December 28th, 2008
I’m sitting here Googling about, too tired to sleep, too bored to do anything productive. I notice a headline regarding how the jackass RNC Chair keeps issuing press releases demanding that Obama report to a press conference to answer all his questions about Blagojevich and whatever else he can dream up - in, as one report forthrightly noted, a blatant attempt to crap on Obama’s “honeymoon” before he’s even inaugurated. And I wonder idly why anyone is supposed to care what this clown thinks or demands, and I note with satisfaction that no one does, and finally a thought of some minor substance comes to me: it doesn’t matter what he, or any Republican, or any conservative thinks about this or anything else, at all, forevermore.
They have simply forfeited any claim to being taken seriously, on any serious subject, ever again. Nobody needs to pay any attention at all to anything conservatives say about anything, from now on. The questions they raise don’t need answers. The objections they forward to plans or policies don’t need to be met or refuted. The “arguments” that spill out of their dysfunctional peabrains are of no moment. They are simply negligible, intellectually, and very nearly as members of the human species, and that will never change, barring political events of almost unimaginable unlikelihood.
The reasons could be detailed: the people who sold their country to an oil and banking industry that complacently wrecked it militarily, physically, fiscally, and economically, and who still can’t stop yammering about tax cuts for businesses and the rich, are simply disqualified from discussing economics ever again; the people who continually embrace creationism, faith-based medical practices, and head-in-the-sand environmentalism, and explicitly and seriously consulted astrologers and the voice of God in making high-level presidential decisions are completely debarred from offering any opinions on any question of science or empirical, material fact in any regard; the people who invented and wedded themselves to “the Southern strategy” on racial pandering and, 50 years later, are still speaking in racial code, defending slavery, and running “scary black faces” ads in campaigns, while preaching about “post-racial America”, are Not Our Kind, Dear for any issue that touches even glancingly on race; and on and on through every other political, factual, religious, and cultural issue that exists in America. But the details are really just of historical interest.
The only thing we need to know about American conservatives is this: “Bush 43″. That’s it. Given that fact, that horror, that travesty, nothing else about them matters. By deception and corruption they foisted Bush 43 on us, and on the world - and with it the lies, the illegal wars, the secret detentions, the “renditions”, the bombings and nighttime raids and mass civilian casualties, the secret trials on secret evidence without effective representation, the torture, the creepy and intellectually dishonest justifications for torture, the puling evasion of responsibility for the justifications for torture, the illegal mass wiretaps and eavesdropping, the after-the-fact absolution for illegal wiretaps and eavesdropping, the corporate tie-ins and payouts and pervasive corruption, the budget-busting wars and financial meltdowns and environmental disasters and sheer, universal, even deliberate incompetence and mismanagement of the most vital functions of government, the creeping, ubiquitous infiltration of medieval religiosity into the most delicate private and public functions, the deliberate corruption of public institutions with incompetent, ideological extremists from dubious political and religious breeding-tanks, the constant scapegoating of dissenters or merely chosen fall-guys for embarrassments of the administration’s own making, and further malfeasances and misfeasances too numerous to recount. None of it was accidental. None of it was unforeseeable - even far before Bush’s first term in office, even before his campaign had seriously begun. None of it was unremarked or unprotested. But all of it was cheered on with insane and unquestioning enthusiasm by a right wing that abandoned even the most minimal critical tests of intelligence, rationality, or decency in its orgy of power and pelf.
