In this interview with Campaign Desk (CJR), Ted Rall argues that rightwing conservodemons are incapable of countering his keen political insights with reasoned debate, and so must necessarily resort to less than substantive vitriol to combat him:

Susan Q. Stranahan: “You’ve come under fire for your cartoons and commentary, most recently your remark on your blog about the late President Reagan, specifically, ‘If there is a hell, this guy is in it.’ As a result, Fox News’ Sean Hannity described you as ‘thoughtless, mean and hateful.’ Were you surprised by the reaction?”

Ted Rall: “It was a comment that was typed up really quickly. I said I’m sure he’s turning crispy brown right now. Drudge linked to it and it had a life of its own. All the right-wing subjects — Fox News, the Washington Times, Andrew Sullivan — got hold of it and went crazy. I think frankly it was a pretty mild comment. The man was the scum of the earth. We were suffering a case of national amnesia. There was not a single conservative who wrote to me who had a meaningful argument to counter what I had to say. Nobody offered a substantive argument in favor of Reagan. They don’t want to out-argue you; they just want to make you shut up. It shows how far we’ve gone.”

Jonah Goldberg responds, and in doing so makes a much broader point:

A guy who says Reagan’s burning in hell is shocked that he didn’t elicit thoughtful arguments from people. What at an arrogant buffoon. This was at a time when the web was deluged with thoughtful arguments about Reagan’s accomplishments and Rall seems to think the reason he got hate mail was that his arguments were so good there were no legitimate responses and so conservatives had to resort to insults? Rall seems to be saying that he’s some sort of hero, a man of substance, taking the high road. Even if he weren’t lying about not receiving thoughtful rebuttals — and he obviously is — to think he deserved one is preposterous. It’s like saying to someone “Your wife’s a whore” and then ridiculing the guy for not walking you through the reasons she’s not in a calm, rational manner.

In related news, Michael Moore really really really really likes milkshakes. Oh, and Jesse who’s this now? Sorry, never heard of the guy.