There’s nothing funnier than Republicans’ attempts to appeal to mooching low-information voters — be they welfare kings or strapping young sluts — by getting behind absurd (but invariably “well-spoken”) black, Latino, women etc. candidates. You see, women just want to vote for women, the blahs just want to vote for other blahs. Liberals are the real hypocrites because they liked Hillary Clinton but not Sarah Palin. And party of Lincoln. Blacks should vote Republican because they hate teh ghey. Latinos are natural Republicans because they start businesses. I forget why women are really conservatives, but there’s some reason, maybe something to do with security moms.
Ben Carson is my favorite conservative great black hope in a while.
Overnight, he was embraced by conservatives including those at The Wall Street Journal editorial page, which proclaimed, “Ben Carson for President” — a suggestion Dr. Carson helped feed at a high-profile gathering last weekend, the Conservative Political Action Conference. He was interrupted by sustained cheers when he coyly said, “Let’s just say if you magically put me in the White House…”
Herman Cain was funny, but he was just a standard issue Galtian guy who happened to be black. Ben Carson used to be on Charlie Rose, speaking very seriously about this and that. He’s separated Siamese twins but he doesn’t believe in evolution.
I hope we’ll be seeing more of this guy, but I have my doubts.
schrodinger's cat
Well he must have decided that being a surgeon is hard work, wingnut welfare on the other hand, even a cave woman in the Tundra, can do it.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
This lack of understanding is why they couldn’t fire Michael Steele even though he was so incompetent. They had hired him for being black, and that created a problem for them that they couldn’t solve.
Yutsano
I saw a petition on FB to put this yokel in the Senate. That should go over well. Tokenism must pay well or something.
DougJ, Friend of Hamas
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
In retrospect, I’m not sure Steele was that incompetent. He was a better front man than Reince.
danimal
It’s amazing that Dr. Carson is really well-regarded by the Fox/TeaPartyers as a presidential candidate (and he is!)despite the facts that 1) he has no executive experience, 2) he’s basically an unknown nationally, and 3) his only qualification appears to be his willingness to speak rudely of Obama (and Obamacare) while in Obama’s presence.
He’ll crash and burn in the GOP primaries, but maybe he’ll make conservatives think they’ve solved all their racial issues by considering voting for him. Then he can cash in on the wingnut welfare. Alan Keyes and Herman Cain have fine-tuned the Black GOP Pundit business model; it seems to have enduring appeal. Good work if you can get it.
Hunter Gathers
Carson’s boring. He could never rile the up ‘Baggers like the Herminator could.
Biff Longbotham
Latinos are supposed to be ‘natural’ Republicans because of their (but let’s not generalize here!) ‘strong family values’, and thus hate teh ghey–Is that an example of the level of GOP logic? Gadzooks!
RareSanity
Well if your default position is that political campaigns are all about superficial marketing tricks and “messaging”, and not about your actual political positions, all of this makes perfect sense.
Granted all politicians engage in some form of marketing. It’s just that Republicans think that they can “create their own realities” with it, not just use it as a tool to increase someone’s exposure and/or like-ability.
pamelabrown53
If women were conservatives because Security Moms!, wouldn’t married women be leaving the republican party in droves because they can’t protect their children from the NRA-controlled gun nuts? Or do they buy the pablum that everyone needs to be armed?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Verily, the human mind is a wondrous and strange thing. A creationist who wants to privatize Social Security and eliminate Medicare would be an electoral juggernaut.
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): @DougJ, Friend of Hamas: I have no idea what went on at the RNC, but I figure Priebus must be a pretty good administrator and Steele a bad one, but why they can’t figure out that having a snotty overgrown adolescent and adenoidal talking thumb out taking talk-radio pot shotshots at Obama is a losing strategy
ArchPundit
The quality of crazy black guys who are the antidote to Obama has been falling since Alan Keyes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Also, too, as Bill O’Reilly pointed out, Asians are hard workers, why would they vote Democrat?
butler
@Hunter Gathers: AMEN! Herman was an awful candidate with terrible “ideas”, but damn if he wasn’t an especially entertaining brand of crazy.
MattR
Among other things, I think part of the Republican love for Carson is based on the fact that he is a “science” guy who rejects evolution while ignoring the fact that Carson is a surgeon, not a scientist.
maya
I thought it was Asians who started businesses and thusly should vote repo. And gays? Shouldn’t they get over specifics and vote repo because they are for unrestricted mergers?