So - if you were on the right wing in whatever sense, or a member of the Republican party at any time, during the Bush years: Shut the fuck up. You are to blame for the meltdowns, the disasters, the deaths, the tortures, the accidents exacerbated, the good plans bungled, the self-inflicted errors embraced and pursued. You created the Iraq war when it was known there was no reason for it; you saw the lies exposed and the justifications shifted and you approved and encouraged it all; you approved the kidnappings and tortures and did nothing to stop them; you watched New Orleans drown and didn’t care; you knew your government was conducting secret trials and didn’t object; you watched the oil companies and mercenary contractors get fat on US dollars cleaning up military messes made with US dollars and you didn’t complain; you nodded at the class-war insanity and screamed for yet more benefits and privileges for the benefited and privileged of one of the most severely economically stratified societies in the world; you watched public functions, scientific facts, and private lives and healthcare all ravaged by freakish berserker Chrisitians and laughed to see how easily their support could be bought off and how much trouble they could cause for people you didn’t like anyway; you watched a nation’s economy crash in tatters and quietly made sure you’d gotten yours first - and through it all you praised and defended the moronic war-criminal felon who bungled and stumbled and lied and gibbered his way into it all, and dragged us with him. You killed thousands, shamed a great nation, destroyed its reputation and its values and its standing before the world, while it was made clear to you, before and during each step of that sorry path, what was at stake. So much, for so long, but last and worst the last 8 years, are your fault - all your fault. And it falls to the decent Americans to finally come in behind you and clean up your messes - a project so bleak and daunting that it will take years to undo some of them, and much good that could have been done will go undone, which itself was in some part also your intention.
So - shut the fuck up. You have forfeited any claim to decency. You have been proven incompetent - criminally, murderously, and grossly incompetent - in every area of rational analysis, policy development, or public management. Your ideology has been proven disastrous, and your economic, scientific, and political theories ludicrous. You are the cause of the problems we now must solve. Your input is not merely not wanted, it has been proven both a disgrace and a disaster. Your opinions are worse than worthless - and have been proven so by the stark test of empirical fact in almost every aspect of policy and action. Almost nothing you believe is true. Almost nothing you do is successful - other than by way of destruction, and then not usually in the way you anticipate. Almost nothing you try works out right - other than by way of your own thuggish self-gratification. You are a positive menace to your country, its decent citizens, and the rest of the world. You are not wanted, and cannot be allowed to guide policy or action again. And it goes without saying that your opinions, preferences, or evaluations are of no value and no interest.
So shut the fuck up. If you voted for Bush once, shut the fuck up. You do not qualify to express an opinion on any public subject. If you voted for Bush twice, shut the fuck up, and devote yourself to some suitable penance - but don’t talk about it. If you still support this regime of moral perverts, criminals, and psychopaths, shut the fuck up about anything having in any way to do with American politics or public life, forever, and consider, for the good of your community, that you should report yourself to the local police for surveillance. You are the political equivalent of a child molester, and shouldn’t be allowed out unsupervised.
But most importantly, if you are one of the wingnuts who brought us to this nightmare and cheered it on as it developed, first and last, foremost and forever, shut the fuck up. Don’t tell us what you think any policy or law should be. Your opinion is of no value or reliability. Don’t tell us what you think of Obama, or what he should do, or what he has done. There is no imaginable possibility that Obama, or any Democrat, or any normal person whatever at any point in the future, will ever, under any likely circumstances, ever screw up as badly, harm the nation as greatly, shame America as painfully, or turn the world against us as thoroughly, as the asshole incompetent you spent 8 years cheering to ever greater debacles. You have foreited your right to have an opinion on what Obama, or anybody even marginally less criminal, stupid, vicious, belligerent, befuddled, or incompetent than George Bush, ever does. Since you approved the complete and devastating disaster of Bush 43, you have no grounds to complain about anything else, of any nature, whatever the outcome, that is not at least that bad - and there will never again be anything that bad. So shut the fuck up. You have proven that your judgment does not rise even to the level of criticism of the Bush administration - essentially a no-brainer as far as political or moral perspicacity is concerned; thus, whatever criticisms you may have of Obama or any normal person thereafter are clearly irrational. So shut the fuck up. Whatever questions you may have regarding Obama’s behavior or policies are disqualified - you asked no questions about the concentration camps, torture, secret detentions, and illegal wars of the Bush years, so you have no grounds to question the however-questionable behavior of any civilized person. So shut the fuck up. Whatever criticisms you may make of, or objections you may raise to, any public policies or plans by any decent and legal regime are irrelevant. You offered no criticisms or objections as the American Constitution was shredded and civil liberties twisted into a cynical mockery of violation and abuse. So shut the fuck up. Whatever opinions you may hold or values you may harbor are negligible. We have seen your opinions and values at work. So shut the fuck up.
