Nov 6th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Wingnuts Prepare to Wind the Cocoon Tighter
Fox News’ Carl Cameron reports that Sarah Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent:
Red State’s Erik Erikson plans a purge of those committing crimes against Palindom:
RedState is pleased to announce it is engaging in a special project: Operation Leper.
We’re tracking down all the people from the McCain campaign now whispering smears against Governor Palin to Carl Cameron and others. Michelle Malkin has the details.
We intend to constantly remind the base about these people, monitor who they are working for, and, when 2012 rolls around, see which candidates hire them. Naturally then, you’ll see us go to war against those candidates.
So far, Steve Schmit, Mike Murphy, and Nichole Wallace are all on the leper list.
121 Responses to “Wingnuts Prepare to Wind the Cocoon Tighter”
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November 6th, 2008 at 9:29 am
These firing squads are a lot more fun from outside the circle.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Considering that Palin is supposed to be some sort of “Christian,” I must say that using “leper” as a term of abuse is the most bizarre response to the New Testament I have seen in my life, and I’ve seen a few.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:33 am
And if Palin loses the Republican nomination in 2012 due to these “lepers”, I suggest she pull a Teddy and form the “Bull(dog) (dead)Moose Party”.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Andy, I take your point about the leprosy irony. But why the scare quotes around “Christian”? Do you have any reason to believe that Sarah Palin is not a Christian? Could I say that Barack Obama is a “Christian”?
November 6th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Sharpen up them long knives.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Supporting Palin is tantamount to saying that you are proud to stand behind a lying, incompetent moron.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Didn’t know Africa was a continent? Jesus. This makes me think maybe she doesn’t read all newspapers.
As dumb as she is though, this story strains credibility. I mean, I don’t know how they teach it in Alaska but I learned that in first grade. My guess is there’s some bored bitter McCain slime thrower, without Obama to go after, who has now turned his sights on Palin and is making stuff up. Circular firing squads and all that, and since it’s Fox they report it without any fact checking. OTOH, it IS Sarah Palin.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I’m looking forward to the echo chamber becoming an anechoic chamber. Who, after all, is going to care about any of this?
November 6th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Guys? A little skepticism, here? Yes, Palin is incurious, vapid, and provincial, but I can’t help but suspect there’s at least some element of dishonest attacks on her coming from the McCain campaign staff intended to make Palin look even worse than she already does.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Freddie– I mean, Andy– why did you refer to Grady by your own name?
November 6th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Andy, as far as I’m concerned the entire “spiritual warfare” and “fivefold ministry” crowd are scare-quote Christians. They’re basically pagans with low-Church trappings wrapped around superstitions and penny-dreadful demonology.
As for Project Leper, I love it: a bunch of bloggers going to war against the strategists should provide real amusement. The more Palinology comes to define the GOP, the sooner the crackpots will cause the conservative crack-up, and the sooner a centrist party can emerge.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Guys? A little skepticism, here? Yes, Palin is incurious, vapid, and provincial, but I can’t help but suspect there’s at least some element of dishonest attacks on her coming from the McCain campaign staff intended to make Palin look even worse than she already does.
Sure, maybe you’re right, but the way the dead-enders are making support for Palin a litmus test for being considered a Republican is hilarious.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:50 am
spokeytown, apropos your suspicion about Palin really thinking Africa is a country: I grew up in a smallish town in the West, and I remember that one graduating senior in my highschool social studies class expressed the belief that Germany was a state–that is, one of the United States…. Lifeworlds can be very small; it’s only a few miles to the horizon!
November 6th, 2008 at 9:50 am
i suggest they put up a website, with the names, home addresses and pictures of all the lepers. then, as they are dealt with, Erick can put a big red X through their pictures.
i think there’s precedent for this kind of thing on the right.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:51 am
I have no sympathy for the chillbilly. Smear not, lest thou be smeared.
Is there no balm in Gilead? Surely she could have got some at Saks.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Now I feel really cheated. A Palin presidency would have been awesome.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:03 am
I also have some trouble believing the Africa and NAFTA nuggets, given the incentives some campaign aides have in trashin’ Sarah.
But in the larger scheme of things, who cares who is telling the truth? It’s time to pass the popcorn and cheer the circular firing squad!
