I think it's the money...

Contra Tim Noah, I'm pretty sure Jonah Goldberg and Dinesh D'Souza are smarter than their books indicate. However, they really are just replicating Ann Coulter's book-selling method. I think Ross Douthat/Reihan Salam, David Brooks, etc. show that contemporary conservatism isn't totally brain-dead. But at the same time, any non-brain dead work was getting immediately slapped with the "Traitor!" label and not selling. So, in order to make a living/supplement their income, they need to be needlessly incidenary.

So, in short, it's all about the money.



However, based on everything I've heard about the two books at hand (I've skimmed through The Enemy at Home, but I couldn't bring myself to read Liberal Fascism), I ultimately agree with Noah's assessment:

1. Yes, these books are more deeply researched than the typical Coulter screed and deserve to be taken seriously.
2. Taken seriously, these books reveal themselves to be nonsensical, overwrought, vile, and quite obviously wrong.