American conservatism and the Republican party have held the greatest sway in US politics for most of the last 40 years; they have ruled as a dictatorship for the last 8. And they have proven their moral depravity, their fundamental intellectual dishonesty and incoherence, and their invariable disastrous consequences. You who espoused them have learned nothing and repented nothing, and as such have forfeited your claim to any place of honor and influence in a civilized body politic. So . . . shut the fuck up.
Categories: Bloggin, Church & State, Culture, Economics, Environment, Fiasco, General, How Capitalism Will Ruin You, Iraq, Katrina, Legal Issues, Libertarian Problem Solving, Media, News & Current Events, Politics, Race, Religion, Science, Smackdown!, Taxes, Things That Suck, Torture |
6 Comments
November 7th, 2008
Charles Krauthammer makes, uncharacteristically, a modicum of sense in today’s column, in which he offers a post-mortem on the McCain campaign. He is convinced the whole thing is an accident of the financial crisis, which is a bit of denial on his part, but he also throws this in:
The choice of Sarah Palin was also a mistake. I’m talking here about its political effects, not the sideshow psychodrama of feminist rage and elite loathing that had little to do with politics and everything to do with cultural prejudices, resentments and affectations.
Palin was a mistake (” near suicidal,” I wrote on the day of her selection) because she completely undercut McCain’s principal case against Obama: his inexperience and unreadiness to lead. And her nomination not only intellectually undermined the readiness argument. It also changed the election dynamic by shifting attention, for days on end, to Palin’s preparedness, fitness and experience . . . .
And here of course he goes off the rails, as, being Charles Krauthammer, he was fated to do.
Apparently, for the K-man, a candidate’s “inexperience and unreadiness to lead” is a barely-relevant issue (it’s not relevant because she’s unfit; it’s relevant because it changes public reactions to the two parties, thus affecting their relative likelihood of election). But what he sweepingly dismisses as “feminist rage and elite loathing” are mere “affectations” or worse.
What exactly triggered those affectations? That the Republicans cynically nominated a hopelessly unqualified woman in the expectation that women would flock to her after being disappointed over Hillary? (Though Obama barely out-polled McCain among men - the first Democrat to do that in easy memory - he also enjoyed a female gender gap of 7% in his favor - smaller than, but comparable to, Democratic gender gaps of the past. The Republicans still understand women just as much as they ever did.) That the Republicans nominated an anti-choice woman who styles herself a “Feminist for Life” while actively fighting to take control of their own bodies away from every other woman in the country, and coyly hinting that she supports “choice” (when the choice is specifically the one she approves)? That she knows virtually nothing about any issue of importance, while aggrandizing herself in the most stupidly embarrassing ways even as she displays her ignorance? That she endorses insanely counterfactual stances, grounded on the most oblivious selfishness or religious dunderheadedness, on issues from creationism to global warming to environmental protection to virtually everything else? Or that she constantly, blatantly, obviously and shamelessly lies about everything she does, continues to lie after being caught lying, and consistently abuses her official powers (then lies about that, too)?
For Krauthammer, apparently, these facts play no part in being “unready to lead”. Gasping ignorance, religious whacko-ism, verbal stupidity and cognitive clumsiness amounting nearly to retardation, utterly amoral power-madness, and theocratic invasions of privacy are not a factor in the question whether Palin should be elevated to one (or, not unlikely, both) of the highest offices in the land. Objecting to such qualities in one’s leaders - or the grossly offensive way they are fobbed off on a population that wanted real substance - is “elitism”. It’s “prejudice” to be against having religious whackos and morons as leaders of the most powerful nation in history.
This is the reason nothing conservatives say should ever, ever be taken seriously. (Certainly never on feminism, but equally so on every other issue.) Not only do they not take ideas seriously, they don’t even take words seriously. Nothing they say means anything, none of it is intended to convey actual thoughts, let alone true or defensible ones. Like K-man’s worry that Palin’s being unready to lead was important because it altered the PR war (not, you know, because she was in fact unready to lead), the rest of his nonsense was likewise important for equally superficial and transient reasons. His words literally have no substance - that is, they do not truck in substance, fact, and meaning even when addressing substantive issues. And he’s one of the “smart” conservatives.