November 6th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Is this the start of the much-anticipated GOP Civil War?
Good God, I hope that the hard right wins. They’ll be electorally doomed for a few cycles before the grown-ups get back in charge.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Spokeytown is right- McCain’s people are making sh*t up- perhaps Sara mispoke a line like “the country of Africa” or something equally lame- but it is no worse than visiting “57 states”-McCain people are truly despicable and I say this acknowledging that Palin is unqualified; but for them to say the things I am hearing is really remarkable. Shame on them.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Actually, McCain’s aides may be RETALIATING for something Palin started. I’ve seen the following story in several places:
“Advisers in the McCain campaign, in suggesting that Palin advisers had been leaking damaging information about the McCain campaign to the news media, said they were particularly suspicious of Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s top foreign policy aide who had a central role in preparing Ms. Palin for the vice-presidential debate.
…
Whatever the permutations, the advisers said they strongly believed that Mr. Scheunemann was disclosing, as one put it, “a constant stream of poison” to William Kristol, the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard and a columnist for The New York Times.
Mr. Kristol, who wrote a column on Oct. 13 calling on Mr. McCain to fire his campaign because it was “close to being out-and-out dysfunctional,” said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that the campaign advisers were paranoid. Mr. Kristol has been a strong supporter of Ms. Palin.
“I wasn’t writing poison,” Mr. Kristol said. He added: “Randy Scheunemann is a friend of mine and I think he did a good job. I talked to him, but I talked to a lot of people at the campaign.”
Ref: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/06mccain.html?pagewanted=2&hp
November 6th, 2008 at 10:16 am
That should rule her out as the next Republican nominee. Anyone who had the proper foreign policy training would know it is a continent worth 3 armies.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:19 am
There are a lot of sentimental GOP voters who will forever view the campaign as an all-out MSM assault on Palin. Just the other day I was reading Red Sox blowhard Curt Schilling’s blog about “what the media has done, and said, about Governor Palin since she was nominated for the position of Vice President. It’s been one BS character assassination after another from people who don’t know squat.” It’s a very primitive response in defense of their beloved heroine, much like the defense of Michelle Malkin after Chris Matthews turned on her on Hardball back in 2004, when Malkin was accusing John Kerry of shooting people in the back. It’ll be really interesting to see who takes the reins of the GOP, and why. Clearly there are many conservatives, including members of McCain’s campaign, who want to destroy Palin now lest she have a chance to remain in the game. (Chuck Todd remarked last night that she’s got about six months to prove herself, otherwise she’s finished.) And of course, Palin people will blame everything on the disloyal, mean meanies in the McCain campaign who didn’t “let Sarah be Sarah”.
It’s all quite wonderful.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:24 am
The Neocons and the Nuts…Those are the two groups that need to be purged from my party. These guys (RedState) cross into both camps.
The problem for them is, how do lepers put people in a leper colony? It reminds me of an episode of the Twilight Zone.
The Republican party needs to get back to empiricism, and an analysis of the facts tells me that these fools did more to destroy the party than people like me.
The good news for us though is that already there is a recognition of that. It is only a matter of time before these guys become just another fringe group that no decision maker will listen to in “the big tent.”
So count me in as a part of that leper colony. If sticking up for one of the worst Presidents in the history of this nation is the cure for this simpletons…Then I’m glad I’m still sick.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Yeah, I kind of doubt the African thing. But the rest I can buy. I still can’t get over the fact that McCain put his “mavericky” reputation above the welfare of the nation by choosing this street trash. You can bet he’ll be all over the media with all kinds of excuses about his crap campaign and all will be forgiven (by the media that is). But more than anything I can’t get over the fact that Palin actually believed she was a good candidate for VP. The arrogance is just breathtaking! Still I don’t think she’ll be satisfied with puny old Alaska politics now that she’s had a taste of the big leagues. And what exactly was going on with her and Scheunemann? Now THAT is juicy!
November 6th, 2008 at 10:25 am
I look forward to 8 years from now when perhaps the Grand Old Party will run not Gov Palin but rather her daughter, who, not longer tied down by her child–in daycare–will have time on her hands to study geography and read People Magazine to keep abreast (?) of the goings on in our world.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:25 am
The long knives are out. She probably referred to Africa at one point as if it was a country, because she always misspeaks. And she didn’t quite realize the mistake. And someone in the campaign pressed her. And then she kind of realized that Africa is not a country, and that she had misspoken.
