They’ll never figure it out:
He ran for president last year as a “maverick” Republican and had a high-profile meeting with Barack Obama after the election, but Arizona Sen. John McCain has been a staunch Republican vote since failing to win the White House.
In fact, McCain is siding with his party this year on closely divided votes with greater frequency than at any other period in his 23-year Senate career, according to a CQ analysis of Senate votes.
***McCain has participated in 196 of 199 Senate party unity votes, siding with the majority Republican position on all but nine of those votes. Like most Republicans, McCain voted “no” on the economic stimulus law and on Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
McCain led the Republican charge against numerous Democratic proposals this Congress, often acting as the lead sponsor of amendments outlining a Republican alternative. That was the case March 2, when the Senate by a vote of 32-63 rejected McCain’s substitute amendment to the fiscal 2009 omnibus appropriations act and again on April 2, when the Senate rejected McCain’s substitute to the fiscal 2010 budget resolution by a 38-60 vote.
Will the tire-swinging ever end? The reason McCain is behaving this way is simple- he is a mean, petty, bitter, angry man, and he is going to do everything he can to make Obama’s life hell. He didn’t like him before the campaign started, as they had a widely known feud over ethics reform, and then during the campaign it was repeatedly reported that he felt Obama did not deserve to be President, was not ready, and was openly contemptuous. The entire McCain campaign followed his lead, and that is why we had the idiocy of the last election- Michael Goldfarb and others were simply taking their lead from the top dog. We just recently learned that the Wasilla Wingnut didn’t even come up with the “pals around with terrorists nonsense”- that was direct from the campaign, with a green light from McCain. On top of all that, McCain’s volatile temper was widely discussed, and openly concerned fellow Republicans. Go google “McCain + trollop.”
I’ve had some recent disagreements with Matt Welch, but I highly recommend that everyone read his excellent book McCain: The Myth of a Maverick. You’ll learn that despite the fact that he serves up a mean barbecue, he is a mean and vindictive man with an explosive temper and has been for years. That he is leading the charge against Obama is not a return to his conservative principles, but just additional evidence that he is a small man who takes everything personally and the country is far better off without him in the White House.
Crashman06
Of course, you know what this means:
This post is good for John McCain.
Pal
“a small man who takes everything personally”
Doesn’t that also describe a large portion of the Washington press corps? It does explain the attraction both parties feel for each other.
geg6
Oh, John, I so agree. John McCain has always struck me as a bitter, small man who is always compensating. That’s why he throws the damn bbqs and pushes the tire swing. He constantly needs pumped up by others and I have always found that type of man repellant. It’s the sign, to me, that this is a guy who only plays to the crowd like bullies do. And they hate themselves for that and just become insufferable assholes as they age. Always angry, always blaming everyone else for their complete unlikeability. What a jerk. No wonder you never see Cindy around anymore.
The Bearded Blogger
He’s not mean, he’s spectacularly arrogant. He sees Obama as an usurper: he’s the guy who’s a war hero and a veteran, he’s the guy who missed the 60’s, he’s the guy who went through the ranks and waited his turn and let Dubya have his eight years. It should be him up there, dammit! Whatever is good for McCain is good for America, and vice-versa, because he cannot tell the difference.
Since Obama is bad for John McCain, he figures, Obama is bad for America, and opposing him is good. Thus, John McCain sees himself as patriotic, even heroic.
To think I kinda liked the guy, up to the point where he picked Palin as a running mate. I wasn’t about to vote for him or anything, but I saw him as the desirable sane brand of republican there should be more of.
Skepticat
Toward the end of the campaign I was getting into full wingnut mode with dislike for this man. The hypocrisy and spoiled sense of entitlement were/are sickening.
rikyrah
when someone calls you
THAT ONE..
looking to actually WORK WITH THIS MOFO..
is in a word…
DELUSIONAL.
Deborah
Could he possibly, possibly be girding up his base cred for another run in 2012? When does he have to defend his Senate seat?
ellaesther
“He’s not a maverick, he’s mean.”
Sometimes the headline says it all.
(Though to this: “the country is far better off without him in the White House,” I will add a hearty “Amen!”, and a deeply felt “Phew!”)
