issues at hand.
I'm very willing to bet that such considerations had not intruded on Jonah's complacency.
The trouble with the "conservative movement" over the past 15-25 years is that they have been horribly, catastrophically wrong about every major national issue. Worse than that. Their ideological imperatives have been directly responsible for creating bogus issues at the expense of focusing on anything genuinely serious.
The 1990s were dominated by the Clinton impeachment lunacy; the ought-20s have been dominated by Iraq. Both were, and are, absolute disgraces to our nation -- and entirely unnecessary. Clinton was impeached and Iraq was invaded only because the conservative intelligentsia, such as it is, had fed their hearts on fantasies. And Cheetos. And the heart's grown pudgy and malignant on the fare. At least the Clinton garbage left no corpses. Iraq -- not so much.
And they still want, need, beg -- not to be laughed at.
If they aren't, that's only because the joke's no longer funny.