Ted & Hellen
Rock Chalk Jayhawk
MattF
@Yutsano: Carson runs for Senator from Maryland? Tsk. I don’t think so. He wouldn’t get a lot of votes from the DC burbs, and that’s where the voters are. More likely a wannabe VP on a Rubio ticket.
Pathman
A fine line between brilliance and insanity. And most of the neurosurgeons I’ve worked with are borderline fucking nuts.
Pooh
We really are choosing to make ourselves stupider as a people. I’m researching “Cosmos” on Netflix, and I’m like “oh Carl, you think we’ve finally won Galileo’s battles for him.” Not so much.
reflectionephemeral
@RareSanity:
Yep, this is it.
This is evident in a lot of the “examining” of the Iraq invasion’s legacy for the GOP from would-be intellectuals like Ross Douthat. The problem is worse than that the Iraq invasion eventually led to a negative image of the GOP. It’s that the Iraq invasion gave Americans an accurate view how the GOP works. (It’s not like Bush-era domestic policies, pushed by folks like Mitch Daniels, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, et al were especially wonkish and well-considered).
And as you point out, the people running and rooting for the party view the party’s negative image as an unfortunate happenstance rooted in insufficiently vigorous & modern marketing efforts.
In reality, though, most Americans share a deep, well-founded suspicion of the party’s rhetoric, policy proposals, leaders, and rank-and-file supporters. No one in the party has the inventive, or perhaps even the wherewithal, to offer anything other than base-pleasing bromides about the reality of public policy or American demographics.
Cassidy
I love it when they do this. They should keep trying to find their great brown hope until the next election.
stinger
Doesn’t matter how crazy the black guy (as ArchPundit puts it), the chance of the Republican base supporting a blah man in the White House is zilch. Their number one goal in 2016 will be “taking ‘their’ country ‘back’.”
schrodinger's cat
Another day another token from the GOP. Carry on doctor. My cousin is married to a nephrologist and he is a budding wingnut.
Why are doctors attracted to wingnut ideology? What is up with that? Is it because many of them have a God complex?
slag
It’s geometric!
Arm The Homeless
He also thinks that the 2nd Ammendment should be viewed differently in Bumblefuck, MO as opposed to Chicago. Watching that circle get squared with the absolutist gun-nuts is enough to send popcorn futures through the roof.
Is it true that he is well known and respected in Detroit? I mean there is an opening to consider in Michigan after all.
Cassidy
@schrodinger’s cat: No, because they have a skill and education that they’ve been told their whole life thye can charge a premium for. Then reality sets in and they get told how much they’ll make by insurance companies and society didn’t kiss their ass and pay them for the privilege of them learning to be a doctor and treating our ilnesses….but now it’s easier to blame the gov’t.
Redshirt
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m gonna guess two broad reasons: 1. Being in the medical fields means you have to deal with lots of federal regulations and rules, which can be frustrating and easy to demagogue. 2. They went into a lot of debt to get that “MD” after their name and by Supply Side Jesus they’re gonna squeeze every penny while they can.
Also too perhaps something about medical training dehumanizes people to some doctors.
dan
The next Dem candidate won’t be black so they won’t need their token to counter.
The Republic of Stupidity
And the key word in that statement is the ‘magically’…
At the rate the GOP, or what’s left of it, is going, it will probably indeed take some serious magic, or a vast and enormously successful vote rigging scheme, to put another Repub in the WH….
Which is odd, when you think about the way the fundies hate Harry Potter…
Redshirt
@dan: Probably. Gonna need some token woman instead. Hmm, who’s on the bench?
Marc
Medical school is extremely competitive and the people who succeed there tend to think…highly of themselves. As in, they did everything all by themselves by working very hard, and so they deserve both intellectual respect and lots of money.
This pushes your politics into a pretty reactionary direction.
Tokyokie
@schrodinger’s cat: I think it’s because empathy is a task many of them leave to the nurses.
quannlace
And always on the lookout for the next savior or ‘breath of fresh air.” No wonder Republicans are so jumpy.
Amir Khalid
@Ted & Hellen:
This.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Redshirt: Yes, but when the Democrats put a black, Greek, Jewish lesbian male on the ticket, what are they going to counter with?
Omnes Omnibus
@Tokyokie: Also, if you are strong in science and have a right-wing bent, it is the educational path of choice. I mean, a biology PhD and research? No money in it. So there probably is an element of self selection in it.