Litlebritdifrnt
He is what is worst about the republican party, it is always “party first” and never, as his campaign said “country first” he never, ever put his country first. His Palin pick told us that.
Keith G
Bitter? Possibly. I also think that it is quite likely the case that much of McCain’s schtick was just that, a calculated act to enable him to get the brass ring. Well that aint happening, so he can relax and be his true self.
The Bearded Blogger
@ pal, no. 2
“a small man who takes everything personally”
Dana Milbank springs to mind…
@Deborah, no. 7
He’s not running in 2012 unless he’s Mum-Rah (which I’m not ready to rule out)
@ no 9
I think he sincerely believed he was putting the country first, because he is incapable of distinguishing the country’s interests from his own
ellaesther
@Litlebritdifrnt: I would argue that he doesn’t even put his party first — I would argue that John McCain has always been about John McCain, and while occasionally there are places where his opinions about the country and its direction dovetail with something that looks like public service, his main goal always was to get himself in the White House, and when that got taken away from him, the nasty just filled in every spot of his soul.
I’m embarrassed that I used to be one of those Democrats who thought “well, I don’t want him to lead the country, but you know, he’s ok.” Eeeesh!
General Winfield Stuck
So is the entire GOP it seems, though who is leading who is unknown. They have rallied the troops around a central theme, Here come the Soshulists! Here come the Soshulists!
That is their entire platform, along with first amendment scream speech and 2nd amendment gun toting. I expect the wingers any day to start wearing white whigs with cuoffed curls into congress to show solidarity with the Founders. What else is left?
ronin122
@Crashman06: No, “excellent news” for John McCain. Has to be a bigger adjective than “good” or else it doesn’t work (“great” will suffice if not overused)
Crashman06
@ronin122: You’re absolutely right. My apologies! This is stupendous news for John McCain!
robertdsc
He should burn in hell for unleashing the Wasilla Wingnut on America.
arguingwithsignposts
Well, that’s the entire GOP senate leadership in a nutshell. I think you can give up political blogging at this point and just post that statement any time the republicans do anything.
tammanycall
@Deborah:
He’s up for re-election next year. But as for another presidential run – he’ll be 75 years old in 2012. If his age was an issue last year, imagine what it would be then.
ellaesther
@arguingwithsignposts: Except when it’s a woman. A whole lot of the GOP women (Maine always excepted, of course) are just as mean, petty, bitter, and angry.
“S/he is a mean, petty, bitter, angry wo/man.” Fixt!
DaBomb
@ellaesther: Yeah, actually alot of GOP women are bitter. Maybe because they have to confirm to all of those social restraints that wingnuts expect Americans to abide by.
Michele Bachmann is good example of being mean, petty, angry, paranoid, and insane.
Mike in NC
Bob Novak will be waiting there to greet him with a tall cup of bitter brimstone.
steve s
@The Bearded Blogger: LOL.
Thundercats FTW.
arguingwithsignposts
@ellaesther:
Good point.
Carl Walker
Didn’t he only start voting with the Democrats in the first place only because he was pissed off about losing to Bush in the 2000 primary? He’s pretty consistent in his pettiness, it seems.
T. O'Hara
Stay classy.
Jorge
This brings up something I’ve been wondering about the Republicans and healthcare-
Obama is going to pass a health care bill(s). And now that the Republicans have shown that they won’t support anything, he basically gets to do it with out trying to be bipartisan.
Now, I think that Obama would have liked to pass a relatively bipartisan bill. But when it became obvious that would never happen, did he go into rope-a-dope mode?
The steam from the town hall mess and death-panels etc is beginning to wane. The Republicans have thrown everything from swastikas to Trigg Palin at Obama. Basically, they’ve talked themselves out of having any say on the final bill. And Obama still has the majority. So, Obama’s focus now is going to be on striking a deal so the Blue Dogs let the bill(s) come to the floor but aren’t needed to get 51 and 218 (or so the Blue Dogs can vote for the least controversial portions and the more controversial stuff is what passes 51 an 218).
That means that 10 months into his first term Obama passes health care, cap and trade, and stimulus – the most financially controversial parts of his agenda.