We stand poised on the ridge of a watershed moment. It’s too easy to conclude that Obama has already led us over to the other side; that remains still to be seen. To make it real, we have to consolidate the decisive shift the country has taken. We have to make sure we start calling conservatives on their bullshit - continuously, relentlessly. The country demanded - in a way I have never seen before - real substance, and those who wanted and got it responded for the most part maturely and with insight. They rejected the insulting diversionary tactics of the right wing; they saw through the lies and the stupidity. But we have to make it clear, now that the scales have fallen from so many eyes, that what they are seeing, seemingly for the first time, has always been there, and always will be until we decisively render it impotent. We have got to ratchet up our intolerance for stupidity, lies, and distortion; we have got to demand substance, truth, and mature deliberation in every aspect of law and policy. And we have got to laugh the idiots, liars, whackos, and shameless toadies out of town, once and for all, before we allow ourselves to forget, and get used to them again.
UPDATE: Added badly-needed post header, reformatted quote, and removed reference to Krauthammer making sense, which no longer suggests to me any reason even for being there.
Categories: Culture, General, Media, News & Current Events, Politics, Smackdown! |
10 Comments
November 4th, 2008
The foaming-mouth contingent has been flogging their latest self-created scandal: the LA Times ran a story in which Obama made some polite remarks at a reception for Middle-East scholar Rashid Kalidi, whom the right calls a “terrorist” for not hating the Palestineans. They’re convinced that some major bombshell exists on the videotape of that gathering, that will blow this thing wide open if only the public sees it, and the press is colluding in not releasing the tape. As Fox News (!) itself points out, (a) there’s no evidence that there is in fact anything scandalous on the tape - they’re just making this up, and (b) LAT is perfectly correct to withhold the tape because they promised their original source they would do so, when they first carried the story months ago. But of course this is just more evidence of a conspiracy for the wingers, who waited until the weekend before the election to make an issue of it and then claimed that the failure of everybody in the country to take their nonsense seriously is proof of “press bias”.
Now apparently they’re just e-mailing random figures, demanding that they force the Times to burn its own source to satisfy the wingers’ demands. There’s no explanation why they’re contacting anyone on their list - they seem to imagine that anyone they believe is part of the “conspiracy” has an obligation to indulge their fantasies for them.
So, some asshat from the Little Green Footballs insane ward randomly e-mailed somebody from the Columbia Business School (apparently they couldn’t even locate the journalism school), informing that person that “as journalists [sic], you have a moral obligation” to violate the LA Times’s promise to its confidential source.
From: [redacted]
To: [redacted]
Sent: Mon Oct 27 18:28:41 2008
Subject: Please release Khalidi’s 2003 tape
Dear Madam or Sir,
It has come to my attention that the LA Times in in possession of a tape recording a 2003 farewell party for Rashid Khalidi. In an article, the LA Times said:
“The event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times.”
This event was attended by Senator Barrack Obama. As this is an election period, as journalists, you have the moral obligation to release any and all information you possess about both candidates.
I would be grateful if you can release the videotape. It’s our right as Americans to learn about our candidates.
Cordially,
[redacted]
Now, how this person could possibly do anything about it, or why a letter obviously intended for the LA Times was sent to an obscure professor in an unrelated department at Columbia, is answerable only by way of what would certainly be a thoroughly distasteful psychological study of LGFers’ mental processes. But the hapless prof’s response was perfect:
Subject: Re: Please release Khalidi’s 2003 tape
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:02:41 -0400
From: [redacted]
To: [redacted]
Yeah, right…loser
Sidney Jackson
Director, Marketing and Admissions
Columbia Business School
Executive MBA Programs
Sent via Blackberry wireless
Good goin’, Sid!
