From WorldHistory.org
Tantalus is a figure from Greek mythology who was the rich but wicked king of Sipylus. For attempting to serve his own son at a feast with the gods, he was punished by Zeus to forever go thirsty and hungry in Hades despite being stood in a pool of water and almost within reach of a fruit tree.
It's not hard to figure out what Joe Walsh wants because Joe Walsh mentions it at almost every opportunity.
Joe Walsh wants to be in front of an audience. Period,
He has as much as said that this was his calling. This is what he was put on Earth to do. His identity is firmly rooted in the belief that The People need to hear what he has to say, which is why getting kerbooted off of Hate Radio once he started taking smack about the Orange God King is still an open, suppurating wound.
Of course, why he deserves this largess is never explained, nor who that audience would be, nor exactly he would do with such an audience, but Walsh is always very clear that he deserves these things and was robbed of his birthright by the Forces of Evil.
Ans since the road back to celebrity on Conservative Hate Radio seems to be foreclosed to him, there are really only two other venues where he could apply for such a position. The "Trump and the GOP Are the a Unique Existential Threat to Democracy" media, and the "No, No, No. It's the Extremes on Both Sides That Are the Real Threat" media.
The problem, of course, is that these two media ecosystems are diametrically opposed to each other.
If you really believe the GOP is a unique, existential threat to democracy, then you pretty much have to back Democrats to the hilt whether you like it or not. And if you're the kind of spineless Both Siderist hack who reacts to every Republican atrocity with "...yeah, but the Democrats", then you obviously do not believe the GOP is a unique, existential threat to democracy.
It's one side or the other.
Unless you're Joe Walsh.
Unless your highest priority is getting some gig somewhere with a big audience attached to it and you're not terribly picky about the details.
Unless you're constantly grabbing for both and getting neither.
Consider the latest Lincoln Project podcast, "Finding Common Ground with Joe Walsh" in which Walsh describes himself as still a "Tea Party Libertarian conservative" but seems to have a firm grasp on what the threat to our democracy actually is and from whence it comes:
Walsh: I come from the cult. I come from the GOP base. Trump's people are my people. All of that. I come from conservative talk radio. Tucker Carlson and Hannity and Rush Limbaugh; that was the world I was in. And that is the Republican party base. That's a radicalized base. So I left it and it was really, really hard to do.
And what must be done to meet that threat:
Walsh: But in a sense it was really easy to do. If you're a conservative like I am and you believe in the truth and limited gummint and the Constitution and rule of law and democracy you can't support what this Republican Party is.
He was very clear about it:
Walsh: [Podcast host] Reed [Galen], there are some of those out there. There are principled Conservatives out there. There are moderates out there But, no, this isn't fringe anymore baby. The base of the Republican party is fully radicalized. ... They've given up on democracy.
And very clear about the tools the Conservative media uses to lie to the base:
Walsh: And Reed, that's the other world I come from. The Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, Right Wing talk world. And that's what we would do. And I did more of this than I'm proud of...I didn't do as much as almost all these people do. But you take one little thing of truth -- like some Christmas parade in South Dakota banned religious music for their parade -- you take that one example and you tell your listeners it's happening all over the country. That's how that world gets ratings and a following. They purposely piss off their voters and that's what they've done... Right wing media just fucking wound [the base] up.
Very, very clear about how the Pretty Hate Machine works:
Walsh: All you gotta do is grab the one crazy outlier, and turn it into the norm, and then you go on the radio like I went on the radio and you make it seem like it's the norm. And then everybody who's working on DeSantis' staff or Jim jordan's staff they then pick up what I say on the radio and, as you said, it's a loop... For me it was all about the issues. What I missed was how widespread the authoritarian impulse is in the base.
On the Lincoln Project podcast, Walsh presented himself as 100% we gotta whip Trump and these batshit Republican's asses! They have to go down! And if that means we all have to work together, well blah blah blah. The Right is definitely the problem. Fox News, Hate Radio and the rest of Conservative media are definitely the poisonous abyss into which the GOP base has been plunging. Hell yeah, Reed! Sign me up!
Then, literally one day later, safely back on his own podcast, Walsh goes on an uninterrupted 18 minute Both Sideris screed. Both Sides are equally to blame for everything! The Left is just as blind to the facts and just as belligerently biased as the Right. MSNBC is just as toxic and awful as Fox. The fact that "we" are divided and those divisions are getting worse is everyone's fault equally.
It's all right here if you'd care to hear it for yourself.
I've tried to think of a popular culture analogy, and the closest I can come up with is That 70's Show, episode when Red Forman loses his job at the plant. A job that defined him and suited his "Shut up dumbass!" temperament --
But that job is gone, and now Walsh is trying to use his old resume and his new podcast to snag whatever he can get. So if on a Monday I notice that he's applying for the position of Hero of the Resistance, and on Tuesday, back home at his own podcast, he has pivoted 180 degrees and is now trying to shout his way into the ranks of the Both Siderist media -- grabbing for both but getting neither -- am surprised?
Nope.
Disappointed?
Nope.
After all, from Day One my rule of thumb has been...
2 comments:
Oh you can totally trust a Never Trumper! You can trust them to vacuum all the dollars they can out of liberal pockets, by using careful falsehoods to look like allies until they get into the circle of trust. And THEN you can trust them to whip out the knives they were sharpening for your back the entire time.
Once they've got a podium as an "ally," you can certainly trust them to tell you - i.e. people who actually believe in small-d democracy - to step aside and let them run the show, because they just know how to do it better (of course, because liberals are incompetent and EV'RYTHING, don'tcha know).
You can absolutely trust Never Trumpers to be lying, swindling, backstabbing filth. And that's absolutely all you can trust them for.
Apparently, it has been a long week. I was nearly through the fourth paragraph when I realized you were not talking about a guitarist.
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