In other words, it’s not as if, upon reflection, that she didn’t know the Africa was a continent. It was that… she doesn’t reflect. And so was confused by the question.
Either way it’s pretty damning. But it’s probably not literally true that she didn’t know that Africa was not a country.
I don’t think she could find Africa on a map, though.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:27 am
“I wasn’t writing poison,” Mr. Kristol said. He added: “Randy Scheunemann is a friend of mine and I think he did a good job. I talked to him, but I talked to a lot of people at the campaign.”
not exactly a denial.
I hope future GOP campaigns continue to take advice from Bill Kristol, whose wisdom and judgment WRT Palin and Iraq will pay handsome dividends…
…for Democrats.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:28 am
I look forward to 8 years from now when perhaps the Grand Old Party will run not Gov Palin but rather her daughter
Four years.
And let me put it in writing today: Obama will be a one-term presidency, not because he’ll be a terrible president, but because he has been set up for failure by the Bush administration with it’s massive spending and handling of the economy.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:30 am
I also have some trouble believing the Africa and NAFTA nugget
Relish not the quality of the mud itself, but the fervency of the slinging.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I can understand someone who doubts this story, but I think it’s perfectly plausible. There was a National Geographic survey in 2002 that showed that 56 percent of American 18- to 24-year-olds couldn’t locate India on a world map and 11 percent couldn’t find the United States. She’s obviously fairly bright, but when it comes to general background knowledge, the people who said “She’s just like me!” had it right.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:33 am
There are a lot of sentimental GOP voters who will forever view the campaign as an all-out MSM assault on Palin. Just the other day I was reading Red Sox blowhard Curt Schilling’s blog about “what the media has done, and said, about Governor Palin since she was nominated for the position of Vice President. It’s been one BS character assassination after another from people who don’t know squat.”
True, and that’s every bit as absurd as anything being attributed to Palin. Just watch the Katie Couric interview; no amount of selective editing could result in someone looking that stupid. Do they think it was actually Tina Fey there?
November 6th, 2008 at 10:34 am
perhaps Sara mispoke a line like “the country of Africa” or something equally lame-
No. There’s a further quote which revealed that she thought apparently that the countries were like states, that South Africa was like Alabama or Wyoming.
Hey, what do I know? Hot-to-trot flirtatiousness and a Pentecostal background? Sounds presidential to me.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Joe, I disagree. What imperils Pres-elect Obama is national security.
This is why he needs a prominent Republican Realist at either State or Defense. Without one, the next terrorist attack or Foreign Policy crisis will unite the Republican party on an issue that can drive the polls in 2012.
Democrats have had to learn this lesson again and again for the last 50 years. I believe that Mr. Obama can and will finally solve this problem for the Democratic party.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:35 am
(Chuck Todd remarked last night that she’s got about six months to prove herself, otherwise she’s finished.)
That will take care of itself when she appoints herself to Ted Stevens’ seat in the Senate following his imprisonment.
Definitely gonna happen.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:41 am
It’s hilarious that conservatives are taking no time for self reflection at this juncture. There is a reason they have become a regional party and ideology, but they are too concerned with cannibalizng each other to stop and think about how they might need to change and adapt.
Keep eating each other up, it’s delicious theatre for the rest of us!
November 6th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Actually, Alaska is one of the states where the governor is not permitted to make appointments for open Senate seats. It has to go through the legislature thanks to the corruption of Frank Murkowski, who appointed his daughter to take his Senate seat after he was elected governor.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Ah, the Republican tradition of making “enemies” lists — kind of like Santa, but edgier. It’s good to see them get back to their roots.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:55 am
No, Thad, definitely NOT gonna happen. In Alaska a special election is held. Do YOU know if Africa is a country?
November 6th, 2008 at 10:55 am
“Is this the start of the much-anticipated GOP Civil War?”
