Jay Nordlinger:
Although, who’s to say what really resided in the hearts and minds of his hearers? When people such as Bush speak as he does, there is a lot of silent, submerged, sometimes afraid agreement.
Indeed:
Silent, submerged, sometimes afraid agreement.
Evolved Deep Southerner
Bush’s remarks were not as warmly received as Obama’s were — except by me.
If that writeup of Bush’s Middle East speech last year is a “warm reception,” I’d hate to see Nordlinger when he’s cold. It sounded like a disaster.
Bill E Pilgrim
They were pretty silent when the pollsters called also, that’s for sure.
I guess George W Bush’s massively high secret approval ratings are best kept between his admirers and God.
Presumably he told Bush about it.
vishnu schizt
Starbursts as he slowly sucked on his pen……
Napoleon
It is unreal how little much of the right is connected to reality.
Ted the Slacker
“Your Silence Is a Canvas For My Wildest Fantasies”
Also answers the question why the Corner does not allow comments.
TR
Jon Stewart had a clip last night of the Fox News idiots complaining that the crowd liked Obama’s speech too much.
Earl
Indeed.
Soylent Green
You nattering nabobs of negativism will never be embraced by the silent majority.
southpaw
Winner.
dmsilev
Sheesh. Back in the golden years of Usenet, the argument “the lurkers support me in email” was grounds for immediate derision. Nice to see that prominent conservative bloggers have all the debating skills of undersocialized early-90s college freshmen.
-dms
matoko_chan
I wonder…if the whole of conservative thought is simply made up of deep and profound cognitive dissonance.
ie, Bush was NOT a conservative, and we need to scrape him off our shoes before the next election…AND Bush was secretly HUGELY admired and respected but that is suppressed by the polls and the media stopband filter on the superawesome conservative memes that would sweep conservatives back into power if only someone could, like, actually articulate them.
Also, lateterm abortion IS MURDER except for the woman who deliberately and premeditatively sought out the abortion provider and paid the fee and lay down on the table has already been punished enough while the abortion doctor with “the deplorable practice” and the “blood on his hands” who performed the LEGAL abortion REALLY IS a murderer.
It hurrts my brain.
Bill E Pilgrim
It’s the same with people here and Rush Limbaugh. Oh, don’t let the words on the screen fool you. There’s a lot of secret nodding of heads going on. In secret
Da Bomb
Reading that line makes me wonder if conservatives must live in Never Never Land. Cause the stuff they blather on about never happens.
Jay C
1. Major evidence to support hypothesis discovered: link leads to National Review Online
2. Supporting evidence discovered to bolster hypothesis:
Evidence supports hypothesis, which can now be stated as fact:
Conservatives really ARE disconnected from reality.
QED
Robert Sneddon
@dmsilev:
For your delectation and delight:
http://barb.velvet.com/humor/lurkers.html
someguy
I think Nordlinger is right. People like John voted for the SOB. Bush did have a lot of support, and anybody who ever supported anything he ever did (I admit I supported a few things) is ashamed about having done so. It’s a stain on our souls that we will have to answer for. I don’t know if there’s a God as some of you seem to believe but if there is he’s going to want some fucking answers, and that won’t be pleasant at all; more immediately we have a burgeoning economic crash and a huge national security and diplomatic disaster, the consequences of which have not begun to be felt. We’re going to pay for it. He didn’t get all that power to destroy the Constitution, wreak havoc abroad and enrich his banker buddies without our consent. Don’t try to act like he somehow just materialized in the oval office, and that a broad swath of congress and the people didn’t support him.
aarrgghh
when people such as bush speak as he does, there is a lot of silent, submerged, sometimes afraid agreement …
… wait for it …
… that we all would have been better off with gore.
anonevent
When I sit in a meeting silent like that it’s because it takes all of my energy to resist jumping up and strangling my boss.
Thomas Levenson
On the photo: I’m just disappointed Remdawg couldn’t have called the pitch. My radar gun has the shoe at about 28 mph, a slider (note smooth sole), high and tight. (see Damon Runyon for the definitive take on Tight Shoes.)
