Limbaugh will enjoy the scorn. But he’s a disgusting opportunist and racist. And his acceptability – indeed total dominance – on the right is one reason decent people will steer clear of the GOP for the foreseeable future. There is no nuance or doubt here. This is a man who wants a race war. Until the GOP throws him out, they deserve oblivion.
I don’t disagree, but the idea of linking decency with political success always amuses me. The GOP won’t be destroyed by race-baiting because “decent people” will stay away, it will be destroyed by race-baiting because in another generation, America will be living Ross Douthat’s nightmare. The idea that there is any justice in politics is silly. The right’s race-baiting is stupid not because it is immoral and offensive. It’s stupid because of demographic trends. If the population were becoming whiter, rather than more diverse, the race-baiting would work like a charm.
neill
it is rather stoopid to link decency with politics — i do it all the time — particularly these days, when our country is about as indecent as it as ever been.
the political world just mirrors society intensely as at the same time it carves it up — usually for the corporations…
JK
In a just society, Rush Limbaugh would suffocate under the weight of his own blubber.
Ajay
I guess GOP needs to hire people like you. I am sure they already know this but they have absolutely no control over it.
They encouraged this kind of behavior. Moderates left the party and now they have nothing but the fringe.
Its really strange that not more of GOP leaders have left the party. On the contrary, Moderate GOP leaders (eg Pawlenty) on the other hand want to join the fringe. It seems like exact opposite of what needs to be done.
The Dangerman
Given Malkin Math (what did she claim?), the Right may not be very good with numbers. Hell, didn’t they just propose a budget without numbers? I rest my case.
BR
Well, obviously, it’s time for segregated busing. I mean, Rush says so himself.
General Winfield Stuck
This is a chicken/egg argument to me. Or, did Limbaugh make 20 million GOP racist dittoheads. I have always thought that 20 million racist dittoheads made Rush Limbaugh.
They are crucible of crazy and he just lends voice to the hate. And when he drops dead from a rotten soul and no heart, then someone else will step up to lead the wraiths.
The GOP is stuck with Limbaugh till death does them part, then it’s hello to Ms. Malkontent and no amount of moderate intervention will change that. A second party might be a force, for helping dems stay in power forever, or the Apocalypse, whichever comes first.
And thank you again Mr. Nixon.
MikeJ
I for one welcome our new chunky Reese Witherspoon overlords.
geg6
Sully really is the naive one, isn’t he? The idea that “decency” has anything to do with politics is one that I only entertained when I was a tween and too young to know that politics is all about power and the exercise thereof. Yes, there are uses of power that have results that we might consider “moral” or “decent.” But politics is, taken as a whole, amoral. Seeking power, wielding power, trying to take down power…that’s what it’s about. The results may bring about “decent” things or they might bring about “evil” things. But neither are the motive. Power is the motive and the entire point.
Makewi
It’s beyond funny that Andrew Sullivan thinks he has a clue what “decent people” will do. After he wrote this he downed a handful of psychedelic mushrooms and then had anonymous sex with a stranger on his way home to his husband.
Keep ringing that racist bell though. It seems to make you happy.
General Winfield Stuck
For some strange reason this always reminds me of Reece Cups, the love of my life. Well, maybe a mistress on the side next to my delightful Almond Joy.
JK
OT
Greg Mitchell does a great job slaming Time magazine for their puff piece on Glenn Beck
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/time-cover-on-beck-mutila_b_289890.html
Recently, the New Yorker published a puff piece on Michael Savage.
It’s bad enough having maligant media carcinogens like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage engage in fear mongering, hate mongering, and spreading lies.
It’s even worse to see respected MSM publications like Time and the New Yorker publish slanted profiles of these creeps that could have been written by their publicists.
General Winfield Stuck
ding dong Makewi is here.
Andy K
I think the idea is to take to the National Redoubt, let the attackers wear themselves out, then come out fighting- not politically, but actually fighting. (I hope the National Redoubt analogy doesn’t violate Godwin’s Law)
Ajay
Neil
the political world just mirrors society intensely as at the same time it carves it up
I dont think thats true. I believe its a small percentage of our population which is this lunatic. Its just that they make noise which is overwhelming and media helps spread it giving the illusion that its common voice. In reality, exact opposite is true.
DougJ
I for one welcome our new chunky Reese Witherspoon overlords.