Redshirt
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): CONDI!
flukebucket
I feel sure Dr. Carson sees himself as just another Galtian Ubermensch that has worked hard all of his life and why should he have to pay the bums who are just sitting around waiting on him to make their money for them. He believes in the “fair tax” which states that if a guy with 1,000 dollars pays 10% and the guy with 1,000,000 pays 100,000 then that is the only fair way to do it. His viral video is entertaining to watch. He may be a great surgeon (even though I thought both of the twins he separated died) but he will get his ass handed to him in politics. I guarantee it.
R-Jud
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
He’s tanned, rested, and ready to ACK.
Chyron HR
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
IEDs.
Mnemosyne
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Steele was the head of the RNC for the 2010 wave election that fucked everything up for Democrats for at least another 4-5 years. Most people would kill to have a “failure” like that.
In retrospect, I think Steele was very underrated even by his own party. Either that, or he’s even luckier than Obama when it comes to elections.
JCT
@Redshirt: The financial side of this is a big driver, virtually all of my surgeon and most of my cardiology colleagues are wingnuts. My collegues in primary care / peds – not so much.
Oh sure, Ben Carson. He should be a awesome candidate. Many of the neurosurgeons I interact with have egos that are a special level of awe-inspiring. I’m sure he will love getting campaign advice. Will make Romney look introspective and open.
Couple this to that idiot Reince’s idea that folks shout look to Mike Huckabee for a “kindler, gentler” messenger on gay rights and you have the continuation of the GOPs march to obscurity. They are lost and hopeless.
catclub
@DougJ, Friend of Hamas: Yes, the elections he was responsible for, 2010, went swimmingly for the GOP, so fire him.
The 2012 elections? Keep Priebus on.
catclub
@Mnemosyne: beat me to it.
Ash Can
As Arm The Homeless points out @ #25, his views on firearms may relegate him to the dustbin of GOP history before his career ever takes off. (H/t LGF commenter Vicious Babushka for the link.)
Bubblegum Tate
Hell, the conservatives I know are now pushing for the line that stances on issues are nothing but mere distractions and that there is one and only one “political position,” and that is “I believe in the Constitution and therefore small government.” If you just say you’re in favor of “small government,” however the hell you define that (better if you don’t define it, in fact), then the rest is just gravy.
Also, too, despite their best efforts,conservatives always let their contempt for huge swaths of the populace seep out. They just can’t help it. It’s quite interesting.
Omnes Omnibus
@catclub:
I think that is still illegal in several states.
Redshirt
@Bubblegum Tate: Ah, I like that. It’s like Evangelical Rightwing politics.
“It don’t matter what I say or do or believe in, all that matters is I’m ‘Right with Reagan'”.
MattF
@JCT: No kidding about neurosurgeon ego. I’ve had some experience with that– I worked for a while with a group of neurosurgeons.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bubblegum Tate:
Hamilton didn’t.
1badbaba3
If this had happened in ’84, when they were at the peak of their powers, I would be terrified. But it’s not, they are not, and I sure as fuck am not. They got nuthin’. Next loser, plz
Bubblegum Tate
@JCT:
My dad is a cardiologist (and kind of a much-mucky-muck one at that, I came to realize over the years), and he’s never been any sort of wingnut…never been political, really, except that he had a pretty high income and therefore liked the idea of getting a top-bracket tax cut, but that’s about it. In recent years, however, I’ve begun to worry that he’s getting Fox Newsified, as others on this blog have lamented about with their parents. It’s nothing too drastic, but every so often he’ll make some oblique reference to gay marriage (not in favor) or damn politicians with their spending or “the president’s lack of leadership.” I would really hate for my dad to go full metal wingnut. Ugh.
Tokyokie
@Omnes Omnibus: For years, when I’ve had to select a new primary-care provider, I’ve examined the roster of doctors for names of traditionally black colleges or Asian family names or female given names because I just can’t tolerate being condescended to by some dude who’s grown up privileged in the suburbs who thinks he knows the secrets of the universe because, hey, the system’s done OK for him.
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Because they value education and don’t want to vote for people who would gut it? Just a guess.
Bubblegum Tate
@Redshirt:
Yeah, pretty much. I honestly wasn’t sure if they were joking when they first starting floating the notion–it was immediately after Obama beat the Mittster, so they were quite despondent–but it very quickly went through that wingnut cycle where it goes from a vague idea to something to consider to Accepted Wingnut Truth That Has Always Been True. They now premise every argument upon it: “Given that the only political position is fealty to –or rebellion against — limited government….”
