Since the Feast of the Epiphany is right around the corner, it seemed like a good time to haul this graphic out of the cellar
...But the GOP appears incapable of acting for the public good. They cannot operate responsibly within the constitutional framework of this country. Their absolutism even in the face of stinging electoral defeat and hefty public opposition is a function of their existing in a hermetically-sealed ideological universe where the only thing they care about is not being primaried by someone even further to their right. That's right: the only thing. Not the country; not the debt; not the global economy; not the voters; not the American economy. They are vandals, not representatives, a rogue threat not just to this country but to the wider economic system in the world. They have already been prepared to abuse the debt ceiling and the filibuster in their adolescent anarchism...We have a constitutional crisis: an opposition party so ideological and so bent on its own power at the expense of everything else, that the system cannot work. Only public opinion has a chance of swaying them. But when you're as fanatical as these zealots, public opinion is about as relevant as the thought that they should actually exercise basic responsibility.-- Andrew Sullivan, December 20, 2012
Dear Future Generations,
You want to know what life was like for Liberals in America during my lifetime?
First they ignored you.Then they laughed at you.
Then they fought you.
Then they got gigs in national magazines repeating as breathless epiphany things you had been saying for thirty years.
7 comments:
Yes indeedy-do!
I blame Bill Maher for Sullivan's bloviating popularity. What John McCain was for Sarah Palin Bill Maher is for this soporific wind tunnel who purports to be a conservative intellectual but couldn't see coming with Reagan (and before) what those of us have lived under this toxic regime saw coming with Reagan (and before)!
I could go on for many many paragraphs as to why Andrew Sullivan is a shill - but why bother since you do such a good job! Time to smack down Bill Maher though (who is also a pretty despicable bigot and sexist when it comes to Muslims and women).
He should be paying royalties for using those words.
And you're first in line.
S
I have to say that you are such a good writer that it is frankly intimidating to try to post anything in response to this post. That being said I've been thinking this for a while now so hang with me while I fumble it out.
All this drama over Sullivan...it smacks of bitterness to me. No wait, before your readers flay me for saying that hear me out.
Perhaps you and others in the liberal blogosphere don't get the recognition you should. I'd agree with that as a statement. However, isn't it a GOOD thing that people like Andrew Sullivan are waking up to these issues? Why be upset when you know that these people are talking to an audience that needs to hear these things.
As much as he irks me, and he does. At least he's not doing the whole both sides do it nonsense here.
It's the endless "But they were WRONG!" that you go on, and on, and ON about, it's frustrating. Yes, they were wrong. But does that mean people are never allowed to learn? To change? Perhaps in his case he hasn't actually learned anything and it's all a put on but who are you to say?
I don't think we get to decide what is a "real" opinion. I think we can have a genuine dispute over issues but what exactly are you arguing about here? I'm fairly sure you agree with what he's saying. So why complain about that? We don't always agree, he is/was a twit about many issues. But I don't agree with my co-workers on a lot of issues but they do occasionally make a point that I agree with.
So when you say that what he's saying is what you've said. Is it a problem because what he's saying is different or because he's on television every so often?
Barbara,
I cannot answer for DG, but I can pitch in my perspective, which is "parallel to but different from" DG's.
Andrew Sullivan, in short, is a pretentious twat because he thinks he has succeeded on merit. He is intelligent, but he has been more impressed with his own intelligence than with what he can learn.
He desperately wants US conservatism to be like Great Britain's conservatism, which is greedy old white men who get cranky when things change. He is also used to a culture that, because of the damage religion has historically done, atheism is acceptable and overt displays of religion can be distasteful. The British don't mind "God bless Crown and Country" comments and such, but things like Congressman Shimkus' reading the Biblical story of the rainbow on a climate change congressional hearing would end with someone pilloried.
Sullivan desperately wants his academic and personal background to apply, so he just believes it to be so. He simply convinces himself that racism is a thing of the past, and evangelical dominionism is not an issue. As I've said in a comment before, "Sullivan doesn't understand why Christians who are conservatives hate him so, and he doesn't understand why conservatives who are Christians give the former so much power."
He simply declares US conservatism to be what he grew up with, so that he can be a "public intellectual". Because the views he chooses to believe always align so perfectly with what he chooses to believe, he believes he's an intellectual functioning in a meritocracy. He refuses to believe that his fame came from the novelty of being an immigrant gay Catholic conservative.
As for what he is saying now, his current twatish status comes from the fact that he is "suddenly realizing" these things because he is getting paid to do so, and because the purity trolls on the right don't want a f@g and a feriner telling them what-for. CPAC nearly split because of the inclusion of Log Cabin and GOProud, and there was a massive conspiracy theory that GOProud was a front group by Saul Alinsky (who has been dead since 1972) to infiltrate and corrupt CPAC and movement conservatism. Sullivan and the Log Cabin Republicans are now persona-non-grata in movement conservatism.
However, he is refusing to acknowledge that any of movement conservatism's problems have to do with racism or religious dominionism, from which sprout misogyny, nativism, xenophobia, or a superstitious fear of science. Sullivan is still trying to figure out what "suddenly" cause all of these problems, all of which magically occurred after he was ousted from the movement.
Also, Hell will freeze over before he admits progressives were right about anything, because then he will loose all conservative or apostate-conservative credibility. His only employable skill is as a conservative intellectual, so he is desperately clinging to that. In a sane conservative movement, he could have some clout, but he is trying to be a scholar amid a horde of superstitious barbarians who think he makes Jesus cry. People like Bill Maher, Chris Mathews, and Lawrence O'Donnell respect him because he's a Thatcherite douche but intelligent. However, he's trying to pretend the conservatism he has been defending is just as respectable as he is, and that is falling apart.
Mike.K.
"there was a massive conspiracy theory that GOProud was a front group by Saul Alinsky (who has been dead since 1972) to infiltrate and corrupt CPAC and movement conservatism. "
I just realized I made that commend without even attempting to make a comment about a Jew-Commie controlled Drag Queen Zombie Army.
Hordes of the living dead, shuffling in a synchronized march, black stiletto-heel boots and big commie-red wigs....
I feel so ashamed of myself.
Though I guess we will see by their late 213 releases if anyone from Troma reads Driftglass' blog.
Mike.K.
When I thin of Andrew Sulliedman, I don't think of Epiphany, I think of "epic phony."
P.S. Barbara -- while your comment is thoughtful, and while I cannot speak for DG, let me back up what Anonymous is saying by pointing out one of the things that rankles me about Sullivan. He says "they were wrong" but he does not say "I" was wrong, and I'll try to be right in the future, by agreeing with what liberals say NOW instead of waiting to say it 20 years later."
And as far as Maher, I usedta like him a lot, even as long ago as the "Politically Incorrect" days. His show was one of the reaaons we paid extra on the cable bill to get HBO. Him and "The Sopranos." But listening to him defend Preznit Hopey's flying killer robot program because Maher is OK with killing anyone anywhere anytime if he thinks it's going to make him safe, well, he's veering into Dennis Miller-land now.
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