Ha! There was some T-Bogg thing recently when he wrote about being disappointed that Douthat had taken the week off and said “Now I know how chunky Reese Witherspoon felt.”
Midnight Marauder
@General Winfield Stuck:
This is a chicken/egg argument to me. Or, did Limbaugh make 20 million GOP racist dittoheads. I have always thought that 20 million racist dittoheads made Rush Limbaugh.
They are crucible of crazy and he just lends voice to the hate. And when he drops dead from a rotten soul and no heart, then someone else will step up to lead the wraiths.
The GOP is stuck with Limbaugh till death does them part, then it’s hello to Ms. Malkontent and no amount of moderate intervention will change that. A second party might be a force, for helping dems stay in power forever, or the Apocalypse, whichever comes first.
I was reading something a few months back that talked about how it seemed Limbaugh had been laying kind of low during all the teabagger madness, whereas Rodeo Clown Deluxe was out in front, whipping up the crazy to entirely new heights. And it seems like there was some truth to that. After the whole “I want the president to fail” fiasco, Limbaugh did kind of slink back out of the limelight.
But it looks like he might be getting a little jealous of all the attention Rodeo Clown Deluxe has been getting recently. I mean, the cover of TIME magazine? And everyone is talking about how Rodeo Clown Deluxe is the new “de facto leader” of the GOP. That’s big stuff!
Looks like Limbaugh decided it was time to come out and reclaim his place. I still contend that a pissing match between those two is an increasing inevitability.
kay
They’re not thinking that far ahead.
They want to get the base all riled up for the midterm elections, and the governor’s races in the interim.
That’ll probably work.
I do think it’s interesting that they’re readily admitting they relied on a race based strategy in the past, but AT THE SAME TIME completely outraged that anyone would ever dare imagine that they were up to no good this time.
What changed? I haven’t seen some seismic shift in conservative thinking that would preclude them from adopting racism as a tactic again. They’re much, much better now than they were in 1980 on this? How so?
Wile E. Quixote
@Makewi
You’re just pissed because he didn’t send you flowers afterwards. Face it, he’s just not that into you, well at least not like he was the other day when he was jacked up on shrooms.
jrg
There is a big uproar in the Lutheran church (or one of it’s “congresses”) right now due to the fact that they will now allow gay priests. It’s causing problems in many of the parishes under the congress that made the decision.
The Lutherans made a wise choice. It stings today, but in the long run, you don’t want to be seen as an opponent of civil rights. The GOP is at a similar crossroads – either they can cut bait now and take the electoral hit, or they can take a much bigger hit later.
The problem is that they have media that rakes in cash inciting “conservative” hate that has no incentive to cut bait and move on. As someone said before, 30% market share is great if you’re a fast food chain (or a certain news network), but it’s terrible if you’re a political party. They are fucked.
Zifnab
@General Winfield Stuck:
Limbaugh isn’t the first of his kind, and he’s not even the worst of his kind (Beck currently holds that “honor”, but even before him, Mike Savage definitely held a lead).
But Limbaugh has a legitimacy that his contemporaries – up until FOX News – simply lacked. This was a guy offered a spot commenting with the NFL. He makes sporadic appearances on The View and the cover of Time Magazine. He’s the right wing hate jockey people were listening to back in the 80s with a clean conscience.
I don’t think Limbaugh got “made” by 20 million racist dittoheads. He got “made” by 2 million racist dittoheads and 18 million guys who couldn’t find anything better on FM. And, over the course of thirty-odd years, he slowly worked away at his non-crazy audience until they joined the lemming parade over the cliff.
He’s an engine of hate and ignorance.
DougJ
After he wrote this he downed a handful of psychedelic mushrooms and then had anonymous sex with a stranger on his way home to his husband.
Do you have a link for this?
freelancer
@DougJ:
Of course he doesn’t but at least the troll is acknowledging gay marriage.
General Winfield Stuck
@Midnight Marauder:
I tend to think Beck is really like a Howard Beale, in that I expect one day to read about his swan diving off a tall building cause Gawd told him he was big enough he could fly on his own.
Comrade Mary
@DougJ: Hell, do you have video for this?
Mark S.
Huh, Rod Dreher also has a nice takedown of Rush. Call me naive, but I think a big fissure is opening up in the GOP. I think there are actually a lot of Republicans tired of having Rush as their de facto leader.