Seanly
RE: doctors & evolution. I remember reading a few years ago that the doctor who pioneered trying to use babboon hearts in humans was asked why he didn’t try chimpanzee hearts since chimps share 99% of our genetic code. He didn’t believe in evolution and wasn’t aware of how similar chimps are to humans (that being said there might be non-genetic reasons why a babboon heart is better).
And we need a better term for people who don’t believe in evolution. Evolution deniers? Facts & scientific laws don’t care whether you believe in them. They happen regardless of our ignorance – gravity, theory of
ranchandsyrup
The “conservatism can’t fail, it can only be failed” belief is apparently a tough one thing to shake.
Redshirt
I always like to point out that the “theory” of gravity is far less conclusive than the “theory” of evolution. Evolution is pretty dang well understood. Gravity, not so much.
I really, really want these nutjobs to start railing against gravity.
Omnes Omnibus
@Redshirt:
The Earth sucks.
Another Halocene Human
@DougJ, Friend of Hamas: Let’s not argue about who spent donor money on ‘oo.
(Anyway, I thought spending donor money on inappropriate stuff was, like, mandatory. All the state GOPs do it.)
zoot
I forget why women are really conservatives, but there’s some reason, maybe something to do with security moms.
huh? how could you forget: women are conservatives because they all secretly want to fulfill their destinies as servants to men and baby factories.
Another Halocene Human
@Pathman: Ha ha, check out “Jack Kruse, Neurosurgeon!” on the series of tubes some time. His own website with its “quilt” is enough crazy, but others have documented more.
It’s slightly dialed down time cube crazy. It’s like he has access to this level of crazy but one small part of his brain is all “we can turn this into a profitable opportunity, sell it to the rubes, sell it!!”
reflectionephemeral
@Redshirt: This was anticipated by America’s Finest News Source a little while back:
JCT
@Bubblegum Tate: Yup — I recently moved to a new university and while I respect many of my older cardiologist colleagues because they are thoughtful and caring physicians, their political views are hair-raising. I showed up at a fundraiser for Carmona last year and created quite a stir, several of the practice admins were there and immediately asked if the old-line cardiologists knew about my “politics”. They looked very relieved when I said “no”.
Part of it is that most of our patients are late-middle-aged and elderly, and their views on the world often quite warped by Fox noise — so the doctor’s office becomes an echo chamber.
Real-life brainwashing. Scary.
dmsilev
If he doesn’t believe in evolution, I wonder whether he believes in the existence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: I have run into people who believe in micro evolution, but not macro.
Anoniminous
@Seanly:
Terms exist: morons, nincompoops, idiots, ignoramuses, dullards, imbeciles, fools, Know-Nothings … quite a list to chose from.
Evolution has been proven six ways from Sunday. The problem is the science is too hard for people who never, intellectually speaking, graduated from sixth grade.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
And let me guess, their knowledge of Biology and current events in the medical fields is zero.
Bubblegum Tate
@JCT:
Ugh. This doesn’t bode well. My dad’s been out of the OR for several years now, so at least he’s not in that echo chamber, but he’s still quite active in the AHA and the ACC and myriad other alphabet-soup organizations, so he’s probably getting it from there. And while he never comes out and says so, he seems to be fairly opposed to Obamacare, and I don’t want to have that discussion with him because I don’t want to be disappointed if he clarifies his views the way I fear he would.
Redshirt
@reflectionephemeral: LOL. Well, there you go. That was everything I was hoping for. Doesn’t mean the wingnuts won’t pick up the crusade, however.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Sadly, not always. I think it is the dodge to reconcile fundamentalist religion and, for example, dog breeding.
Redshirt
@Bubblegum Tate: You’re right to be afraid. My father has always been conservative, but “reasonably” so, as it were (i.e. NO TAXES!). Since he retired, BOOM! Fox news talking points out of nowhere. It’s been a pretty radical shift in a short period of time.
rikyrah
@Roger Moore:
they value PUBLIC EDUCATION, and won’t vote for people who want to gut it.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: What does that mean? At a cellular level we are all micro.
jonas
@danimal: Alan Keyes is so deranged, I’m not sure anyone but Dinesh D’Souza even returns his calls any more. Is he even on wingnut welfare?
schrodinger's cat
Budding wingnut doctor cousin, doesn’t like trial lawyers and likes his taxes low. I haven’t heard any race baiting from him.
danimal
@jonas: You’re right, but like so many pioneers, he paved the way for Cain, who’s paved the way for Carson. He should be proud of his trailblazing career path, even if he has been exposed as a stark, raving lunatic.
