Tuesday, February 19, 2008

When all you have is Hate…



…every liberal is a dirty terrorist co-conspirator.
…every criticism is disloyalty.
…every act of dissent is treason.
…every Medicaid check and Social Security Card is a paving stone on the road to undiluted Communism.
…every Republican lie, no matter how huge or bloody, is irrelevant.
…every Democratic lie, no matter how small or trivial, is grounds for impeachment.
…every story about how fucked up Iraq was, is and shall be is mere propaganda.
…every fawning tribute to the Dear Leader is "fair and balanced".

… and anyone preaching hope is a direct and imminent threat.

So when Bobo begins pooping out his little New York Times drivel thusly...

“At first it seemed like a few random cases of lassitude among Mary Chapin Carpenter devotees in Berkeley, Cambridge and Chapel Hill. But then psychotherapists began to realize patients across the country were complaining of the same distress. They were experiencing the first hints of what’s bound to be a national phenomenon: Obama Comedown Syndrome.

“The afflicted had already been through the phases of Obama-mania — fainting at rallies, weeping over their touch screens while watching Obama videos, spending hours making folk crafts featuring Michelle Obama’s face. These patients had experienced intense surges of hope-amine, the brain chemical that fuels euphoric sensations of historic change and personal salvation.
…”


...it can’t come as any huge surprise.

What Bobo misses, of course, is that people are not simply stupid-drunk on hope. It’s that after 30 year of David Brooks' side of the political universe feeding-tube-glutting the body politic with nothing but a slurry of fear, hate, rage, bigotry and paranoia, we're sick of it.

Sick. Of. It.

We are starving for something other than the bile and venom cocktails that are the mother's milk of the Conservative movement. Dying, in a very real sense, for want of something -- anything -- with more nutritional value than the various brands of reeking toxins that Limbaugh, Falwell, Hannity, Coulter, DeLay, Gingrich, Hume, Kristol, Robertson, Brooks and the rest of that long, long, looooong list of Wingnut Heroes have been hammering down our throats for decades.

This is not an endorsement of Obama (You’re smart people so make up your own damn minds) but an observation that while he both connotes and denotes many things to many people, what Obama most clearly represents is this: our National Gag Reflex finally kicking in.

We are, finally, sick and tired of being kept sick and tired at the hands of the people with whom Bobo allies himself.

And since Bobo has always been staunchly on the side of the liars and the poisoners it is no surprise that his ugly little screed on the folly of daring to hope that our future will not be some wingnut “Red Dawn” meets “Mad Max” masturbatory fantasy manifests itself as mocking mystification at the Obama campaign.

But imagine if Bobo had spared just a moment for self-reflection?

Spared a minute to notice that the “Why” behind the Obama movement is the sense abroad in the land that, finally, something good and hopeful must be flung right into the face of the Metastasizing Conservative Darkness that has been busy busy busy smothering hope and snuffing out compassion under an avalanche of shrill fear-mongering and its endless sermons of hopelessness and dread?

Imagine if, over in the Better Universe, Bizzaro Bobo wrote a more honest tune.

With the same melody, but slightly different words.

An imaginary, alternative history version of Bobo's column today entitled “When the Magic Fades”:

At first it seemed like a few random cases of lassitude among Michael Weiner Savage devotees in Alabama, Texas and Orange County. But then psychotherapists began to realize patients across the country were complaining of the same distress. They were experiencing the first hints of what’s bound to be a national phenomenon: Gingrich Comedown Syndrome.

The afflicted had already been through the phases of Gingrich-mania — Terri Schiavo, Purple Heart Band-aids, spending years lying, slandering, investigating ginned-up “scandals” and impeaching. These patients had experienced intense surges of hate-amine, the brain chemical that fuels the entire Conservative Movement

But they found that as the election-cycles went on, they needed more and purer hate-injections just to preserve the Rush. They wound up craving more hate than even the Party of God could provide, and they began experiencing brooding moments of suboptimal hatefulness. Anxious posts began to appear on the blogs. A sense of ennui began to creep through the nation’s “Traitor”- and “Liberal Fascism”-centered book clubs as people began to notice how utterly fucked their beloved movement and Dear Leader had actually left them.