Midnight Marauder
@General Winfield Stuck:
I tend to think Beck is really like a Howard Beale, in that I expect one day to read about his swan diving off a tall building cause Gawd told him he was big enough he could fly on his own.
If anyone reads Bill Simmons (aka – The Sports Guy) over at ESPN, one of his running jokes over the years has been what he calls “The Tyson Zone.” He explains:
If we’ve learned one thing over the years, it’s that you can’t predict the behavior of someone who has gone unequivocally insane — whether it’s an athlete, a celebrity, a dog with rabies, a female who has passed two or more babies out of her body or, yes, an entire National Football League season.
Once upon a time, I dubbed this phenomenon “The Tyson Zone,” after reaching a point at which I would have believed any story about Mike Tyson (real or made up).
That is how I feel about Rodeo Clown Deluxe these days.
Notorious P.A.T.
“I for one welcome our new chunky Reese Witherspoon overlords.”
Beat me to it.
Makewi
@Wile E. Quixote:
Oh, I’m not pissed. I’m just pointing out that Andrew Sullivan wouldn’t have the first clue what “decent people” would or wouldn’t do.
@DougJ:
I could provide links for times he has discussed these topics favorably, but I’m sure you could find them.
Legalize
Problem is, the GOP, no matter how bat shit / criminally insane it gets, will always have a co-equal voice at the table. The MSM will always make sure that this happens in the interest of “balance.” Every winger meme will be treated with chin-stroking credulity. It doesn’t matter what the public thinks about anything, as this health care “debate” is making painfully obvious. What is even more painfully obvious is that it doesn’t matter what party is in control.
Unless we get sick of it. Which we never will.
I do believe that if the Dems fuck up health care, which I have all the faith in the world they would have already done but for Barack Obama, the public will give crazy another chance. Not saying Barack won’t get re-elected, but he’ll be “quacking” for four more years because congressional Dems will take a bath in 2010 and might lose it all by 2014. We will have forgotten the Bush years. They will have never existed.
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
You need to tighten up dude, or get lost. Maybe you were trying to be funny, but it sounded like you were proposing a fact and an allegation that needs to be backed up with links.
Makewi
@General Winfield Stuck:
Bite me.
Mayur
@Makewi: Straight-up invective is troll weaksauce, ya know.
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
Clever not. But everyone has a right to be an boorish fool, you do it well.
Origuy
@General Winfield Stuck: I expect one day to read about his [Beck’s] swan diving off a tall building cause Gawd told him he was big enough he could fly on his own.
I hope there will be video of this.
Notorious P.A.T.
“I tend to think Beck is really like a Howard Beale, in that I expect one day to read about his swan diving off a tall building cause Gawd told him he was big enough he could fly on his own.”
That would be hilari–sad. That would be very, very sad.
General Winfield Stuck
@Mayur:
Troll school dropout looks like. Obama’s new education initiative should fix that. “No Troll Left Behind” get behind it, or in front of it.
Kiril
Andrew Sullivan, champion of black people!
Paul L.
I was wondering how the “Megan McArdle is always wrong” crowd here would spin this into their narrative.
Limbaugh Hits a New Low
I have a dilemma. The other day, I boldly stated that I could not possibly like Rush Limbaugh less. Then he went and described bullying attacks as what happens in “Obama’s America”
The Moar You Know
@General Winfield Stuck: Be nice. Makewi is just pissed that he’s not getting the hot bottom action that he craves.
NickM
I was wondering how the “Megan McArdle is always wrong” crowd here would spin this into their narrative.
Even a stopped clock, etc.
Crashman06
@Paul L.: I’ll bet that, in this case, they would probably say: “I agree with McArdle on this point” since this particular point has nothing to do with her idiotic ideas on libertarianism and economics.
Try again, thanks.
Calouste
@Legalize:
It probably also has to do with the fact that the idea that the two-party system that has existed for 150 years might fall over because one of the party has gone batshit insane, is going against all demographic trends and risks withering down to a regional party, that idea is so big and scary that people are tiptoeing around it. People are maybe thinking about it but it is such a massive change that they don’t dare to say it out loud. Now if there was a viable third part (Bloomberg/Unity ’08 anyone?), that idea would move forwards a whole lot faster. But as long as there is nothing to replace the GOP, no one is going to suggest that they are working hard on making themselves disappear.