Are the Washington press corps going to wake up for a second November in a row wondering how come Obama is on top even though the Republicans won the most press cycles?
mai naem
Well, McCain is not only my Senator but he was my Representative when he was in the House. I never liked him. He was a carpetbagger who moved here to represent a heavily Mormon easy Republican area. Always came off trying to cash in on the “war hero” label. The only good thing I have to say about John MCain is that I dislike Jon Kyl more. I am hoping that for a shock of a Dem beating him next year but they haven’t even found a decent candidate to run. I was hoping for Janet Napolitano to run against him but I think her beating Jon Kyl will be even sweeter.
kay
I never bought McCain so I feel vindicated by his (now) transparent nastiness.
I AM curious about what happened to all that environmental blather he adopted, for two days. Environmentalism polls well, generally. It’s actually acting on “concerns” that’s less popular.
He was like Teddy Roosevelt there for a minute or two. Oh, well.
Mr Furious
@Jorge: Jorge, I hope you’re right…
Corner Stone
How dare you! How fucking dare you sir!!
Don’t you know that McCain is so POW you’re likely to wake up in a Hilton tomorrow morning for this?!
Singularity
The man called his wife a c#nt in public. What more do you need to know about him? He’s a self-involved douchebag and always has been. If he had never spent time as a POW, his reputation would be that and only that.
kay
@Singularity:
Well, that and the Keating Five. And whitewashing the Senate inquiry into Abramoff. I watched that, on C-SPAN.
John McCain was there representing Abramoff, basically.
zoe kentucky in pittsburgh
McCain unleashed Palin on us, for that reason alone he’s on the world’s Sh*t List.
Sputnik_Sweetheart
I like that McCain’s opposition to Sotomayor was that he thought her only qualification was an inspiring back story. Gee, projecting much, John?
zoe kentucky in pittsburgh
OK, so I’m watching Olbermann (something I rarely do) but he just showed some footage from townhalls where people against health care reform are holding signs that say “Keep Your Laws Off My Body.”
The irony, it burns, stings and chafes.
T. O'Hara
Roll tape, roll tape! What? No tape? Well, a witness then! What, no witness?
Well, I guess it’s not slander, because he’s a public figure, right? Stay classy.
GregB
John McCain, he’s a maver-dick.
-G
kay
@zoe kentucky in pittsburgh:
I watched the Barney Frank exchange. It’s a little clearer now. They actually believe the House health care plan is Hitler’s plan.
Well then. I actually don’t know what Obama is supposed to do with that.
Elie
We are in a spectacular moment nationally…
McCain is irrelevant to that and will not even merit a footnote besides having been a failed candidate…
He is probably having cognitive and emotional issues both related to his vascular mental status and his inability to deal with longstanding perceptual problems from all along…
He is a sideshow.
He will never run for anything again including senator.
I wish him well but don’t think what is coming for him is pleasant…forget that wonderful period of senior statesmanship…he does not have the wisdom or temperament or basic decency to want something for his country over something for himself.
T. O'Hara
“They”? The Larouchies are Democrats. Hell, she probably voted for him.
asiangrrlMN
McCain has always been an angry, mean, old man. He was just able to hide it better when he was younger. Bah.
kay
@Elie:
Immigration could have been his career-capping issue. It’s a genuinely knotty problem, no one has been able to improve a broken system, and he could actually do that, had he not been so bitter. He’s not running again anyway, so he doesn’t have to fear the rabid base, and if his mother (and some of his more honest past statements) are any indication, he has nothing but contempt for the base anyway.
Oh, well. So much for that.
BB
I’d love to put the Washington press corps on a couch and work through the whole McCain thing. Like most Boomer hangups, I find it equal parts fascinating and incomprehensible.
I remember about two months ago, McCain was in hot water for some nasty thing he’d said or some terrible campaign secret that was revealed. And Lawrence O’Donnell (!) just basically threw it away. It was all “That’s not the true John McCain…John is better than this” and the whole idea of him doing wrong was rejected, the terrible thing never to be discussed again. Even some Village liberals are entranced.