Categories: Culture, General, Humble Pie, Media, News & Current Events, Politics, Smackdown! |
4 Comments
November 2nd, 2008
We’re hearing a lot of last-ditch delusion from the right in the closing days of the campaign. Most of it, of course, is just whistling past the graveyard. But whether these people believe their own bullshit or not, they present themselves to the world as ostensibly knowledgeable and clear-headed political thinkers. So, just for the record, let’s note what prominent right-wingers are saying, not about ideological issues or personal preferences, but about basic factual questions such as who is ahead in the polls, and who is going to win the election, now less than 48 hours before the voting booths open. Let’s keep this in mind when these people try to sell us their nonsense over the coming 8 years:
American Thinker (10/25):
Signs Point to a McCain Victory
Despite there being an entire cottage industry devoted to exposing the liberal bias of the mainstream media, Republicans and conservatives continue to allow themselves to be unduly influenced, and even demoralized, by what they read and hear in the big city newspapers and on network television. . . .
Well, there is another story out there that the MSM refuses to address. A huge story. One that could, and I think will, significantly affect the outcome of this race. I’m referring to the widespread phenomenon of registered Democrats openly supporting John McCain. . . .
[T]here are real signs pointing to a McCain victory this year, whether or not the mainstream media wants to acknowledge them.
Rush Limbaugh (10/31):
Talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh says that Sen. John McCain will score a stunning upset over Sen. Barack Obama and win the presidency on Nov. 4. . . .
Limbaugh’s response: “No, I don’t see [an Obama win,] Nigel. I think [Obama has] been dead in the water since the primaries. He is going to need to be up 10 to 12 points to win by 3 or 4.” . . .
“My gut hadn’t been giving me any indication on this race, but it started talking to me last night,” he told listeners. “Barack is headed back to Iowa. That should be a lock; it’s a dead heat.
“Florida, Ohio, and Nevada look like pretty good McCain certainties here. Obama still has to run ads in California.”
[NB: This comes at a time when "538" is predicting Obama win probabilities in OH and NV of 76% and 79%, respectively.]
Donald Douglas, Wake Up America (10/18):
Trial-Heat Election Model Predicts 52.7% McCain Victory
[Based on a complex meta-analysis of poll results and a statistical prediction model incorporating economic factors,] given uncertain market trends (up-and-down again stock rallies), the potential effect on the polls from John McCain’s improved debate performance, and the unknown impact of party mobilization and youth turnout on election day, this race is going down to the wire as a potentially 50-50 election. Given this analysis, the GOP ticket is performing much better than would be expected . . . .
[NB: This is while "538" is running a 10,000-iteration Monte Carlo simulation that gives an Obama victory 94% of the time (and has been over 90% for Obama for months), and some guy from Franklin & Marshall College has a 50 million-iteration simulation that gives a 99.98% probability for Obama. Intrade currently offers (the equivalent of) 89:11 for Obama; the University of Iowa market has it at 85:14.]
Dick Morris (who really ought to know better) and Eileen McGann (10/30):
Hope for McCain: Polls Say He’s Closing the Gap
Iraq isn’t the only place where the surge seems to be working. John McCain’s gains over the last five days are remaking the political landscape as Election Day approaches. The double-digit leads Barack Obama held last week have evaporated, as all three of the top tracking polls (the most current and reliable measurements out there) show McCain hot on Obama’s heels. . . .
So we approach Election Day with the possibility of a rerun of 2000 plainly before us. McCain has closed to a point where the race will likely be very, very close - and we’ll have to stay up very, very late on Election Night.
[NB: This comes at a time when "538" and "Real Clear Politics" are predicting 333 and 353 Electoral College votes for Obama, respectively. Allahpundit also points out that polls close in all likely "battleground" states by 10:00pm EST - 9:00pm for all but IA, NV and MT, which aren't really battlegrounds. ]
Kathryn Jean Lopez (10/31):
48-47 for McCain
The latest Zogby, via Drudge. This is still competitive. Thank goodness …
[NB: "538" and "Real Clear Politics" have the overall multi-poll national average at 52/47 and 52/44, respectively - their closest figures for some time. Also, here is what John Zogby himself says about his own final poll (11/2):
"Obama has consolidated his lead over McCain. His single day lead today was back to 52%-42%. He leads by 10 among independents and has solidified his base. He leads among Hispanics by38 points, African Americans by 88, 18-24 year olds by 36, 18-29 year olds by 25, 25-34 year olds by 16, women by 8, and men by 3. He has a 17 point lead among those who have already voted, 22 by those who have registered to vote in the past 6 months, Moderates by 34, Catholics by 10. He even receives 21% support among Conservatives.
