In Tuesday’s issue of New York magazine, writer Jonathan Chait propagates the notion that the IRS’s targeting of conservatives during the Obama era — to which Chait refers as “one of the conspiracy theories supported by ‘Establishment’ Republicans” — follows what is actually a right-wing American paradigm: use of the government as a tool of vengeance.

Attempting to bolster his argument about the Right's paranoia and vindictiveness, Chait quotes Richard Hofstadter, whose anti-conservative essay "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" claims:

“The (conservative) enemy seems to be on many counts a projection of the self: both the ideal and unacceptable aspects of the self are attributed to him. A fundamental paradox of the paranoid style is the imitation of the enemy.”

Chait sets out to validate his “I know you are, but what am I” response to accusations of the Internal Revenue Service harassment of conservatives by providing instances of what he views as corrupt, partisan aggression by the Trump administration. One example is Trump’s likely choice of Thomas Brunell for running the U.S. Census. Chait states that, for Trump, Brunell “does have one point on his resume that makes him deeply attractive for the post”: he is a Republican advocate (say it isn’t so!). Brunell has testified on behalf of Republicans to redraw congressional districts, having also written a book on the subject of redistricting. Therefore, according to Chait, Brunell should not be put in charge of mapping out American demographics:

“The Census is written into the Constitution and serves an essential governing function. Nobody has ever before thought to turn the direction of it over to a figure whose public career is so closely identified with partisan maneuvering.”

But he isn’t the one who’s paranoid, you understand.

Next, Chait references President Trump’s calling upon the Justice Department and FBI to “do what is right and proper,” having specified activity among Democrats in the past. Chait interprets that reference as proof that the government singled out CNN for especially stringent regulation during their merger:

“Having repeatedly threatened the news media, there is almost no way for CNN not to suspect the Department of Justice’s anomalously harsh regulation of its parent-company merger is a form of retaliation for its coverage. The threat to CNN doesn’t have to explicit in order to have an effect.”

Chait goes on to accuse Republicans of using tax cuts to destroy their enemies, quoting Stephen Moore, an economic adviser at the Heritage Foundation:

“Moore argues that subjecting income spent on state and local taxes to federal taxation...will have the delicious secondary effect of pressuring state government to shrink…[Moore concludes that] 'the big losers here are the public employee unions -- the mortal enemies of Republicans. This all works out nicely.'”

Suggesting some paranoia of his own, Chait says tax cuts to university endowments function as an attack on Progressive politics. Um, that's called doing your job as an elected official, voted in by people who want fewer taxes. But to Chait, because smaller government goes against the leftist ideal, it's vengeance.

For all his talk of the IRS "conspiracy theory," on October 25th, The Washington Times reported:

"The IRS admitted in court Wednesday that it wrongly targeted tea party and other conservative groups for intrusive scrutiny, placing specific blame on former senior executive Lois G. Lerner, and entered into a settlement designed to make sure that kind of political targeting never takes place again...The filing, made in federal court in Washington, D.C., amounts to a stunning apology from the Trump administration for actions taken under President Barack Obama, when hundreds of tea party and conservative groups were singled out for intrusive screening, forced to wait years for their applications to be approved, and subjected to outrageous questions."

Maybe Chait should spend a little less time on his own conspiracy theories, and read the news.