....because he was pathologically incapable of talking about any Republican atrocity without it reminding him of something that he remembers some lefties did that was equally atrocious.
In fact, this week he did it twice in one podcast. On Mona Charen's Bulwark podcast where Tom was safe from the peril of some Liberal popping up and asking him inconvenient questions
First example, speaking about how effortlessly Republicans profess to believe two things at the same time which completely contradict each other:
Nichols: ...no matter what happens it's always the Deep State and, y'know, Bidens are super villains. I mean I love this idea that Joe Biden is this, like, doddering old uh fossil who also is, y'know this this James Bond super villain...
All of which is true, and could have been left right there, no argument. But since Tom apparently always has to be an asshole...
Nichols: ...it's kind of the flip side of the way people used on the Left used to talk about George W. Bush, right? He's a complete idiot. He's...he can't tie his shoes, and he masterminded 9/11 and the Iraq [?] hoax.
Charen: Right!
Nichols: And, y'know, I mean it it shows you that we have become as a culture childlike in our inability to perceive...
And thus the specific depravity of Nichols' recently-former political party, and his complicity in turning that party into the shitpile it is today, is magically transmuted into a "we" problem. A cultural problem, which Nichols had no part in creating. Instead he wraps himself in the pundit's cloak of Olympian, above-it-allness and scowls down at us grubby mortals on the Right and the Left who have ruined everything.
You can see why no actual Liberals are allowed within a country mile of this neocon circle-jerk.
But the fun doesn't stop there. Just a few minutes later...
Nichols: [Trump] is completely off his rocker. And, you know all these prominent Republicans keep stepping forward and saying this is a deep danger. The guy's unfit! He's terrible! Of course I'm not going to, y'know... And and it's especially galling when you think, um, there's been an argument made now that Virginia is a swing state...but, y'know, if you're John Bolton and you live in Virginia yeah your vote could matter . Paul Ryan, Wisconsin, your vote's gonna matter! 10,000 votes could make the difference. And... and all these guys saying well, y'know, I have deep concerns but...
So far, so good, right? He's made his point and could have stopped right there and moved on.
But since Tom apparently always has to be an asshole...
Nichols: ... they all remind me of Bill Clinton, um, talking about preserving his viability. And I just find it really cowardly...
Yes, Nichols is actually comparing the public decisions being taken here-and-now by John Bolton, the 75-year-old former National Security Advisor to Donald Trump, and former Speaker of the House and current Fox News board member, Paul Ryan, to a tortured letter that Bill Clinton wrote as a deeply conflicted 23-year-old college student, during the height of the Vietnam War in 1969.
The letter itself hasn't been the subject of anyone's conversation for more than 30 years, since Ted Koppel dredged it up for a Nightline hit-job back in 1992. But when it came to discussing grown-ass Republican men with real power and influence choosing to hide under a rug rather than take a position on voting to keep a monster out of the White House, somehow this 55-year-old letter was top-of-mind for Tom Nichols.
Because they can never let this shit go. Just as they can never stop fictionalising their own past until fuck ups become noble causes and the Bush administration becomes the story of a great and decent man who was cruelly slandered by us dirty despicable hippies.
Oh the humanity!
One suspects this is actually a mental condition -- a glitch -- that is endemic among Never Trumpers.
One suspects that decades defending their indefensible party by automatically Both Sidering all the horrible shit their party was getting up to, rewired the brains of Republicans like Tom Nichols so completely that now they just can't stop.
Or maybe he's just a really petty asshole.
2 comments:
can't it be both?
>>> One suspects this is actually a mental condition -- a glitch -- that is endemic among Never Trumpers.
One suspects that decades defending their indefensible party by automatically Both Sidering all the horrible shit their party was getting up to, rewired the brains of Republicans like Tom Nichols so completely that now they just can't stop.
Or maybe he's just a really petty asshole.
Yeah no I'm pretty sure it's the second one.
Thanks for all you do!
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