"So what happened to give McCain a one-point lead in the one-day polling on Friday? It was a day of consolidation for him, too. He had been losing support among key groups and began to regain some of his own base. He now leads by 21 points among NASCAR fans, 9 among investors, 6 among voters in armed forces households, and 2 among voters over 65 years old."
"Remember, as I said yesterday, one day does not make a trend. This is a three-day rolling average and no changes have been tectonic. A special note to blogger friends: calm it down. Lay off the cable television noise and look at your baseball cards in your spare time. It is better for your (and everyone else's) health."]
Lisa Schiffren (10/31):
It seems pretty possible that there will be more than one state in contention for a while. This time the GOP is prepared in many places to contest the kind of election fraud that the Democrats have been known to run against us — and each other.
Jonah Goldberg (10/30):
[A]s someone who always predicts that liberal prophecies of a tidal wave of youth votes will not pan out — and I’ve always been right — I’m still betting that the Obama Youth corps will not be as impressive as the left hopes.
[NB: Gallup currently shows Obama leading by 29% among under-30 voters - compared to a 22% advantage for Democrats in the 2006 mid-term election results, and a 9% advantage for Kerry in 2004.]
American Sentinel (self-described “traditionalist” “McCain Democrat) (9/24):
Polls Debunk Obama Voter Myths
Obamapologia is pretty much mythical. There is no un-polled reservoir of Obama voters . . . ready to jump out from the shadows on election day. The race really is close - - and may well be decided by the same factors that carried the day for the Republican ticket in the last two elections.
Melissa Clouthier (oh . . . excuse me . . . “Dr.” Melissa Clouther) at Right Wing News (10/28):
McCain Will Win
When John McCain wins, won’t the world, Democrats and even establishment Republicans be shocked? I still say that McCain will win.
Dan Perrin at RedState (10/28):
The Seven Reasons McCain-Palin Are a Lock to Win
There are seven serious, historic, demographic and other wise culturally compelling reasons Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin will win the election on November 4, 2008 – a date of defeat that will sear itself into the Democratic Party’s collective consciousness. ["reasons" follow]
Geoff Metcalf at NewsMax (10/20):
McCain Will Win
Obama will lose to McCain, and it will be close — very close. Unless ACORN and co-conspirators are successful in implementing massive voter fraud, John McCain will win. . . .
Ultimately, John McCain will defeat Barack Obama . . . because a majority of likely American voters don’t believe or trust Obama.
D.J. Drummond at Wizbang (10/21):
Gallup and New Coke
The polls are wrong this year, very wrong. I have been saying this for months, and I have backed up my claim with both statistical and anecdotal support. The claims I have made have inspired some, caused others to laugh in derision, and brought others to test their assumptions and revisit the hard data. Along the way, there have been a lot of questions about how and why the polls could be wrong. [NB: The answer? Almost all polling organizations are headquartered in heavily Democratic towns, and therefore they write skewed poll questions. Really.]
And from further back this summer, there are these high-minded theoretical analyses:
James Pinkerton of Fox News (8/6):
The Simplest Explanation for Why McCain Will Win This November
Is McCain destined to win a lonely victory at the political pinnacle, while other Republicans sink further into minority status in lesser competitions? The answer, to be blunt about it, is probably “yes.”
One obvious reason is the fact that McCain is doing well; he has thrown Barack Obama onto the defensive, and he is now ahead in the latest polls. [NB: Look, nobody forced him to make election predictions based on polls taken 3 months in advance.] . . .
Now to the second reason: Americans like divided government. . . .
Democrats hoped that their triumphant 2006 election would be just an overture to an ever bigger win in 2008, but, as we have seen, that doesn’t seem to be shaping up. If the voters don’t want Republicans to have all the power in DC, maybe they don’t want Democrats to have all the power, either.
Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator (8/19):
OK. I’ll walk out on a limb.
This election has already been decided. It’s over. The winner is John McCain. . . .
First, The Dark Knight broke movie records with first day earnings of over $66 million. . . .
Second. . . . Rush Limbaugh has celebrated his 20th year as the host of his nationally syndicated number one radio show, signing an 8-year contract for a reported $400 million. . . .
