iccky

I really don't understand how his statement was at all condescending or used any "flip language".

It's a simple statement of fact. The conservatives in this country have a very well developed message machine dedicated to developing ideas and figuring out the best way to sell them. Huge think tanks like Heritage and the American Enterprise Institute put out position papers that pretty much all the opinion makers on the right read. Heritage, in particular is famous for it's two pagers, quick distilations of longer policy memos that are easy for busy politicians and reporters to read quickly. Conservatives in Washington meet and coordinate frequently and evens organized by these think tanks, and at regular lunch and breakfast meetings organized by groups like Americans for Tax Reform and the Conservative Political Action Committee.

It's impossible to cover hte conservative message machine here, but look at David Brock's "The Republican Noise Machine" for a partisan take on it or John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge's "The Right Nation" for a non-partisan book on it (and an excellent book that should be read by conservatives and liberals, by the way). The point is, if it seems that the right is singing out of the same hymnal, its because they are.

Democrats and liberals, on the other hand, have nothing like this machinery. And they greatly regret it.

This system isn't necessarily bad. Its the product of a very well-organized political movement with a keen understanding of the importance of staying on message. The existance of this "vast right-wing conspiracy" shouldn't color our judgement of the ideas it propounds for better or worse.