Who is the only honest one in the bunch?
Turtledove, because he makes it perfectly plain from the first blurb on the back cover that he is dealing in fiction; an imaginary version of the past as it might-have-been, clearly marked as such and marketed within the well-established parameters of the alternate history sub-genre of science fiction.
Palin and Sullivan, on the other hand, deal in deception. In invented, counterfeit versions of American Conservative history which they both constantly assert are real, and upon which they both built entire careers and international brand-names. Mr. Sullivan's duplicity is certainly more subtle than Governor Palin's -- less shrilly verbalized and less cartoonishly brandished -- but both of them make their daily bread as con artists, and both of them take great pains to any circumstance or venue in which some rude person might be permitted to come along and go all loudly Emperor's New Clothes on them in public.
Which is why this post by Mr. Sullivan explaining (yet again) why there is no way in Hell he is ever going to have an open comment section caught my attention:
... We're sticking with posting the best and most informative of your emails. For the Dish, reader input plays a key role in airing debates and discovering facts from readers with deep knowledge of the subjects at hand. There is a way, in other words, to create a web space where readers add and don't detract from the experience.
It's called editing.
30 years ago, Mr. Sullivan crossed oceans and continents to lend his support to and build his budding career on the foundation stone of the American Conservative Movement. And now that the American Conservative Movement has shown itself to be exactly the witchbag of anti-science bigots, gun-nuts, oligarchs and fundamentalists that Liberals had always said they were, the only subject that Mr. Sullivan will not touch is the actual history of the actual movement he actually jumped into the sack with 30 years ago.
And why?
Because, as I wrote last year:
...One of the constants (or obsessions, depending on your POV) at Mr. Sullivan's blog is a steadfast and often lonely vigil on matter of Trig Palin's matrilineage (specifically) and the strange lies of Sarah Palin (generally).
As a for-profit political/media enterprise, Palinism rests on a foundation of overt dishonesty and a highly mythologized past, which is constantly refreshed and extended by the hilariously dodgy assertions being made by its Queen Bee. This massive scam is abetted by a compliant press which is simply too cowardly to take up these matters, and Palin herself, who makes absolutely sure she never gets cornered in a venue where there is the slightest chance some goof will stand up and confront her over the many, many inconvenient truths that are always threatening to blow the Conservative consensual hallucination of Palinism to atoms.
So good for him, and my critique is simply this; what's good for the goose is great for the gander.
Or to put it a little more clearly...
Sullivan-style Conservatism rests on a foundation of overt dishonesty and a highly mythologized past, which is constantly refreshed and extended by the hilariously dodgy assertions being made by people like Mr. Sullivan.
This scam is abetted by a compliant press which is simply too cowardly to turn an honest and critical eye to the real record of Conservatism for the last 30 years, and its spokesmodels -- people like Mr. Sullivan and Davis Brooks -- who make absolutely sure they never get cornered in a venue where there is the slightest chance some goof will stand up and confront them over the many, many inconvenient truths that are always threatening to blow their own Conservative consensual hallucination apart.
Both Palin and Sullivan (and Brooks, and all the rest) rode to financial success and cultural prominence on the back of Fake Reagan and Fantasy Conservatism doing battle with Imaginary Liberals, and now neither Palin nor Sullivan (nor Brooks, nor all the rest) can afford to have people tugging at the bright, clear, awkward loose ends of the fictions on which they have built a living
...
Because the last time in living memory that Mr. Sullivan was silly enough to let himself get tricked into sharing debating space with anyone who even remotely challenged his happy horseshit he ended up looking like a peevish fraud:
Which is why, since then, Mr. Sullivan will not touch it. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not wearing a HazMat suit. Not with a 20 foot barge pole.
He will not touch it in a box.
He will not touch it with a fox.
He will not touch it in a house.
He will not touch it with a mouse.
He will not touch it here or there.
He will not touch it anywhere.
Could not, would not, on a boat.
Will not, will not, with a goat.
Will not not touch it in the rain.
Will not touch it in on a train.
Not in the dark!
Not in a tree!
Not in a car!
You let me be!
Instead Mr. Sullivan chooses to spin lucrative fairy tales and hide from the righteous judgment of history by huffing "real conservative"
A Real Conservative's Take On Obama
...
The British Tories have not gone insane like the GOP.
...
Just because Americans need amnesia to forget what this country did to its own moral authority under Bush and Cheney does not mean that America's allies have. They saw the damage it did to all of us defending civilization against barbarism, only to discover that some of that barbarism was emanating from the White House itself.
bongo juice
Real Conservatives And Obama
And, of course, the leadership of the current Conservative Party in Britain could fit into the Democratic party here quite easily.
...
Mercifully, the Brits are not alone in seeing reality through the fog of Ailesian propaganda.
out of Ronald Reagan's underoos.
2 comments:
Where are Sullivan's real conservatives? In cryogenic seclusion, it would seem. Perhaps he goes and visits their gelid shrines, murmuring filial prayers and bittersweet plaints.
Who was the silent dude in the cool hat and white sportscoat?
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