If I can say one thing for Bush, he really clarified the lens through which a lot of my left-leaning friends judge candidates. That some of them were so enamored with McCain from 1999 through 2004/5 still horrifies me. The number of Democrats who were willing to accept McCain’s more palatable flavor of insanity shows how silly the politics of the 90’s and the 2000 election really was.
Midnight Marauder
@T. O’Hara:
Well, I guess it’s not slander, because he’s a public figure, right? Stay classy.
What is it with this new crop of mega lame trolls?
Seriously, that’s the best you can do?
kay
@T. O’Hara:
Go back and read Sarah Palin’s comments on living wills and best practices. In order. Then read Gingrich and Steele (today).
When you promote a theme, people embroider it. That happened. You own this.
kay
@T. O’Hara:
Does it bother you that the base keep calling Jewish people Hitler?
Or is that just the new normal?
matoko_chan
During the campaign, McCain hired Steve Schmidt to write Palin’s “pallin around with terrorists” speech.
Schmidt is the slimeball and GW campaign strategist that designed the robocalls that smeared McCains adopted Bangladeshi daughter as his mixed race love child.
What kind of man would hire someone that did that to his family?
A megalomaniac that would do absolutely anything to win.
Thus Palin.
gypsy howell
I never for the life of me understood what people saw in him. He’s ALWAYS been a sleazeball. Just look at his record.
Imagine coming out alive after 5 years of being a POW, and then dedicating yourself to being a complete dick for the rest of your life. It takes a special kind of asshole to do that.
T. O'Hara
You, on the other hand, just lie about it. Contrary to your apparent fascination with this subject, I’m really not invested in who said what when. I just pointed out your error because unlike you, I check sources to see if the reporters got it right. And it grated after the third time you said something patently false. It’s still false. You’re still lying. Feel free to continue, I find it amusing.
Mnemosyne
@T. O’Hara:
No, the LaRouchies are a cult dedicated solely to their messiah, Lyndon LaRouche. She wrote in LaRouche for president.
Claiming that LaRouchies are Democrats is like claiming that Moonies are Republicans. Well, except for the fact that the Moonies own the Washington Times as well as several congressmen. Which major city’s newspaper do the LaRouchies own?
T. O'Hara
Larouchies (and die-hard Palestinian supporters) are Democrats. Police your own base.
ellaesther
@kay: As an American-Israeli, let me say that I have never gotten used to how easily a certain type of Israeli politician (generally uber-nationalistic or uber-religious) will call other Israeli politicians Nazis. It is stunning to me, just stunning. And, of course, there was that one time that within a month the politician who had been called a Nazi was assassinated…. But I repeat myself.
Hopefully these Jews won’t do to anyone, much less Obama, what the Orthodox Israeli Jew Yigal Amir did to Prime Minister of the Jewish State, Yitzhak Rabin.
Tonal Crow
@zoe kentucky in pittsburgh:
And explodes in paroxysms of hellfire-like agony.
T. O'Hara
Last time he ran, he ran as a Democrat. You own him.
MMM
full disclosure: I’m a small man that takes everything personally.
Tonal Crow
@T. O’Hara: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_temper_boiled_over_in_92_0407.html . Stay classy.
General Winfield Stuck
@T. O’Hara:
You keep assigning all the lunatics and cultists to the dem party, no one will be left in the GOP.
Church Lady
@John Cole:
Given that the only Republican votes I can think of on any of Obama’s initiatives to date were from Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter (before he jumped ship), why would anyone expect John McCain to be voting in favor of anything on the Democratic agenda? Last time I looked, he’s still a Republican. Unless, of course, you’re pissed off that he’s not acting all mavericky.
Mnemosyne
@T. O’Hara:
Larouchies (and die-hard Palestinian supporters) are Democrats.
Really? Which parts of the Democratic platform do they support? Did we add a plank denouncing the Queen of England for being a drug dealer and I didn’t notice?
T. O'Hara
Oh yeah, and here’s our witness:
Very classy.
T. O'Hara
Why don’t you ask them, next time they show up at one of your conventions?
Tonal Crow
@T. O’Hara: Well, why didn’t you say that you like pie? Do you like apple? Peach? Or only trollberry?