For contextual analysts: (Unsaid, but implied, is the contention that Cain and probably Carson, are stark, raving lunatics that have not been completely exposed at this point in the cycle.)
The Ancient Randonneur
So the man with Gifted Hands believes the Sumerians invented ink a thousand years before the Earth was created. Sweet. But–and this is a really big but–how many draft deferments did he get as an undergraduate? As long as he got at least one he would make an ideal candidate for the Republican base. The only problem I see for him is that as a Seventh Day Adventist he is most likely a vegetarian.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
Mendelian genetics is what is, or was, taught in first year Biology to get some basics across, e.g., inheritance of characteristics. In “actual” Biology it has been overtaken by molecular genetics.
@schrodinger’s cat:
Macroevolution is refer to any evolutionary change at or above the level of species
Microevolution is the changes in allele frequencies occuring over time within an existing population (species)
Rise of modern human from homo erectus was macroevolution.
Dissemination of the gene allowing human adults to digest milk is an example of microevolution.
Just One More Canuck
@Anoniminous: I prefer the term “fucking idiot”
The Moar You Know
The California AG was getting interviewed by the supposedly non-partisan morning news guy in L.A. re: prop 8 this AM. He’s a not very closeted wingnut, and was all pissed off that she wasn’t “representing the will of the voters”.
She beat the shit out of him with the ““I believe in the Constitution” line. This interviewer is good, he usually gets most everyone to choking or backpedaling, but not Kamala Harris! She had that bit of wingnut poetry lined up and ready to go, and he went for it right out of the gate. He was left almost speechless, was definitely stuttering, I’ve never heard him get so worked by anyone before. She was nothing but “constitution, constitution, constitution” to every attempt he made to get her to admit “wrongdoing”. He finally broke with the “we’re going to have to leave it there” admission of abject failure. A thing of beauty.
Using their own language against them works. Oh, it doesn’t change their minds, but it does at least shut them the fuck up.
Southern Beale
Because we love baybeeez, silly!
Southern Beale
@The Moar You Know:
Dang wish there was a YouTube clip of that!
Anoniminous
@Just One More Canuck:
In fairness I have to state, from personal observation, these people may be an example of microevolution: I’ve noticed the spread of the Virulent Stupidity gene across the Southeast and Midwest US, and is also observed in pockets in the other regions as well.
My request for funding to scientifically study the phenomena was turned down by the NIH.
schrodinger's cat
@Anoniminous: Thanks for the explanation!
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Like I said, I think it is a mental dodge so that they can take (and pass) science courses but still claim to be good fundies.
lojasmo
@Amir Khalid:
I was wondering if it kindasorta pied itself.
Strangely, this chant makes exactly as much sense as what it usually scribbles here.
sb
@The Moar You Know: LA guy here. Who was the host? I ask because I do love when those clowns get their asses handed to them.
JustMe
Being in the medical fields means you have to deal with lots of federal regulations and rules, which can be frustrating and easy to demagogue
Also combined with a sense of entitlement that is something along the lines of, “how DARE I have to answer to anyone or follow their rules?” It’s especially bad in surgery which operates by an even stricter social hierarchy than the rest of medicine. Once they’ve made it to “the top”, they believe no one else should have any reason to question them or demand they follow any other outside rules.
Matt McIrvin
I think the currently fashionable reason is “because carrying a gun is the only way to prevent rape.”
Ben Cisco
@Anoniminous:
Paulites, Palinistas…
Bill Arnold
@schrodinger’s cat:
(1) Many doctors are still small independent business people and see (and are irritated by) the rules and bureaucracy (both government and private) every day. Many of those who are in medical groups (or similar arrangement) were essentially forced because their private practices were not viable, or were less viable than joining a medical group. (This is from several doctors I know socially, not from any broad study.)
(2) They went into medicine in part to do well financially.
(3) Some doctors are in the 1% or aspire to be.
Anne Laurie
@Seanly:
Baboons are cheaper and breed faster. Xenographic transplants were going to be the ‘solution’ to heart disease, so its pioneers expected to need enormous breeding facilities to keep up with demand.
Self-Righteous Little White Guy
@lojasmo: The child he keeps chained in the basement must have gained access to the computer.
Just One More Canuck
@Anoniminous: have you considered the possibilty that they may be an example of reverse evolution? That may explain a lot
Omnes Omnibus
@Just One More Canuck: Oh Dad, We’re all Devo.