Unfortunately, probably not, so don’t microwave the popcorn just yet. It’s McCain campaign staffers and strategists getting the blame in first, to preserve their employability, despite making dumbass decisions like contesting Pennsylvania. “Not my fault, Palin was teh suxxor, please hire me”. This probably isn’t coming from policy-level people.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Actually, Alaska is one of the states where the governor is not permitted to make appointments for open Senate seats. It has to go through the legislature thanks to the corruption of Frank Murkowski, who appointed his daughter to take his Senate seat after he was elected governor.
Which party controls the legislature?
November 6th, 2008 at 10:56 am
It’s only fitting, as the entire Redstate directorate is staffed with moral lepers.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Ed Smithe: so the Neocons and the Nuts need to be purged from the GOP, eh?
I hope you realize that wouldn’t leave very many remaining (I was thinking maybe the libertarians, but those people are also Nuts like the Theocons, except that they’re harmless).
The number of Neocons is not particularly large, except in the small ponds of party operatives, media, the military, and elected officials. They think they are the conservative “intellectuals” and I suppose they are, they’re just wrong (same thing goes for the libertarians).
The Nuts, though (Theocons, libertarians, Know-Nothing racists, etc.), are legion. I believe they make up a significant portion of GOP officialdom (maybe even a majority) and are at least half of the GOP electorate (I’m trying to be generous here).
So who would remain? Chamber of Commerce business-types like my boss? In a parliamentary system those people would hold maybe 10 seats out of 100.
Get rid of the Neocons and Nuts and there is no GOP. Here’s the obvious truth: the Neocons and the Nuts ARE the GOP. It’s why people like John Cole left.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Hyperion Says:
November 6th, 2008 at 10:55 am
No, Thad, definitely NOT gonna happen. In Alaska a special election is held. Do YOU know if Africa is a country?
You display insufficient recognition Ms. Palin’s greatness.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:00 am
If only Sarah could see Africa from her house, there would not have been any confusion. Just sayin’.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am
What imperils Pres-elect Obama is national security.
This is why he needs a prominent Republican Realist at either State or Defense. Without one, the next terrorist attack or Foreign Policy crisis will unite the Republican party on an issue that can drive the polls in 2012.
Either I’m misunderstanding this, or I disagree completely. You seem to be saying that Republicans and only Republicans can handle national security well. Based on the last 16 years - Clinton wasn’t perfect, but he was nowhere near the disaster that Republicans were saying at the time - that’s ridiculous.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am
If this ‘leper’ thing takes off, I just see more republicans going independent or even join the democratic party. Amazing. Like diving a submarine with the hatch open.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am
To be fair, I’ve never seen the Economist magazine actually state that Africa is not a country.
If the primaries were dinner, and election night was desert, the self-immolation and mutual cannibalization of warring conservative movement tribes is…I don’t know…the after-dinner joint. The economy is still a disaster and we’re mired in two wars, but my gosh is it a lot of fun to watch movement conservatives tear each other’s throats out.
Maybe this is a secret conservative plan - flood the emerging Democratic coalition with so many disaffected moderate Republicans that the most progressive agendas become impossible to pull off.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:09 am
===
It doesn’t work like that. Alaska passed a law (well, a couple of laws) after Senator Frank Murkowski became Governor Murkowski and appointed his daughter Lisa to fill his Senate seat.
Alaska has to hold a special election within 60-90 days of a Senate vacancy. There’s some confusion over whether the governor can appoint an interim Senator for those 90 days, but no confusion over the special election.
Even if Palin named herself interim Senator, she’d still have to run in the special election.
This Anchorage Daily News article explains the situation in numbing detail:
http://www.adn.com/ted-stevens/story/569836.html
November 6th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Funniest of all: Mitt Romney spent millions of his own money to be the odds-on third place favorite to represent his party in the 2012 run to become President of Appalachia.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Palin: Like mother, like son.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Rich said:
Supporting Palin is tantamount to saying that you are proud to stand behind a lying, incompetent moron.
And this is different from Republicans of the last eight years how, exactly?
November 6th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Ignorance, profligate spending, hyper-coiffed empty symbolism and rageful-diva tantrums - yep, no surprise the Malkin shock troops worship this woman.
Palin / Bachmann 2012 !!!
November 6th, 2008 at 11:39 am
DFH no. 6,
You’re wrong because you’re not thinking about it top-down. The neocons are a tiny segment of influential people that sent this country into an insane war. As a result of that, there were a lot of folks in the party that came along solely out of party loyalty. Look at Kosovo…Besides the neocons, how many Republicans supported that fools errand? No one besides the neocons believe in this morally and economically bankrupting foreign policy…Purge them and you’ll remove a great deal of the problem.