Fencedude
@T. O’Hara:
Last time he ran, he ran as a Democrat. You own him.
Do you really want to go down this path of “which side owns their crazies”? Really?
Because we’ll go there, and its not going to be pleasant for your side…
Laura W
@gypsy howell: I like you. You have a way with words.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
Larouche ran as a Democrat, so he was a Democrat.
The Nazis were the National Socialist Workers Party, so they were socialists.
The Holy Roman Empire was a central-Italy based theocracy that ruled clear across Europe.
The German Democratic Republic was so democratic you could smell the freeance.
Any others I’m missing?
Mnemosyne
You mean the conventions they’re barred from participating in because they’re not Democrats?
I can call myself the Queen of Romania, but that doesn’t make it true, even if I start sending out press releases with my royal proclamations.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
Larouche ran as a Democrat, so he was a Democrat.
The Nazis were the National Soc1alist Workers Party, so they were soc1alists.
The Holy Roman Empire was a central-Italy based theocracy that ruled clear across Europe.
The German Democratic Republic was so democratic you could smell the freeance.
Any others I’m missing?
Mnemosyne
@T. O’Hara:
Two words: David Duke. Or are you going to try and claim he’s not a real Republican even though he was elected as one but the LaRouchies are, like, totally real Democrats because shut up, that’s why.
2liberal
@T. O’Hara:
LINK
Tonal Crow
@Mnemosyne:
Two more words: Timothy McVeigh.
kay
@T. O’Hara:
The parents of handicapped children do elaborate end of life planning. They have to. They’re going to get old and die, and their children are going to grow up and remain (somewhat, to varying degrees) vulnerable.
Durable powers of attorney, one and two and three alternate guardians, health care power of attorney, trusts, etc. Even people without “estates” who have handicapped children plan like hell, because they have to protect any assets for the dependent family member.
Really. Sarah Palin should be ashamed of herself. The government is going to “authorize” living wills as a back-door to rationing, or a slippery-slope to eugenics?
I bet she’s got one. Well, maybe not.
kay
@ellaesther:
Thanks. I didn’t know that. I shouldn’t be surprised, right? We just had a Latina Supreme Court nominee called a “racialist” by a disgraced former House member and Glen Beck says Obama is a racist.
Next he’ll be George Wallace, right?
John S.
@T. O’Hara:
David Duke ran as a Republican so I guess you own him, eh fuck stick?
shoutingattherain
@gypsy howell:
You mean like ditch your first wife for a younger, rich one?
El Cid
@John S.: George W. Bush Jr. ran as a Republican, and they try and pretend he wasn’t one of theirs, either.
malraux
I find McCain an interesting case to determine if people can self-reflect on their judgments. Before the election campaign a large number of people argued that McCain really was a maverick personality willing to take on his own party. Obviously, his campaign showed that he was unwilling to do so and he was willing to do some crazy things like pick Palin.
His entire campaign was a clear example of McCain being just another republican. I have heard some argue that he really didn’t control his campaign so we shouldn’t judge him based on his campaign. But that inherently disproves his maverickness.
Sasha
@Tonal Crow:
Yet two more: a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy”>Ted Bundy:
Fulcanelli
McCain never got over getting the cold shoulder from St. Ronnie and Nancy Reagan because he ditched his first wife after her car accident and hooked up with Cindy, whose daddy bankrolled his first congressional campaign. He’s been a bitter, spiteful. mean little prick for his whole career in politics. Remember the film clip of him fragging that woman whose brother (or husband) was MIA?
Just what we needed after 8 years of W in the White House.
I think not.
El Cid
I’m gonna dissent a little here. McCain was dealing with a crazy movement which created an entire mythology that insisted, with as much evidence as today’s birthers, that American soldiers were still alive and being held in basements all across Vietnam.
It was wrong, it was false, it was right wing crazy mythmaking, and McCain was pretty damned frustrated as somebody who had worked more than most any other elected officials to resolve the remaining matters regarding investigating MIA reports and (if they were lucky) finding and repatriating the remains.