Cain
@Comrade Mary:
I don’t really think we want to see any of Makewi home movies here.
cain
Ella in NM
@Makewi:
Morbo
I’d love to wait for an open thread, but “MARK WAID WAS EVIL” has triggered my curiosity. Anyone get it?
The Moar You Know
@Paul L.: “Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”
You’re welcome. Now go find a stripper to rape.
Kiril
@General Winfield Stuck: Didn’t you know about this already? This is old, old news.
anonymous sex: http://www.geocities.com/dcjarviks/Idler/vIIIn113.html
(would have linked to The Nation, but the server was down when I googled it)
Andrew has also written about the spiritual power of magic mushrooms on his blog, although I don’t know if he has done any empirical research on them. There is always this of course: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/brainiac/2009/09/sullivan_avoids_pot_charges.html
The comment was clearly snark referencing something he/she thought everyone knew about. Whether you think it was good snark is another question, but it’s not just coming from nowhere.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Fix’t.
Fix’t.
Carry on.
Meyer
I was wondering how the “Megan McArdle is always wrong” crowd here would spin this into their narrative.
I think something involving a broken clock would be about right.
Pangloss
Shorter Right Wing: Waaaaa! I want my 1957 back!
Jennifer
Here’s how Megan McArdle is, yet again, wrong:
Any sensible person who lived through the early 1990s and Rush’s short-lived television show has known for over 15 years now that it’s impossible for normal, decent human beings to gauge the lows to which Limbaugh can descend, and long ago wrote him off due to that fact. This realization dawned on all sensible, decent people the moment that Rush announced on his TV show that the White House had a new dog, as a picture of then 13 or 14-year-old Chelsea Clinton appeared on-screen. Coward that he is, Limbaugh tried to brush it off as “the wrong picture got put up” when he was called out on it…the only problem with that is that at the time, the White House didn’t have a dog, wasn’t discussing getting a dog, and remained dog-free for the next 4 – 6 years.
So you have an almost 50 year old man picking on a 13 or 14 year old girl on national television, and then lying about the fact that he and/or his staff wrote it and ran with it as a joke, trying to play it off as a technical glitch.
And that wasn’t the bottom for McMegan? Quel surprise.
Makewi
@Kiril:
There was also the monogomy bit. Sadly Time doesn’t seem to have kept that blog available.
Spin away folks.
Ash Can
@Paul L.: I’d sooner say that “Megan McArdle is always wrong” on socio-economic issues since her libertarian beliefs tend to throw her analyses out of whack. But I for one appreciate the link you’ve furnished here. Coming as it does on the heels of Rod Dreher’s piece (quoting it, in fact), I’m wondering if this isn’t signaling a schism in right-wing punditry (as opposed to right-wing politics; I have yet to see any GOP pols with balls enough to call Limbaugh out and not apologize for it a few hours later).
Makewi
@Ella in NM:
I’m not gay. I also have nothing against those who are. My problem with Sullivan isn’t his gayness.
Citizen_X
@Calouste:
Good reason to work on driving the Blue Dogs out of the Democratic party ASAP so they can get started on that.
Fencedude
I thought Makewi was a girl.
Or is that some other troll?
Demo Woman
I posted this earlier but I think it needs to be posted again.
Pelosi had tears in her eyes fearing what could happen because of the noise that the Beck and Limbaugh are making. It truly is like crying fire in a theater. I don’t think ignoring it causes it to go away though.
Sentient Puddle
@Paul L.: Meh. I’d just point to the comments section in that thread, where the readership is so desperately trying to spin what Rush said as sarcasm.
Yeah, I don’t give much credence to your straw man thesis. Come back when you got something worthwhile for us to work with.
Sue
If Beck jumps off a tall building, do you think he’ll notice the architectural symbols on the way down?
gwangung
Well, a dimbulb bigot like you would wonder that.
Most people here have IQs above room temperature and are smart enough to evaluate the entire situation and not just the person.
asiangrrlMN
Oh, DougJ, I was only gonna comment to commend your thinking, but then I saw Wile E. Quixote’s brilliant retort to Makalakaki and your embellishment upon it, and I had to applaud. No wonder I snatched up Quixote for the BJ Asian Posse!