The Saff
Re the photo: I was always impressed with the accuracy of both throws.
r€nato
hearer?
Isn’t the common English word for that, listener?
Comrade Dread
If you’ve lost public support, and you have no plan on how to get it back, just scream SILENT MAJORITY!!!! enough and all will be better.
LD50
FWIW, I never gave Bush my ‘support’ or ‘consent’ for a second, so I guess I’d be better off with God in that regard. But of course, I think He’s imaginary, so the whole point is moot.
jake 4 that 1
Yep, and that totally hot girl is ignoring you because she is secretly overcome with lust.
@r€nato: If we assume Nordlinger is clever … OK, OK. But anyway, there is a difference between hearing and listening. One is passive and the latter is active.
Jay in Oregon
@dmsilev:
At a guess, I’d say we figured out where those undersocialized early-90’s college freshman ended up…
JGabriel
Jay Nordlinger:
I see projection is still the norm.
.
Jim-Bob
If I ever felt “afraid agreement” when Bush spoke, it was because I was afraid that, because I agreed with him, it meant I was fucking retarded.
blondie
Holy Great Silent Majority Batman!
It all makes sense now!
Dave C
This is the equivalent of the internet debater crying, “The lurkers support me by email!”
Comrade Kevin
@r€nato:
You can “hear” something without actually paying attention, which is what “listening” requires.
He was probably thinking of himself when he wrote that.
nevrdull
..it’s almost as if words have meanings.
it’s almost as if presentation style does matter.
i guess nuance isn’t his forte.
matoko_chan
Someguy, Bush got elected on a nanowafer margin of 5 electoral votes and lost the popular vote.
He ran on culture war issues in a time of relative peace and prosperity, which is the only time a culture war candidate CAN win.
So when 9/11 went down, Bush became the tragedy we acknowledge today.
He wasn’t up to task.
He cooked up the “Bush Doctrine” which actually translated to the Epic Fail of the Manifest Destiny of Judeoxian Democracy in MENA.
He veto’d stem cell bills when he should have veto’d the prescription drug expansion and no-child-left-behind.
He was a well-intentioned evangelical bumbler that simply wasn’t bright enough to cope.
He was exactly what he was elected to be.
TenguPhule
I challenge the well intentioned part.
He was sick little sadist before he seized power and never changed a bit.
Chuck Butcher
While I am happy to welcome koolaide drinkers like John Cole to a version of actual reason I admit I still fail to understand how involved people managed to be ignorant of who and what Bush was for as long as they did. I do understand those with little time or inclination to be involved mssing it and I understand (kind of do) the tribal our side is best ignorance, but being hip deep in teh stupid and missing it…
Don’t take that as a kick at those who figured it out, it is just as I said, a lack of understanding of the process. I have an advantage of being raised in an environment of always questioning assumptions and authority and staying in that fraternity. I will say this, it took me a damn long time to learn to sober up in the face of very real evidence, until 21 years ago. I don’t get to throw rocks, I guess.
asiangrrlMN
@someguy: No. I will not take any blame for what W. did. I opposed everything he did except his initiatives in Africa (and even that was suspect because of the gag rule). I will acknowledge that my country did a lot of shitty things in my name during the last eight years, but on this particular subject, I refuse to feel any guilt. There really is only so much one person can do.
@Chuck Butcher: What he said, too. I am not throwing stones at others. I simply refuse to throw one at myself.
Postlethwaite Windschitl
Jay Nordlinger must be the most embarrassing, bizarre figure at National Review. His posts are even more jaw-droppingly stupid than those of K-Lo, and that’s saying something. The man lives in a twilight fantasy world where George W. Bush was a brilliant visionary leader and Republicans are merely the victims of the devious librul media. The man is a cipher, fanatically reciting talking points. No self-awareness whatsoever.
As a window into the alternative universe of American conservatism, Nordlinger is priceless. Every time I read one of his posts, I know that the GOP will be in the wilderness for a long, long, LONG time.