@marick i’m really sorry! i really didn’t mean to scold you, but i am brittle and pissed off at the moment about other things and i think i just powered through badly. (i’m sure i did scold you! i’m not denying! that’s just not what i intended. i intended to make a general point strongly, not to accuse you of anything.) 1/

@marick and i am obviously communicating very badly! i am not critiquing scolding voters as a political tactic. i mean i think it’s probably dumb, but if someone thinks it a good tactic, have at. what i’m critiquing is *blaming voters*, that is, among those of us who intervene in politics, attributing responsibility for putative bad outcomes to voters’ nature or effectively immutable preferences, rather than to the things we intervenors do and to the institutions we all collectively shape. 2/

i am very, very sorry to have sapped your enthusiasm at all. that’s 180 degrees reverse from my intention. again my point is entirely that we who arrogate some role to intervene (i mean arrogate in a good way here!) are where we must place accountability for political outcomes, not on an electorate that just exists, is no more or less a useful point of accountability than the tides. 3/

intervenors try to persude the electorate, sometimes. and that’s great! i think it’s the best way to do politics. 4/

but when we fail (or in people like Isgur’s case, pretend to fail), we fail. shifting blame, arguing accountability should lie with the electorate, is a bad, bad move. 5/

i’m not saying you ever have or would do that! i just went half-cocked on a remark that triggered this particular allergy, and i’m terribly sorry, i understand that i treated you unkindly and sapped enthusiasm and made you feel worse about exciting and laudable things you are doing.

i am really sorry about that! it was not my intention, but it was still my act, and i don’t think it was you being overly sensitive, but me being overly insensitive. again, i’m very sorry. /fin