[W]ithout question, the research shows again and again that whether the subject is picking cars, coffee or presidents, people respond with their instincts. When this fact of life is overlaid with culture — in the case of voters for president of the United States, American culture — the result is easy to see.
While other cultures put a premium on thinking (the French) or order (the Germans), Americans want our presidents to respond just as we do in our culture — with their gut. An American presidential candidate, [advertising guru] Rapaille says, “doesn’t need to be extremely reptilian, only more reptilian than his opponent is.” In particular, and he says this in terms of a cultural observation as opposed to a subjective condemnation, Americans are not culturally disposed to thinking. We prefer, as the Nike commercial has long said, to “just do it.” We are a culture of action, of rebellion, of instinct. When Europeans or American liberals deride a George W. Bush or a Reagan as a “cowboy,” they think they are hurling an insult. Yet most Americans see cowboys as heroes, so the insult effectively backfires. When it comes to choosing between two candidates for president, we gravitate instinctively to the one perceived as more “reptilian.” Rapaille puts it this way: “We don’t want our presidents to think too much.” . . .
COMPETING IMAGES of McCain as the man of action and Obama as the egghead thinker are slowly sinking in with the American electorate of 2008. The same electorate that has rewarded Batman and Rush with millions of viewers, listeners and dollars. The same electorate that gets up every single day in this country and looks in the mirror to see their own personal hero or heroine, their own version of Batman or Rush, someone who is fighting with everything they have in their reptilian brain to survive and thrive.
[NB: He's serious.]
As if that weren’t enough, the New York Post invited a couple of pet wingers to take a flyer at “looking back” at Obama’s first term from the perspective of 2012. Granted, they were Jonah Goldberg and Ralph Peters, but, still, that’s what passes for mainstream conservative thinking these days. What did they - apparently seriously - come up with?
Goldberg:
Discussions with leaders within the Democratic Party, including prominent former members of the Obama administration, give a kaleidoscopic picture of missed opportunities, wrong turns and embarrassing blunders. . . .
[N]othing prepared the country for some of former Vice President Biden’s comments while in office. Early on, when he told the Russian foreign minister he’d “rather punch a nun in the throat” than cooperate on an Iranian nuclear deal, the Obama administration knew they had a problem on their hands.
. . . [H]e accused the Dalai Lama of issuing a “brain fart,” he phoned Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts at home and called him a “[re]tard in short pants,” and of course the several stories - clearly leaked by aides to the president - of Mr. Biden sitting in the president’s chair in the Oval Office and being more than reluctant to get out when asked to do so by the president.
The last straw was Biden’s complaint, emphatically offered at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, that he would have more influence over foreign policy if he were black. . . . Biden shouted “I am not joking!” two dozens times in speech that lasted less than 10 minutes. . . .
Ultimately, the embarrassment became too much and Mr. Biden became the first vice president to resign from office since Spiro Agnew. . . .
[T]he Congressional Progressive Caucus . . . colloquially known as the “big swinging caucus” after an unfortunate joke by then-Republican Minority Leader John Boehner after a scandal involving Rep. Barney Frank (see side story), pushed Barack Obama on a wide array of fronts: they demanded very large cuts in the military budget, a sweeping government expansion into the role of healthcare, and in a move that experts agree caused the Wall Street Panic of 2010, they persuaded Mr. Obama to make the government’s partial ownership of the remaining “Big Five” banks permanent. Representatives Frank and Charlie Rangel argued that the stakes, bought by the Bush treasury department, in the banks provided, in Frank’s words, a “once in a lifetime opportunity to inject some social justice into the capitalist system.” Or as Senator Jesse Jackson Jr. said, “if we’ve got them by the b - - - s already, why let go?
Americans also don’t like it when White House press secretary Keith Olbermann tells them that complaining about higher taxes is “racist.”
So now we know one thing: in four years, Republicans will still be fearfully obsessed with gay and black sexuality, and completely unable to tell the difference between people they don’t like and policies they don’t like. In other words . . . nothing will change. But what about the international scene?