Up until now Hate Radio screeds had seemed to them less like stretches of words and more like soul sensations that transcended time and space. But those in the grips of Gingrich Comedown Syndrome began to wonder if Neocon bullshit actually made sense. For example, Wingtard Dogma tells the faithful that the Evil Liberal Gummit is the source of all problems, but if we are now running the Evil Liberal Gummit and things have gotten dramatically worse and not better, well WTF?

Patients in the grip of G.C.S. rarely express doubts at first, but in a classic case of transference, many experience slivers of longing for the Democratic Party. They see Democrats crisscrossing the country generally debating one genuine issue with each another — Governance for Grown-ups Tour.

They see that their entire political strategy consists of repudiating with a smile and a seriousness of purpose everything the pig people hold most dear.

The Pig People long for that sense of purpose again, as they watch as their leaders struggle to fill the headlines again with trivial, divisive trash like flag burning. As their once and future Hate Radio Kingmakers scramble to feed their own fingers through the Might Wurlitzer Swiftboating Woodchipper. Gibbering madmen lashing people inside their own perimeter to the mast of an ideology that has done nothing but fail for 30 years, and then hectoring their fellow “Conservatives” on their lack of fidelity to that ideology as it sinks beneath the waves and the icy waters of political oblivion begins to lap over the deck.

And in their darker moments they begin to wonder “So is this what it has been like to be a Liberal in the age of the Party of God? Trying to reason with crazy people who call you a traitor as they giggle and gut your country?”

As the syndrome progresses, they begin to ask questions about The Party itself:

The Rule of Law Party that impeached a President because “no man is above the law”, and yet laughs off BushCo lies and lawbreaking that have gotten actual Americans actually killed.

The Privacy Party, that now abides illegally spying on millions of Americans.

The Personal Responsibility Party that now pardons traitors, and counsels its underlings to blow off congressional subpoenas.

The Individual Liberty Party, that now openly celebrates torture, murder, secret prisons and the garroting of habeas corpus.

The Fiscal Responsibility Party, that will leave office next year saddling the next Administration with record debts and deficits, and an open financial wound bleeding tax dollars into the Iraqi desert and Dick Cheney’s crony’s pockets for the next 100 year.

These doubts lead G.C.S. sufferers down the path to the question that is the Unholy of the Unholies for Hate-maniacs: How exactly are we going to govern and repair a nation when our leaders are hell-bent on destroying the very idea of citizens using their government as a means to help their fellow citizens?

After we smashed Iraq to bits, what was the fucking plan?

After we clawed and cheated our way into the White House, what was the fucking plan?

After we get our asses sawed off and made into Happy Meals for the Dirty Fucking Hippies in the last election, and we decided the best strategy would be to virtually shut the government down by filibustering everything including potty-breaks, what was supposed to be the fucking plan?

Of course, there was no plan.

There never is a plan; just a crackpot fundy delusion that when government is liquidated, all regulation eliminated, all labor protection vaporized and the Earth turned over to corporations with guns, then history will end and the world will be transformed into a Randite paradise and the pasty, idiot hordes of True Believers will finally get to plant their little peh-pehs somewhere inside of Ann Coulter's lady area.

The victims of G.C.S. struggle against wingtard-myopia, or the inability to see beyond the “Let’s burn it all down and dance on Roosevelt’s filthy Commie ashes!” rhetoric of right-here-right-now. But here’s the fascinating thing: They still believe. They know that the hate-mongering is cancerous. They know their Dear Leader and his minions know it’s cancerous.