As for the nuts, I agree with you, that is a more difficult task…But again, think about it top down. How hampered was Reagan by the nuts? Not so much.
When I talk about a purge, I talk about the decision-makers in the party. There are plenty of folks like your boss that have the sense and the gravitas to put this party back on the right course. That’s where the battle is.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Yes, after two straight elections of being trounced at the polls, what the Republicans need more than anything is to TRACK DOWN ANYONE WHO SAID ANYTHING BAD ABOUT PALIN.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:43 am
“We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease.” —President George W. Bush, at a news conference in Europe, June 14, 2001
Come on now, she’s a quick learner, and learned from the feet (in mouth) of the master…
November 6th, 2008 at 11:45 am
As a progressive Democrat, I can only hope that Sarah Palin is, indeed, the future of the Republican Party. It’s almost as if the Democrats, instead of nominating Obama, had nominated Rev. Wright. Brilliant stuff.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:46 am
oops, I’m already being Palinized…
learned AT the feet of the master, not from!
November 6th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Ed Smithe, first, there are no Republican realists of note, and second, no. The Democrats don’t have a problem with national security. The Democrats only have a problem with national security when they listen to Republicans.
For our edification, please point out how Democrats have failed on national security. Concrete examples where the United States is less secure under a Democrat. In spite of the dishonesty of it, I will even give you a pass on G. W. Bush (whose administration was filled with Nixon/Reagan retreads and therefore exemplifies Republican national security expertise). Feel free to compare and contrast your ideal (though actual, existing) Republican with real Democratic policies.
The problem the nation has is, in fact, that the national security debate is between the extreme nutcase warmongers and the moderately aggressive “realists.” There are no voices for a sane, non-aggressive, stance.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
George Bush didn’t know Africa was a continent either.
“We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease.” —Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001
And look how well that turned out.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I think the “Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent” is a bunch of hooey. Yes, she’s incredibly stupid and incurious, but not that much. They really feel the need to deflect blame and came up with a plausible lie to help sell their story (because Palin is really fuckin’ stupid). But I’m calling bullshit on that particular detail.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Really, this is unfair to lepers, who suffer from a disease, whereas at Redstate they are willfully ignorant. More of an idiot colony
BTW, this is a reverse idiot colony. The idiots are kicking out everybody with higher functions, in order to purify the gene pool.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Here’s the original quote from FoxNews:
That does suggest the possibility that she was thinking of it as a federation of sorts. It’s not the same as saying that she didn’t know what or where Africa was as a land-mass, but rather that she didn’t understand correctly how that land-mass was organized politically. Still revealing, but not quite as stone cold dumb as the way Cameron phrased it (”didn’t understand that Africa was a continent”).
November 6th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Dear skeptics: you obviously need to spend some more time in middle America. I take a European trip every 2 years. Over the years I’ve had co-workers ask me what country France is in, what “state” Budapest was in, if I flew or drove to Austria, what language they speak in the country of “Paris” and, for that matter, if they speak English in Britain (well, maybe not such a funny question). Some of these people have college degrees.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
This so-called “leper list” is great news for liberals all over America. After losing the Epic/Fail 2008 ticket only one day ago, the right wing bloggers are already setting up and pushing the Epic^2/Fail^2 2012 ticket fast and hard! Let’s hope Malkin et al have enough push to make it happen. Hell, I’m tempted to donate to these efforts now just so I can see Obama absolutely dominate in 2012.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Well, it seems like Jesus is going to be busy healing all these folks.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
ed, you’re right. She was probably talking about “The South Africa.”
November 6th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Well, the legislature was accused of starting a partisan witch-hunt in “Troopergate”. They’re Republicans.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
They are only doing this because putting your hands over your ears, closing your eyes, and singing loudly for four years is pretty exhausting. An Enemies List is just easier.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Anyone reminded of this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANTDkfkoBaI
I, personally, would tune in to Palin’s celebrity appearance on “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?”
