Even reasonable Tea Party activists, such as some from the recent Las Vegas event interviewed by the Sun, take it as given that Obama is a socialist. It hardly seems to matter that a significant chunk of the stimulus was a tax cut, or that his chief economist is centrist Larry Summers, or that the bailouts of the auto and banking industries began under President George W. Bush, or that Reagan favored the bailout of Chrysler in 1980, or that Reagan raised taxes to save Social Security.
Obama is a socialist, if he’s not a fascist, a Nazi, or a totalitarian.
And the second from Sully about the KOS poll, where he notes that Bruce Bartlett is concluding that if this poll is accurate, "between 20% and 50% of the party is either insane or mind-numbingly stupid." Sullivan, on the other hand, simply sees it as a reflection of this anti-modern tendency of fundamentalism.
"It has a parallel in the way in which non-violent Islamists have doubled down on medievalism as they feel an overwhelming sense of their own failure to succeed in modernity. There is a profound insecurity and dysfunction in these subcultures which cannot make the transition to modern life and thereby surrender more totally to the ancient past and to hatred of those who succeed. The hatred of Obama - a clearly decent and obviously Christian man - is not about him. It's about them. It's about their resentment of a man who has integrated his own identity and made a place for himself in a pluralist world. They cannot do that - so, like Palin, they invent a world of ancient virtues and moral absolutes that they routinely fail to live up to in reality. I mean: look at Palin's family and Obama's. Whose is the more traditional? And yet Palin is allegedly the avatar of family values - and Obama is a commie subversive."
Off to mando lessons.
3 comments:
Personally, I think it is more of a reflection that the average citizen/voter isn't all that astute when it comes to politics and is easily swayed by pundits and windbags. I am certainly not trying to give anyone a pass.
Sullivan hates fundamentalists and hates Palin to the point of near irrationality, so I thought his comments were amusing.
But can you completely dismiss his comments here? Do you not acknowledge that Palin is seen by many in the hardcore base as a "family values" maven, while the same people see Obama as some kind of unAmerican freak?
I have a constant stream of emails crossing my desk about the terrors and dangers of Pres. Obama, and often many sing the praises of former Gov. Palin.
Both amaze me at their disconnection with reality.
Steves, if you lived in a sea of fundamentalists it can be difficult to live with them, though I would never say to hate them. After all it is my business to love them.
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