But they still share this dream that they can just plain hate and stoopid and Republican Jebus their way to the Promised Land. That after the fury fades and the bill for their rapacious idiocy comes due, reality can still be held at bay by sheer arrogant misanthropy.

They figure that any new president is going to face gigantic obstacles. And that if a Democrat gets in, they can just go back to their natural state of cutting the legs out from beneath anyone who tries to move the country forward, while simultaneously whinging and squealing about how victimized and powerless they are beneath the iron heel of Evil Liberal Gummit.

Those afflicted with G.C.S. are no longer as animated as they were when they were mainlining that pure, uncut, McVeigh-infused, Clinton-hating fury they got hooked on in the 90s.

That Good Shit is no longer available. But its legions of hate-amine damaged junkies – shaking and jonesing for a bump of that sweet DeLay/Gingrich/Limbaugh/Falwell redneck righteousness cocktail – remain.

31 comments:

Karen said...

Brooks has to put food on the table so let's write something hateful, that always draws attention.

Anonymous said...

Brooks is capable of writing a thoughtful piece from time to time, but when he has nothing, he goes full on foolish. The larger picture may be that HC has been done in by her own incompetence and the Right has now turned on Obama (read BoBo's erstwhile air kisses to Obama a few months back).
Faith is for the chosen, but hope is for fools. That's right wing logic for ye.

Anonymous said...

Your imaginary column is better than his real one, and is probably what Krugman could really write once he lets go of his having to be loyal to the Times for endorsing HRC.

But imagine if Bobo had spared just a moment for self-reflection?

Answer: "What is seppuku?"

Anonymous said...

I was wondering when we'd have another delicious Bobo flambé whipped up by our Master Chef Driftglass.

Nice use of a Monty Python ref, too.

[S]mothering hope and snuffing out compassion is what Republicans do.

Hope is such an inconvenient thing; it inspires the herd to get up on their hind legs and demand things from their betters. Mustn't have that, nosiree.

And what place could compassion have in the GOP Utopia, where we snarl and snap at each other like starving dogs, fighting over the Masters' leavings?

I'm certainly no thrall of the Hypnobama (h/t Ivory Bill Woodpecker), but it's obvious he's tapped into something that's scaring the bejeebus out of the PTB. Which is, of course, why the "cult" meme is suddenly reverberating from every corner of the MSM echo chamber, including as of yesterday my home-town Gannett rag.

Funny how in the last seven years they've never gotten around to applying the C-word to Little Boots' fanatic followers.

Ivory Bill Woodpecker said...

I gag on talk of hope and optimism because I associate those words with Ronald Fucking Reagan; I turned 18 a few months after his first inauguration.

I have used the "cult" theme in speaking of the Obama campaign, although I don't think they're literally a cult. The only real danger I see for the Obama fans is that they will be disappointed sooner or later, because the man is only human.

Prof. Fate is correct that the Elephascists are a cult now, which is why, if Obama is nominated, I will vote for him in November, despite my skepticism about him.

If I must suffer a cult leader in the Oval Office, better the leader of a benign cult than the leader of a malignant cult.

Thanks, Prof., but I don't think I invented "Hypnobama". I Googled it and found references to it earlier than mine. I may have seen it somewhere and forgotten where. :)

Anonymous said...

"But imagine if Bobo had spared just a moment for self-reflection?"

Dude, I'm all for willing suspension of disbelief, but you lost me here.

(I had to think of something other than, "You da' man!")

Anonymous said...

IBW,

Re; the whole delusional Hynobama voter (i.e., Ozombies): Both you and I have been voting since the early 80s. Let me ask you, when was the last time you were giddy to vote for a Dem? Mondull? Tank-boy? Maybe the first Clinton incarnation, but certainly not the second. Earth-tone Al? His concession speech was the best of the campaign. Kerry?

Obama's gonna let me down? I didn't know that. I do know he showed sound judgment on Iraq and the bankruptcy bill. He understands that health care mandates are trouble. I'm from MA, we're not all happy with the details of universal care here, especially we poorer folk.