@Demo Woman: I gotta disagree with this. I live in the north, obviously, and I hate hate hate the insidious form of covert racism that is practiced up here. I’d rather be called a chink to my face (but not beaten up, of course), than have someone smile in my face and call me a chink behind my back. We cannot possibly begin to fumigate the racism out of this country if we don’t even talk about it.
Sully needs to stop clutching his pearls and acknowledge that his former party has been actively racist for a good long time.
LD50
@General Winfield Stuck: I think this is how Makewi thinks the GOP will win the hearts of America again.
General Winfield Stuck
@Kiril:
I don’t follow gossip stories, or sexual orientation stories, or peoples ideas on drug use, though back in the day I was fond of Shrooms. I have a feeling I;m not the only one who didn’t know this, well I’m sure of it, since apparently the thread post author hadn’t either. So expecting someone to post a link to their poorly constructed snark when requested, that btw sounded a tad homophobic, isn’t nearly out of line.
I post links many times on my comments on many threads on topics I comment on. And if i don’t, then when someone asks for one, I furnish it pronto.
CalD
It always used to. “Outsiders” of some kind aren’t that hard to find though. If you don’t have any handy you can always invent them and convincing people that all their problems are someone else’s fault is always an easy sell.
Kathy in St. Louis
If people could see where Rush Limbaugh grew up, there would be no doubt as to his feelings on race. The southeast portion of Missouri is redneck heaven. Really, much of our state is, but this is the worst part. Rush couldn’t even make it out of Southeast Missouri State University….the easiest school in three states. He’s fat, dumb and a racist….the trifecta of Southeast Missouri.
tc125231
The last time the GOP did not utterly deserve oblivion George Schultz was Secretary of State. It’s been a long time.
On the other hand, our so-called MSM also deserves oblivion.
Will it happen? It better, or my grandchildren are cooked.
binzinerator
@General Winfield Stuck:
Me, I love my Mounds.
Because Almond Joy’s got nuts. Mounds don’t.
Josh Huaco
@Jennifer:
Crap, I’d totally forgotten about that. Sick bastard.
tc125231
@Makewi: How do you know these things? Or are you just a homophobe?
Frankly, I could care less, since you are clearly a dullard, and Sullivan’s big problem is the tolerance he extends towards folks such as yourself, who constitute the true GOP “base”.
Mostly, the question stems from idle curiosity.
General Winfield Stuck
@binzinerator:
Mounds got dark chocolate, and AJ don’t. One of the worlds great crimes, But I like nuts, some have said I r even one.
jl
I guess I am cynical, but I do not count on decency and I do not count on natural progress of civilization through the generations to keep the intellectual and moral depredations of our political parties and movements in check.
I do count on results to keep them in check. People will trust ‘the man’ and ‘the system’ even if they do not feel much sympathy for its world view, if the system promises to keep functioning in an orderly way the keeps the ordinary person secure.
When the people in charge show signs of madness, malice or incompetence that threatens that regime, people notice.
I would imagine most of the country have noticed by now, and I think that is driving much of the GOP’s unpopularity.
I tend to think that way, myself. And while I have always been adamantly opposed to the post-Reagan GOP, the fact that I do not believe they have the ability keep things together at the most basic level as produced an extra and implacably urgency in my opposition.
After Katrina, do I want those people in charge if something happens in my neighborhood? Do I want the GOP running the health care policy when I get old? Do I want the GOP running economic policy during the next recession? No. No. and No. My life may depend on not having them be in charge, which is different from mere disgust and disapproval and ideological discomfort.
I think that the high black humor sick laff-riot component of current GOP antics is making a special bad impression on youth, in addition to the incompetence, which is fine with me.
asiangrrlMN
@General Winfield Stuck: You can have them both. I’ll take my fancy-schmancy organic dark chocolate thankyouverymuchwhyyesiamadfhwhydoyouask?
General Winfield Stuck
@asiangrrlMN:
This just blew my mind. At least what’s left of it.
binzinerator
@DougJ:
Do you have a link for this?
Makewi doesn’t seem to be opposed to kiss’n’tell thus far, so we should expect a link. Shit, I bet he’d send you his cellphone pix if you sound interested enough.
Makewi
@tc125231:
No, I’d suggest the question stems from a lack of imagination and rock solid furtherance to dogma on your part. You need for those who criticize what is dear to you to fit neatly into your predetermined boxes, just as much as you need to believe that simply calling yourself a liberal makes you part of some elite group of smart people.
