Knee jerk liberal arguments: Installment Two

I asked my friend Sean to help me out with this series because of our mutual hate of knee jerk liberal arguments. This one comes from him:

Knee jerk liberal argument #2: "I hate Democrats AND Republicans."

Here's how Sean put it:

"Both parties are hopelessly corrupt." Ralph Nader just said this phrase on television. Again, quite a common argument amongst failed third party candidates, academic leftists, and the Znet wing of the party. I bought into this logic as a 16 year old in '00, but I outgrew it right around the time bombs began to fall on Baghdad. Holding this belief really requires a willful suspension of disbelief at this point.

Sean hits it right on the head, so there's not much to add. I would say, though, that I find this argument-form particularly irritating for its elitism and condescension. People who use this talking-point obviously think they're very clever. Obviously their piercing insight places them above the political landscape, and obviously you, as the listener, have never stopped to think about the political system in America. Obviously you're too blinded by your partisan loyalty to see that Democrats and Republicans are merely two sides of the same corrupt coin. Obviously you regurgitate partisan orthodoxy like a knee-jerk drone. Obviously.