I could list even more policy points, but that would prevent me from smooching his dreamy portrait on my wall. Don't believe the MSM hype, I with Obama because he's kicking that corrupt toad outta office, and he's putting Clinton Inc on a rail as a bonus. If I'm disappointed in four years, I can live with that

Anonymous said...

Now WHY would you vandalize the picture of that poor little sugar glider like that? Don't make me call PETA...

Imaginista said...

Yeah... what anonymous said..."If I'm disappointed in four years, I can live with that."

I've about had it with the screechy preachy pro-Hilary flock who loves to wag their finger at me and scold about how Obama is in for a BIG SHOCK when he gets in office and finds out there are (gasp!) bad people in Washington who want nothing more than to squash his message of hope under their heels. I'm pretty fucking sure Obama knows full well what he's up against in the big bad capitol.

The big difference between Hillary and Barack is that the latter is actually ELECTIBLE. Hello? Who cares how much of a policy wonk Hill is if she never makes it to the big Oval Office? Huh? What do all of you BO naysayers have to say about that?

As for you, Mr Drift, awesome, as expected.

Anonymous said...

One of us . . .

One of us . . .

One of us . . .

Fran / Blue Gal said...

on topic Katherine Jean Lopez at NRO practically humps Obama in this column and then I guess her bubble bursts, or sumpin. Um, I really don't wanna think about that.

Anonymous said...

Bobo Brooks just got the trots.

I read something online recently (mighta been David Sirota) that suggested the one lead-pipe cinch conclusion to be drawn from Obama Mania had very little to do with Barack Obama and everything to do with this nut-n-ovary cracking realization: The Southern Strategy is D.E.A.D.

When you see bright white states like Maine and was it Nebraska? going for BO ... when you take a look at the youth and the octa-quadra-deca-roon racial mixes and combos with which the Next Gen has grown up and simply accepted as The Way Of The World ... then you got a world of shit on your head if you're the RNC, Turdblossom Rove et. al.

The Pig People have been beating that dead pony for so long -- Poppy's race-baiting dog whistles on Willy Horton in 1988; dancing with Grand KKK Dragon David Duke in the 1980s; and counting on a controlled nuclear reaction when they crank up their Southern Strategy Hate Divider machine.

That the critical mass behind the Obama movement (and, no, that's not my original choice for circus master), but that the criticality point is being reached by masses who are boreated control rods and fucking immune to Southern Strategy "charms" has got the Pig People shitting from every pore.

David Brooks just started running to his NYT outhouse. He can't even stay hydrated with that ole dog whistle Al Jolson dance tune.

Which brings another analogy to mind. Namely --

Brooks and All of THEM are the dumbest parasites around.

Only a very very very stupid parasitic organism kills off its host. Like Ebolla Zaire, which at least is quick enuf to bleed out from eyeballs, ears, anus and every pore, thus acquiring a new host ASAP.

And almost killing off the host -- us -- is what the Grover Norquists (Drown Gov't in a Bathtub) and Reagan Brain Deads (Tax the Middle and Poorer Class, Cut Taxes for the SuperRich) and the Bush/Cheney Mafiosi have been at. For decades.

Bobo and his kind are dumber than a retrovirus. And now he has the Dead Southern Strategy Shits, too.

Couldn't happen to nicer folks.

Anonymous said...

Pig People.

Shades of George Harrison.

Have you seen the little piggies
Crawling in the dirt?
And for all the little piggies
Life is getting worse
Always having dirt to play around in

Have you seen the bigger piggies
In their starched white shirts?
You will find the bigger piggies
Stirring up the dirt
Always have clean shirts
To play around in

In their stys with all their backing
They don't care what goes on around
In their eyes there's something lacking
What they need's a damn good whacking

Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives
To eat their bacon...

