The Conservative Alternative Reality

Isaiah J. Poole

May 04, 2007

Isaiah J. Poole is the executive editor of TomPaine.com.

If Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate left you feeling as though you were watching 10 white men from some alternate universe, you would not have been as surprised if you had seen a debate at the National Press Club in Washington just hours earlier.

There, William Kristol, one of the main architects of the modern conservative movement, went head to head with Robert Kuttner, founding editor of the progressive magazine The American Prospect, at a conference sponsored by The American Prospect and the Campaign for America’s Future. Kristol helped build the alternate universe in which nearly all of the Republican candidates, with the exception of libertarian Rep. Ron Paul, spend most, if not all, of their time.