Peters:
President Obama was the first world leader to welcome Jewish refugees after Iran’s nuclear destruction of Israel’s major cities (his only caveat - a fair one - was the refusal to accept Zionist military officers and their families, in light of Israel’s excessive retaliation). . . .
[H]e overruled the obstructionist advice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and ordered our military to cross the border into Pakistan in force. The subsequent debacle, as Pakistan cut off supply routes to Afghanistan and threatened a nuclear response, was entirely the fault of our generals on the ground, not of the administration. Fortunately, President Obama’s willingness to talk to our enemies rescued the situation. After laying down their arms, our troops were allowed to evacuate Pakistan and Afghanistan in peace. . . .
Our relations with the Muslim world have rarely, if ever, been better. The current $320 per barrel price of oil allows long-oppressed states to develop themselves . . . .
Ah, yes: Obama will cause nuclear war in two countries, succumb to nuclear blackmail in a third, surrender militarily to the dictator George Bush helped into power, and personally guarantee the destruction of Afghanistan, “Kurdistan”, and Iraq, as the price of oil increases to more than 3 times the highest value it has ever reached in over 150 years. All from the failure to start or maintain wars in at least 3 countries that haven’t attacked us, while ignoring the one that is harboring Osama bin Laden.
Remember: this is how their minds work. These are the predictions they make when the facts are available to them for direct inspection. Limbaugh says Nevada “looks like [a] pretty good McCain certaint[y]” when Obama is outpolling him there 4:1. Dick Morris says the election will be decided “very, very late” when all the states McCain has to win will be done polling before Law & Order comes on. Jonah Goldberg predicts a close race for McCain because the youth turnout will not be heavier than usual - while completely ignoring the fact that Obama is polling 10% more than any recent Democrat in that group regardless of turnout. They can’t make simple declarative statements about obvious facts without sounding like morons. When they actually try to think about anything the results look like a Marx Brothers movie (Goldberg plays the Margaret Dumont role).
We’ll see the results of these predictions (all but the last two - but do keep your eyes peeled for the coming Iran/Israel nuclear war) Tuesday night, before 10:00 pm. But remember that when these clowns - or any of their ideological fellow-travelers - try to tell you anything about anything from now on. They’re suffering from an inherent cognitive disadvantage: they’re conservatives. Their minds simply don’t work right.
Never believe anything they say. Trust me - you’ll see why the day after tomorrow.
UPDATE: Too delicious to pass up: “Vox Day”, an immensely stupid right-wing Christian who makes misogyny and general asshattedness his profession, and who possesses a haircut that, by itself, should make it legal to punch him in the head on sight, chose to post this less than 24 hours before the polls open:
[B]ased on my observations [and some pet theory of electoral dynamics that he cooked up], I am forced to conclude that despite the way things superficially appear, John McCain will win the election. The two key states to watch are New Hampshire and Virginia, with a particular emphasis on Virginia. If either of them go for McCain, you can safely conclude that it’s over in the GOP’s favor.
[NB: 538, whom he quotes, is currently putting the Obama victory probabilities for HN NH and VA at 99% and 93%, respectively. Remember: this is how their minds work.]
Categories: Bloggin, Culture, General, Humble Pie, Media, News & Current Events, Politics, Smackdown! |
4 Comments
October 27th, 2008
Buchananite Larison, on why the dittoheads are part of what’s wrong with the modern GOP:
However, in point of fact, yes, that audience is part of what’s wrong with the Republican Party. Part of what has been wrong with the GOP is that its rank-and-file members take their political advice and insights from radio entertainers who seem to understand little about political reality and even less about policy, and who substitute bluster for understanding. When they are confronted with an administration that does much the same, they have seemed only too willing to buy into the bluster. They remain steadfastly loyal to a failed President and his indefensible decisions, and they break with him only when he supports measures that are absolutely intolerable and even then they do this only when the President is profoundly unpopular and no longer very influential. This audience may have the right views about many things, but in practice that translates into reliable loyalty to a party that virtually never serves their interests, which enables the politicians who support all of the intolerable policies that they themselves reject.
[Of course, I disagree with him about the possibility of them being right about a lot of things...]
Categories: Politics, Smackdown! |
2 Comments