November 6th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
TWG,
I have no idea what the five-fold ministry is, but I don’t see how you can be a Christian without acknowledging at least in principle that spiritual warfare goes on. The New Testament is very clear that Jesus cast out devils from people.
As for Africa, I don’t believe that the sitting governor of any US state could be dumb enough to think it was all one country. Does anyone have proof of this?
November 6th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
As a modern Pagan, I must take exception to that remark.
In various surveys, Neo-Pagan religions are the fastest growing in the country, as evidenced by the approval of the Wiccan Pentagram for military headstones in Arlington. But believe me, no genuine Pagans I know of think that their legends and mythologies should be taught in schools as scientific facts.
These scare-quote christians are not “pagans”, they are superstitious know-nothings and frankly, they are adhering to their Christian religion exactly as taught in a literal reading of their holy scriptures. Stoning heretics, gays and witches to death is exactly what is taught in their holy writ. Don’t blame them for following their Christian teachings to the letter. It’s those who claim to be Christian but embrace a allegorical interpretation of the Bible who are more the “pagans” than the fundamentalists, because one of the hallmarks of modern Paganism is pluralism and tolerance of religious variety. At least I give the fundies honesty points for believing and following exactly what their religion teaches. Don’t blame the fundies, blame what’s written in no uncertain terms in the holy book they believe in.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I’m with e–
True conversation between my brother-in-law and a “Middle American” on a plane recently:
MA: Where y’all from?
BIL: Switzerland.
MA: Wow, it must be great living on an island.
BIL: [baffled]
MA: Whatta y’all eat in Switzerland? Y’all got Olive Garden?
November 6th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Ed Smithe:
You replied to me, “You’re wrong because you’re not thinking about it top-down”.
I understand why you might think that, but actually I was thinking about what you wrote both from a top-down as well as an electorate-wide perspective.
We both agree that the Neocons are a small but very influential set of people. I just don’t see them in any danger of being “purged” from the GOP, nor, despite the disaster of Iraq and the bullshit “War on Terror”, of actually losing much influence. Bush and Cheney are quite discredited, of course, but the “Very Serious Foreign Policy Experts” (i.e., Neocons) not so much.
Their natural home is the modern Republican Party, which is authoritarian, militaristic, jingoistic, and gung-ho for American exceptionalism, primarily expressed via the American Empire. Face it, dude, today’s GOP is our version of fascism (ducks long arm of Godwin’s Law). No analogy is perfect, but if they could (they can’t), you know they would rule like Mussolini or Franco (we’ll leave Hitler far, far out of this). It’s why our military budget is equal to the rest of the world’s put together. The GOP leaders (especially the Neocons) are very much the political arm of the military-industrial complex. Short of revolution (very, very bad and not gonna happen anyway, thank the FSM), not particularly “purgeable”.
And the Theocons? Or, more generally, the “Nuts”? Why, they’re the heart and soul of the “Southern Strategy”, at both the leadership level (even if some of the leaders — look at McCain, for instance — don’t believe half the bullshit they spew) and especially at the electorate level. In their teeming millions, they’re the base of the party. It’s why Bobby (the “Exorcist”) Jindal, Mike Huckabee, and (God help us all) Palin are spoken of prominently as a potential future leaders. As a rallying cry, “God, guns, ‘n’ gays” isn’t going away any time soon. It just means, I think, that the GOP stays in a minority position for the foreseeable future.
Reagan’s a somewhat separate topic. Personally, I think he was a Neocon/Nut (if an amiable-seeming one) who did great damage to the Republic, and was just part of the continuum of horror that is movement conservatism.
And business-types like my boss, when given free rein to pursue their true god — laissez-faire capitalsim — brought us to the current economic crisis every bit as much as they did leading to the Great Depression. Of course, the captains of industry (finacial and otherwise) made out quite well themselves. Don’t think I’d consider that the “right course”. Put some oversight and sensible regulation on those puppies, though, now you’re talkin’.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
RedState used to be a place where you could get some plausible conservative arguments and relatively little spittle was emitted. I think The Next Right has taken over that role. RS has gone absolutely straight to hell this election season, or more accurately, past hell and all the way to Free Republic. I think that after “purging” everyone who wasn’t for Fred Thompson… then “purging” everyone who wasn’t for Romney… then “purging” everyone who wasn’t for McCain-slash-Obama’s a Marxist cult-leader election-stealer… and now “purging” everyone who questions Palin… well, they’ve just left themselves with a bunch of the worst dittoheads.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
they are adhering to their Christian religion exactly as taught in a literal reading of their holy scriptures. Stoning heretics, gays and witches to death is exactly what is taught in their holy writ.