Love it when the REPIGS eat their own.

Bon Appetit!

Batocchio said...

That was awesome, but careful - it might be dangerous to read too much Brooks at one time.

Anonymous said...

Hello DGlass,

You had me, as usual; right down to:

They know that the hate-mongering is cancerous.
They know their Dear Leader and his minions know it’s cancerous.


That's precisely what they do not know. And they won't know it as individuals until the cancer has all but consumed them. Hate is every bit as volatile as hope, but it's consequences are just the opposite. One simply cannot spew hatred for as long as these folks have and not bind that hate to their own soul. And hate is soul destroying. Hope is soul building.

It takes a great and noble character, having started out wrong, to turn about and go right. How many of these national haters exhibit great and noble characters? Did I hear "zero"? Right.

Ivory Bill, your instinct to use "cult" to describe the Obamanomena was correct; if it isn't a cult yet, it will be before he wins the nomination. But just like your reflexive gag on talk of hope and optimism needs to be re-framed, so too the word "cult." Despite the drawbacks and handicaps, every new revelation of truth gives rise to a new cult. And Obama is a revelation of truth to a generation of people who have never really known hope. When they hear:

“There’s a moment in the life of every generation when that spirit has to come through, if we are to make our mark on history, and this is our moment. This is our time.” . . .you can bet they don't have to check their watches.


How could they? As DriftGlass points out, we've had essentially three decades of increasingly toxic effluvium soaking into our national psyche like fluoride into our bones.

Blue Gal, Lopez may have sounded horny to you, but all I saw was GOP faint praise and talking points.

Anonymous said...

Folks, one of my all time heroes on flattop and flatpick git and dobro, mando, and a singer/songwriter of the likes of Doc Watson has been Norman Blake.

I offer you the lyrics to one of his most RECENT songs, and, this mp3 of the song itself:

http://www.westernjubilee.com/Plectrafone/audio/Don't_Be_Afraid_Of_The_Neo-Cons.mp3

Norman & Nancy Blake
Don't Be Afraid of the Neo-Cons

And away down yonder in the Florida sand
Old Jeb Bush is a mighty man
He told little brother, don’t be blue
For I’ma gonna hand this thing to you
Katrina blew through the town
Black waters flooded all around
No money to raise the levees high
And so we watched New Orleans die

The churches all got on board
In the Holy name of our Lord
They took him for their favorite son
And they sent him away to Washington
Bill Clinton was a democrat
He saved us money in his hat
He fell from grace the story goes
Then Georgie put us in the hole

Now Georgie Bush, he is the man
He landed in Afghanistan
We’ll get Osama, was his crack
And now we’re stranded in Iraq

Now Casey was Cindy’s son
He marched away with his gun
For a noble cause he heard Bush say
He died in a war so far away

He told ole’ Rumsfeld on the green
Now you’re the best I’ve ever seen
Just heed my words and you’ll go far
And help me win my daddy’s war

Now Georgie is kind and meek
He kissed the king upon his cheek
They walked the garden hand in hand
As the oil and blood dripped on the sand

O’ Cheney lives away down town
By a cement bunker underground
No more he’ll roam Wyoming's hills
Halliburton is his thrill

And now my little song is done
'Bout the neo-cons in Washington
No more I’ll sing these words again
You can see it all on CNN

Don’t send your money to Washington
To fight a war that’s never done
Don’t play their games don’t be their pawns
And don’t be afraid of the neo-cons
Don’t send you money to Washington
To fight a war that’s never done
Don’t play their games don’t be their pawns
And don’t be afraid of the neo-cons

Anonymous said...

Drift; here's a redneck compliment for you:

You're hell when you're well, and very seldom ever sick.

:o)

Anonymous said...

Larue! Norman write THAT?

That is sooo cool. :o)

Made my day, seeing that from him. I had no idea...thankew, ver' much. :o)

Anonymous said...