I’m sorry people lost their loved ones to that war, but this ‘they’re still there’ crap was a lot of harmful, hawk-enabling nonsense.
slag
@T. O’Hara:
This is utterly hilarious. The Democratic base supposedly showing up to a Democratic Jew’s townhall to scream that the debt is too high, which makes our popular Democratic President Hitler. You come here with this nonsense? To quote Barney Frank, “On what planet do you spend most of your time?”
My dining room table is actually smarter than you.
Mnemosyne
Though I have to say, if the Teabaggers started making their own Obama=Nazi signs because they saw the LaRouchies doing it first, I would laugh my ass off. It would be like joining in a protest against psychiatry and being too dumb to realize it was organized by the Church of Scientology.
slag
@Mnemosyne:
Haven’t they done that already?
Anne Laurie
@Deborah:
Apart from his age/health issues, McCain resented having to to “run” in the first place. Once we realize our terrible mistake and come crawling back to him, begging to be redeemed from the horrors of Democraticy, he’s not taking us back until we promise him a coronation!
Steeplejack
McCain’s meanness was apparent when, in almost his first public interaction with Obama after the inauguration, he started carping about the new Marine One helicopters being too expensive. WTF?! Like that was Obama’s fault? Jee-bus. What a sad old man.
Sly
In fairness to the Wingnuts, LaRouche is not some neo-fascist rightwinger. We can at least grant them that. He’s an absolute nutcase, who’s bilked millions from his whackjob supporters, but he’s not a Republican.
@Mnemosyne
Oddly enough, I always considered LaRouchism to be the Scientology of American Politics. First you get pulled in by somewhat interesting debates about economic policy and, before you know it, you’re hearing that the Queen of England is the world’s most prolific drug trafficker and that she ordered the Kennedy assassination.
It’s only slightly more plausible than Galactic Overlord Xenu exterminating eleventy bazillion aliens in Earth’s volcanoes eons ago, and that the souls of these aliens are responsible for all human sadness.
As for John McCain, we’re talking about a man who rolled his eyes at the mere mention of labor organizers being murdered in Columbia. Spending years in a POW camp does not prevent someone from turning into an insufferable asshole.
Das Internetkommissariat
@The Sheriff’s A Ni-:
But of course!
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea a.k.a. North Korea
Nethead Jay
@zoe kentucky in pittsburgh: That’s so absurd it’s almost surrealist art. You know, I thought I’d grown pretty much immune to the cognitive dissonance moments, but this… Mindblowing. I get Olbermann’s show (and Rachel Maddow) as a podcast, and that is sure getting clipped and published. Let’s see how that plays with the “I’d like to exert control over your body” crowd.
Krissed Off
How does anyone even bother to remember John McCain the Fuck Stain any more?
We kicked his ass. We kicked Sarah Palin in the ass.
And now I am going to wake up and do it all over again.
T. O'Hara
I’d laugh my ass off if some Democrat did it to spin up the rubes — no offense — and
then got caught.
General Winfield Stuck
You really need to stop linking uber wingnut blogs as evidence, dude.
asiangrrlMN
@ellaesther: No shit. Crazy is crazy no matter the background.
Man, this new troll is almost (almost, I said!) long for some B.O.B. He (BOB) may be batshit crazy or a spoof, but at least he’s funny from time to time. Miss Scarlett is just fucking lame.
McCain: I think he’s slid on the POW thing for long enough.
asiangrrlMN
@General Winfield Stuck: If s/he did that, then s/he would have nothing. Sad, really. Well, no it’s not. Just damn annoying have to scroll by his/her name every three responses or so. Good morning, Sir!
Aspasia
In 2010 McCain will be running for the Senate against a guy who is part of the militia movement–you know, those nice fellas who rob banks and blow up railroads and provided a temporary home away from home for Timothy McVeigh. So McCain is now tacking rightward.
Not to defend McCain, ever. He’s a superannuated creep. I don’t think his primary opponent has a prayer, but this IS Arizona and you never know. In case of either one winning, the dems had better have on deck someone who can at least walk and chew gum at the same time. And here in the Grand Canyon State, finding a capable democrat with the requisite cojones is easier said than done. See Napolitano, Janet, who was one such, but who took the first good offer she got to get the hell out of town.
dmsilev
@shoutingattherain:
No, that’s the action of a garden-variety asshole. Special kinds of assholes do things like serve their wife with divorce papers while said wife is in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery (an action commonly known as “pulling a Gingrich“).