Makewi
effing spell checker – furtherance should be adherence.
Brachiator
@Ash Can:
Excellent point. I wondered whether anyone on the right would dare challenge Limbaugh on his race-baiting. Dreher, McArdle and now Sullivan have in fact stepped up to the plate — and should be applauded for it. The idea that unless they have been ideologically pure all their lives is a ridiculous and self-defeating standard.
Here’s a link to Dreher’s post (originally provided by Ash Can, I believe) — “Rush Limbaugh hits racial bottom, digs”
http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/09/rush-limbaugh-hits-racial-bott.html
A slice:
And note that one of the responses to Dreher, sadly, shows the degree to which some conservatives cling to God, guns and Limbaugh:
Rush is brilliant and is the most listened to person on Talk Radio in History. It is a shame all you dimbulbs, who probably never listened to Rush, failed to understand his bit of EVIL GENIUS that tweeks the actual Racist.
I don’t quite agree with the sentiment that we need simply wait for the GOP to be overwhelmed by a demographic shift. There is a great deal of mischief that Rush, Hannity and the rest of the chorus of chaos can inspire between now and 2042, when nonwhites presumably will become a national majority.
binzinerator
@Paul L.:
I beg your pardon. I don’t think anyone here really thinks Megan McArdle is always wrong. Why, sometimes she’s just stupid.
HumboldtBlue
Can we please drop this silly meme that Limbaugh garners 20 million listeners per day. It’s a made up number, there is no manner in which to determine how many people listen to a particular radio show, none whatsoever.
Limbaugh has a large megaphone, no doubt about it, and its replicated on television by FOX news, but these claims are simply baseless.
On another note, maybe Sullivan can bring back the Bell Curve to teach us all how black people really aren’t as smart as white people and that explains why … well, it should explain something. These cowards have waited far too long to call out the assholes like Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity. It’s not like these folks just popped up on November 5th.
The river of racial hatred, political demonization and outright lying is deep and swift and has nearly two decades to dig a channel into the American discourse.
asiangrrlMN
@General Winfield Stuck: Yes! I have accomplished my mission of blowing the good general’s mind!
Just you wait. I’m gonna be back on the BJ nightshift either tomorrow or Saturday night, and it will be asiangrrl unplugged! Like you’ve never seen me before! Or something.
asiangrrlMN
@binzinerator: Well, she’s not wrong in as much as she, like Sully, is just fucking late to the Rush is a racist shithead party. Like I said yesterday, I guess it’s not true until the conservative/glibertarian white peeps say it’s true. Yes, that’s slightly modified from what I said yesterday about Sully, but the spirit remains true.
It’s beyond infuriating that NOW we have to gasp in horror at what Rush and his ilk are doing because Sully, MM2, Dreher, et al are falling on their fainting couches and calling for their smelling salts.
binzinerator
@Calouste:
Somehow that reminds me of Greenspan’s mistake quote:
“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organisations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms.”
That’s what some people can’t see this even though any moron can see the elephant foundering in their bathtub.
Well, they did say something was going to drown in there, didn’t they?
It’s as hard for them to face the batshit insanity that’s drowning their party as it was for Greenspan to face the batshit greed that almost suffocated our financial system.
Too scary to admit their dogma was dogshit.
HumboldtBlue
Oh, and one other thing. “Mickey Kaus fucks goats” is a recurring refrain in many blog comments sections as well as other sexually-themed comments directed at the target du jour, but making a nasty comment about Sullivan and sex is somehow off base?
Fuck Sullivan, the cocksucker. He’s a preening, self-important twit who will never ignore a chance to contradict himself if he believes it gives him a chance to dance with the “in” crowd. He writes for a shit magazine, surrounded by shitty writers who write shit.
Now, can we go back to the chat about civility, please?
binzinerator
@asiangrrlMN:
I’d agree but it takes a fucking moron to not see it until now. And if she saw it before but said nothing — that’s just wrong in a moral sense.
It is. But I am saving that fury for our feces-stained media elites. It’s he said/she said stenography and they won’t point out that a steaming pile of human excrement right under their nose smells bad until they get their face pushed in it by both sides.
Our dirty sanchez media. They’ve got it caked on under their nose thick as a bad Groucho Marx greasepaint job and they go on the air, on the radio, in Time and WSJ and NYT and pretend they can’t smell it and we can’t see it.
asiangrrlMN
@binzinerator: We are in agreement as to your first point. That’s why it pisses me off so much to see Sully and MM2 get bouquets of flowers for reaching the obvious conclusion many years too fucking late.