Would I shat an old turd like you, hoss ami? *G*

Ain't he grand? Norman has been a hero like Doc has, and Vassar, since I was 16 and knew NOTHING about bluegrass or Americana.

I first heard of Norman on a project with Grant And Ginger Boatwright, where Tut Taylor played mando, and Norman sang, played flattop, and dobro.

The first time I ever heard 'Ginseng Sullivan'.

Been a Norman fan ever since. *G*

Did you manage to cup and paste the link to HEAR the song? It's a doozy. *G*

Anonymous said...

Here's the promo page for Back Home In Suplhur Springs:

http://www.westernjubilee.com/Plectrafone/BackHomeinSulphurSprings.htm

Anonymous said...

larue and Tanbark:

I remember hearing Norman and Nancy play "Dry Grass on the High Fields" in a small-cafeteria-sized room in a dorm at Vanderbilt, back in the mid-70s. Still have my LP of "Live at McCabes".

Anonymous said...

Norman's one of the flamekeepers.

Period.

There's a "three-wayer" :o) of him and Doc and Tony Rice gettin' hold of that old fiddle tune, "Lost Indian"...that, trust me, is some well-used rosewood, ebony, and bronze. :o)

But we digress: IvoryBill's worries not withstanding, Barack Obama is one primary win away from triggering a major implosion in the bush administration and the republican party.

Said it before; if he continues on this roll, the day it becomes apparent that he's our nominee, you can circle it on the calendar, because with 45 days, Condoleeza Rice will bail, and that will trigger a rat-exodus that will look like the woodwind section of the Hamlin Symphony Orchestra is toodling in the van of it. :o)

Mark my words, guys; more good things are going to come of the enthusiasm and hope that Obama's generating, than we think.

He's not "Saint Obama"; no one is claiming that; but he is a GREAT spokesman for us in this election. And can he evermore turn out the voters. :o)

Check out the late-night "Hawaii" thread by Hubris, on GNB.
Those numbers, on top of what's happened on the mainland, are loosening some GOP honcho-bowels.

Now, we get to see if Hillary, in her desperation, will take a look around her at Texas, which hasn't gone for a democratic candidate in a presidential election in 32 years, and decide that she HAS to go full-bore republican, and start accusing Obama of being "soft on terrr".

There IS a precendent; two months ago, she went after him for being "too far left", because he said, years ago, that he was against capital punishment, and, she said, was in favor of socialized medicine.

I was like: "How nice, Senator Clinton! In addition to parroting all those bushCo talking points about the war, you're now beating on another another democrat with two of the classic republican hammers."

Imagine, a black man being against capital punishment! Who'd-a-thunk it?

And for me, in those two "accusations", lay the thing that has contributed most to her being on the verge of one of the historic collapses in American politics:

You can be honest, and politically dumb, or you can be Machiavellian and smart, but being politically dumb and Machiavellian at the same time is a prescription for disaster.

That it now appears likely that we won't have to suffer with her doing this in the general, is very pleasing to me to contemplate. :o)

Anonymous said...

These patients had experienced intense surges of hope-amine, the brain chemical that fuels euphoric sensations of historic change and personal salvation.
…”


ahh.. Bobo. whatta douchebag. As has been already opined above - What in the fuck DOESN'T make the 27%rs a Cult? Unwavering support for a maniacal authoritarian dipshit - check, Armegeddonist/suicidal belief that everything they're doing has 'teh Great!Purpose!OfGod! - check.
The list goes on.

What amazes me is how dismissive and contemptuous Booboo is of populist heroes, yet catapults wave after wave of the cultish personalities from his side of the fascist fence.