-dms
General Winfield Stuck
@asiangrrlMN:
And a good morn to you.
over_educated
@T. O’Hara: Yase, random wingnut says it is a plant it is obviously true.
matoko_chan
@T. O’hara
That
womandining table was obviously part of the New Teabagger Demographic.She was nominally protesting healthcare reform, but actually protesting the election of a black president and the profound cultural and political disenfranchisement of the “low information” conservative base.
The New Teabagger Demographic is made up of Larouchian dining tables, people-you-would-meet-at-a-Klan-rally, rage-grampaws, natural-male-enhancement-challenged gun-nuts, stormfronters, Alex Jones otakus, and teaparty attendees that are frantically trying to find a non-racial-slur outlet for their deep crazypants frustrations.
The right only has talkradio, FOXnews, and irrational protests as outlets for conservative memes anymore……they are screaming at 120 db on the only channels that are left to them.
matoko_chan
And I forgot….the Teabagger Demographic also includes juggalos…..followers of insane clown Glenn Beck.
bago
Fuck facts. I’ve got a point to make here people.
Elie
I think that public discourse has been made infinitely crazier by reality shows and indulgence of celebrity cults around people with no real talent or reason to be notable. This results in the glorification of whatever comes out of people’s mouths and undue attention to crazy behavior as entertainment. The result is that serious communication is damaged and distorted and people with strange persona but strong desire for attention (Palin, McCain) take up more attention than their skills, knowledge or talent deserve.
I have no idea when or if this phase in our national existence will moderate. Its hard to see how much crazier things can get, but everytime I think that we have to be maxing out, I am surprised by another level of crazy.
I do think however, this strategy of amplifying crazy to extreme heighths is going to burn out the public — which is very dangerous…How do we counter this deliberate strategy by the Republicans and the right wing to hijack rational governance? I actually think that support for health care reform has diminished in some polls because people are just put off from paying attention when they are visually and emotionally assaulted by crazy images of screaming ranters and people carrying guns.
Somehow, we have to start confronting this and somehow pushing the crazy back. It functions so well because even as it repulses, no one wants to tangle with and further incite it, so it continues forward unchallenged to distort and cripple effective communication and public discussion of important issues.
We have to figure out how to do this. McCain is just one of the practitioners and amplifiers of the church of crazy and mean…nothing new here. He is playing out a role deliberately undertaken by the Republican party — and we have to come up with an alternative and a response to it or we will continue to see it damage the public arena more and more.
binzinerator
@T. O’Hara:
Cut with the misguided calls for decency. Just stop.
Novak was one un-classy mean vindictive little son of a bitch all his life, and who was involved in a treasonous chain of reprisal that endangered the life of the wife of a man who showed that the White House’s rational for the Iraq war was a calculated lie. Novak exposed Joe Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, as a spy of the CIA. And that is treason.
Novak aided the bogus rational for war by acting as the delivery boy for this attack on an important critic of that lie because he helped send a message of intimidation and fear to other would-be truth-tellers, whistleblowers and critics.
Novak enabled Bush and Cheney and others to commit their war crimes. No Goebbels was he, but he was far more culpable than a simple run-of-the-mill Little Eichmann. There are now a million dead Iraqi civilians and 5,000 dead U.S. service people, and the chain of responsibility that brought about those deaths runs from Cheney’s office through Novak’s hands.
Fuck Novak and the other mean, petty, bitter, angry men he eagerly served. As dickday said:
“The fact is that Novak spent his entire life fighting for the cause of the rich over the poor, the cause of the powerful over the powerless, the cause of the evil perpetrators against the victims.”
You do an injustice by calling for people to not speak ill of such a man, for you help let those guilty of terrible misdeeds escape the opprobrium they richly deserve.
Trollhattan
It took TDS to terminally sever any glimmer of hope I may have had that McCain was simply hiding the 2000 edition due to the political realities of the Republican party. That and picking Caribou Barbie, of course.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/fri-september-5-2008/john-mccain–reformed-maverick