You just make yourself look like an idiot with statements like that. Try reading the book before you claim to know what it means. I love liberal tolerance.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I find it completely believeable that Palin doesn’t know Africa is a continent. But it doesn’t prove she’s stupid - lots of people have odd lacunae in their knowledge. I speak 5 European languages but I had no idea where Indonesia was until I was 22 years old. She certainly seems like someone who doesn’t give Africa a lot of thought. I’m sure if she sat down and thought about it she knows intellectually that there are places like Egypt and South Africa that are in Africa, but she, like more people than would admit it, instinctively think of Africa as an undifferentiated mass.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
If Palin gets the Republican nomination for ‘12, then that’s probably the best possible reason to be optimistic for an Obama 2nd term.
November 6th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Ms. Palin’s, and the Republican campaign generally, has been one long smear against alces Alces North America’s largest ungulate, the ones the French trappers called, with reverent awe, “l’orignal”, the moose. That this splendid noble and steadfast beast should be riven from his solitary ruminations, and employeed as both a cheap metaphor and epithet, is a national disgrace. I don’t like it either.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Notice how they included Carl Cameron in their list. Proof positive that Fox News is just another part of the Republican Party’s apparatus.
November 6th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
The end of the world is nigh, because even at least one of MattY’s “liberal” commenters realizes this for what it is: just a smear.
And, at the same time as blogs like this retransmit smears, they ignore the secretive Bush trade scheme that BHO supports.
Ask yourself which is more important: hearing about a gossipy smear, or learning that BHO supports a secretive Bush scheme? Then, adjust your website reading habits accordingly.
November 6th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
g shepherd -
I don’t see the problem. I mean, Switzerland would be an island if Italy, France, Austria, and Germany were bodies of water.
November 6th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I find it completely believeable that Palin doesn’t know Africa is a continent. But it doesn’t prove she’s stupid - lots of people have odd lacunae in their knowledge.
Sure…..and if those “lacunae” appear to encompass every topic they’ve talked about, those people would be considered complete imbeciles as well.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Sure - I believe she doesn’t know her ass from a hole in the ground.
I have seen people like her all through my academic career: they use the same words and phrases over and over (”also” “reform” “irregardless”) and use their visage far more than their knowledge because there is far more visage.
She is a replica of everything I just can’t stomach.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Seeing Palin called a leper, I have lurid fantasies about her leading a Zombie Party of fundie Christians.
Incapable of conscious thought, and in desperate need of brains.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. — Winston Churchill
November 6th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
The most forehead-smack inducing idea is that she wouldn’t have known who was in NAFTA, all while mentioning how having Canada as a neighbor gave her foreign policy experience. And yet to be clueless on that?
Laughable, where was McCain this whole time? Im glad a guy who couldnt run his campaign didn’t get a chance to run the country.
November 7th, 2008 at 7:44 am
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November 7th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Hi other side! If there are any of you out there who actually want to engage in discussion, I submit that if we are indeed winding a cocoon tighter, we are doing so in a very deliberate act of destruction. We can’t stand the current Republican brand - I’m only on the Republican rolls because I live in a draconian state (PA) that has closed primaries - and are attempting a purge (insert your snide comment). While I don’t believe that Palin is half as stupid as these bitter McCain staffers, I will tell you that it’s not about her, it’s about the establishment’s abhorrence over her nomination and inability to rally around someone whose “pedigree” doesn’t match their own. It’s about trusting an ivy league education and participation at state dinners over real-world experience. And it’s about never, EVER allowing the conservative movement to settle for dealing with liberal socialism on the left’s terms. Do not look this direction for “Unity.”
November 7th, 2008 at 8:30 am
No, it’s about Duty, Honor, Country.
Principles which the Whores who lead the Republican Party no longer understand.