It's not that he's a Shameless Turd of A Hypocrit that bothers me, it's that he's never been taken to task for his BS - Driftglass not withstanding. I think there needs to be a better system of peer review for pundits. Any educator or ph.d would have been raked over the coals with gasoline or keel hauled for publishing such unsubstantiated sniveling drivel.

grrr!rant!gahhdammitt!
thanks DG for lending the soapbox :-)

& - thanks TB and Larue for reminding me to bust out the Blake! Whiskey B4 Breakfast (on vinyl, no less. One of these days I need to hook the turntable up to the computer)

Unknown said...

In fairness, and God knows I hate to be fair to the likes of Bobo, his conclusion is not that far off:

The victims of O.C.S. struggle against Obama-myopia, or the inability to see beyond Election Day. But here’s the fascinating thing: They still like him. They know that most of his hope-mongering is vaporous. They know that he knows it’s vaporous.

But the fact that they can share this dream still means something. After the magic fades and reality sets in, they still know something about his soul, and he knows something about theirs. They figure that any new president is going to face gigantic obstacles. At least this candidate seems likely to want to head in the right direction. Obama’s hype comes from exaggerating his powers and his virtues, not faking them.

Those afflicted with O.C.S. are no longer as moved by his perorations. The fever passes. But some invisible connection seems to persist.


So he comes down on the side that says that there is real substance to Obama and that even whenhis supporters become more realistic they still have good reason to like him. I don't see what's wrong with that.

Anonymous said...

Ivory Bill Woodpecker said...
I gag on talk of hope and optimism because I associate those words with Ronald Fucking Reagan; I turned 18 a few months after his first inauguration.

I have used the "cult" theme in speaking of the Obama campaign, although I don't think they're literally a cult. The only real danger I see for the Obama fans is that they will be disappointed sooner or later, because the man is only human.


I'm a 48 year old college gradumacate who grew up in D.C.

I KNOW disappointment. I've watched the DLC lose everything except a couple of presidential elections by a guy so talented he didn't need to triangulate.

I was just talking to a friend tonight about this very insult: we are being lectured at for being naive cultists by bushlickins?**

I can only hope Brooks finally pisses off enough Times readers that he receives some well deserved blowback.

I am voting for Obama on March 4 in Ohio. Who woulda thunk an Ohio primary vote would count for something?


**Lectured at by the likes of Hamster Dave Brooks, not you, Ivory Bill.
!

Anonymous said...

Uh oh. Brooks has come down with a bad case of the Dowds. Or Mo's column won't be where she thinks she left it when she goes to look for it tomorrow.

I shall go mad if every pundit gets the Dowds.

Ivory Bill Woodpecker said...

Let's not overlook the possibility that both of the Clintons, and Obama as well, may triangulate because they fear the fate of JFK, RFK, etc. if they act as actual progressives.

Ivory Bill Woodpecker said...

If that be the case, I do not blame them, because I would not choose martyrdom, either.

Anonymous said...

Yet another home run, drifty.

"National Gag Reflex" is a concept that should be widely recognized and enshrined. Too true that the Ripecaclicans have triggered one hell of a response.

One thing, though, I have to take issue with your use of unsubstantiated claims. As far as I know there is no such thing as "Ann Coulter's lady area".

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Brooks is capable of writing a thoughtful piece from time to time


In what bizarre alternate universe did this happen?

From time to time? Like before the written word?

Oh, before everything he believed to the soulless core of his being was proven to be false? When he wrote spec fiction about the gloriousness that would be if HIS ideology was followed to the letter?

I can see where that might happen. But DAMN, you've got one helluva memory.

Organic Mechanic said...

well, hadn't visited chez Driftglass for awhile.
hmmm...so glad you're still in fine rant form! yes, Brooks continues to be so annoying.
personally, i've gone so far to the left of late that i meet the right behind the barn and we're all reading Schahill's Blackwater and mad as hell.
guess that's why in NorCal, even the Rowdy Rural Ridge Boys 'n Girls
went for Obama.
Brooks is just a babbler.
all elites, no matter what the genre, are scared. someday, the dirty masses are just going to get too dang hungry.
quick, lock the gates and hide the water.