Come to think about, I agree with your second point as well, though I could not have written it so descriptively as you did. Kudos to you, Sir.
GusThePrimate
In 2028, white conservatives will be the biggest proponents of afirmative actions.
DFH no. 6
@Ajay:
Ajay, you responded to Neil, who said:
the political world just mirrors society intensely as at the same time it carves it up
By writing:
I dont think thats true. I believe its a small percentage of our population which is this lunatic.
From my own experience (very limited and anecdotal, of course) I have to say I’m with Neil on this.
Granted, I live and work in McCainland (Phoenix), but I find that it is much more than a small percentage of our population which is “this lunatec”.
I work in a professional setting (engineering, construction, and building services) with many educated and technically proficient people, and I am flat surrounded on all sides by those who profess any and every “lunatic” rightwing nonsense imaginable. Such people predominate — the “small percentage” where I live are the people like myself (or most BJ commenters) or the slightly larger population of people who don’t appear to give a shit either way.
I believe there are many millions in my country who are truly just “this lunatic”. Not the majority, but certainly not a “small percentage”. More’s the pity.
whetstone
@binzinerator: But I don’t think he’s even “seeing it now.” It’s swell that he wants everyone to be nice to black people, but I don’t see him disowning his beloved Actual Research by Licensed Former Cross-Burning Scienticians that proves how they’re inferior (not all of them of course, just generally).
The sonofabitch pimped The Bell Curve – proudly and still does – and now he wants to tell us about racism? Oh hell no. He’s no better than Limbaugh.
Kiril
@General Winfield Stuck: Hey, I’m all in favor of sex and drugs.
I knew about this because it came in the context of Sullivan’s years of defaming Clinton as a sex pervert, but more relevant is that Sullivan had spent years criticizing gay culture as disgustingly promiscuous. And here he was, an HIV-positive man soliciting anonymous bareback(unprotected) sex. For this reason, it obviously smacked of major league hypocrisy. If you were reading blogs in 2002, you wouldn’t have had to follow it, it was all over the place.
matoko_chan
It is the Alamo for conservatives.
Twenty years ago the electorate was 95% white. Last year, in 2008, the electorate was 75% white. At least a third of those whites consistantly vote democratic, Carter to Obama. So currently the white conservative vote is about 50%.
Then how did Obama get elected when the country wasn’t really demographically ready for him?
A perfect storm of environmental voter influence is how.
The horrorshow of the Bush presidency, the market fail, and the unappealing alternative of a 72-year-old 4x melanoma survivor running with a twodigit dimbo as backup combined to give Obama an advantage of more than 2:1 electoral college votes, 365 to 173.
The anger is real, but only partly anti-black.
It is really anti-everyone but “heartland” whites.
In another 20 years the electorate will only be 40% white. If a third of those voters continue to vote democratic, then the GOP will be reduced to less than 30% of the electorate.
General Winfield Stuck
@Kiril:
I started reading blogs right before the Iraq war, and then only a few on that topic/ so I guessed I missed it. And I have never been a Sullivan fan as he is certainly a repub. but sometimes shows some good sense. sometimes.
bago
Do I need to make the Resees joke here?
bago
@Kiril: You see, this is why we need Marilyn Manson.
Julien Peter Benney
Re
“a big fissure is opening up in the GOP”, there has ever since the culture wars as we know them have existed (roughly since the late 1970s) been a rather silent divide among conservatives.
Essentially this is between
-“distributists” like Dreher who advocate a family-centred localised society and believe that industrialisation is not compatible with conservative cultural values, especially family preservation.
– and “Austrians”, like the Mises Institute and most of Human Events who advocate radical free-market reforms and believe industrialisation can enhance traditional family values if government is kept far enough away.
This is an overtly simple overlook at the Right, but it should help.
JoJo
I don’t get Sully. How can any gay support a political party which has been bashing gays for decades? Sure, it’s interesting watching Sully go through endless mental contortions to prove that the republican leadership really doesn’t mean what they’ve been saying quite clearly and loudly about how evil, sick and depraved gays are. But I’m really starting to think that Sully should find a competent therapist and stop trying to convince himself that black is white.