November 7th, 2008 at 8:48 am
… I will tell you that it’s not about her, it’s about the establishment’s abhorrence over her nomination and inability to rally around someone whose “pedigree” doesn’t match their own. It’s about trusting an ivy league education and participation at state dinners over real-world experience. And it’s about never, EVER allowing the conservative movement to settle for dealing with liberal socialism on the left’s terms.
Bumr50 -
Thanks for that inciteful look into the mind of the clueless. If you really believe what you wrote, then you seriously need to get a grip.
It’s not about “pedigree”, it’s about intellectual “capabilitee”. One side has it, the other didn’t/doesn’t. Although there are people who have come out of the Ivy League without learning much (if anything) - the current Preznit is a case in point - most of the non-legacy students can’t make it through Harvard Law School without having a certain level of intelligence.
“Real-world experience”, as you apparently mean it, is overrated. George W. Bush had “real-world experience” in running oil companies - right into the ground. And I don’t mean drilling baby drilling. “Real-world experience” is the term usually used by a politician (and his/her idolators) to try to mitigate the reality that their boy (or girl) just ain’t smart enough to deal with complex issues. Like whether “Osama bin Laden determined to strike within the United States” means anything, or is just a case of them Demoncrats being sissy-girls.
Your gang is all about playing the fear card, not about addressing the issues - ANY issue - in a thoughtful way, nor being willing to discuss differing approaches to deal with a problem.
Socialism? You mean what Bush has been practicing? Actually, in a sense, Bush and Cheney have been practicing something more like Soviet-style communism than anything - you know, where the Politburo enriches themselves and their cronies, and tells the grazhdanye to go screw themselves. I guess that’s what your Preznit meant when he declared that he and Putin were soulmates.
Do us all a favor: be like DMOP and “go John Galt” on us. I hear the other “John Galts” are setting up a colony on Shemya. And I hear that winters there are without equal.
November 7th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Principles which the Whores who lead the Republican Party no longer understand.
One assumes “no longer understand” means “hasn’t understood for the last 30 or 40 years”.
November 7th, 2008 at 8:54 am
… “haven’t understood …”
November 7th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
It seems fair to use quotation marks around “Christian” when so very little in her behavior indicates she is one.
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November 7th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I also think it’s fair to put quotation marks around “Christian”. Many people will classify themselves into some category, but not possess a significant number of characteristics that are commonly considered applicable to that category. When someone calls themselves a Christian and proceeds to be quite happy to proclaim enormous lies about someone else in order to gain advantage, they no longer qualify as Christian. Most Christian still claim to honor the Ten Commandments (albeit doing little to prove it), and “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” is still one of them. Palin gave a lot of false witnessing.
This seems like a good time to give you a tool useful for analyzing political speeches as well as web postings such as I’ve read above. I call it:
The Nine Primary Principles of Effective Propaganda
1. Big Lie - Always choose the big lie over the small; the masses will believe it more readily.
2. Focus – Use only one or two selling points.
3. Repeat – Say them over and over until even your enemies know them by heart.
4. Blame - Never waver, acknowledge no doubt, always blame - never credit - the other side.
5. Provoke - First attract attention, then appeal to emotions.
6. Crisis - Shades of gray don’t work: issues must be love/hate, good/evil, life/death, heaven/hell.
7. Emotional Symbols - Good slogans have no literal meaning, only a strong emotional appeal.
8. Pander - Ignore intellectuals and reasonable arguments; target the unthinking masses with emotional pitches.
9. No Limits – Ignore all moral limits when stakes are high.
If you jot them down or print them out, you will find them very useful.
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I hope and pray that the Republicans do line up behind Palin. I hope that they take their platform straight from the right-wing religious base. That they battle between Rush, Coulter and Hannity to see who becomes her spokesperson. Anyone showing the slightest integrity, independent thought or conscience be shown the door.
They are absolutely right. It wasn’t a failure of failed policies and philosophy that needs to be addressed, pragmatism is the enemy of dogma! It was just they weren’t vicious enough. They weren’t strident enough. They didn’t play dirty enough.
For years the people of the Republican party that were intelligent and cared deeply ignored the change in their party and turned a blind eye to the damage done. Plausible deniability until they dared to step out of line. Then they were “shocked” at the discourse and the consequences!
No, Plain should definitely be moved to become the face of the Republican party. Joe the plumber could be her economic and foreign advisor. Joe the builder can lead the department of interior…
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