There are those who say that I am overdoing it about the toxicity of the Obama-as-Spock narrative. So let me explain: characterizing Democratic leaders as weird, as different, as other, is a tool that has worked well for Republicans. Remember Kerry is French, Gore is a robotic nerd, Clinton is Slick Willie. People buy that shit. And the media enjoys peddling it. It’s why we’ve had the birthering (too dumb to do damage admittedly), other weirdness about race and the exoticism of Hawaii (ditto), and now the Spock narrative.
And it’s not just with political leaders. The Nixonian strategy that has largely dominated American politics for the past 40 years involved identifying Democrats as other — black, gay, Jewish, immigrant, intellectual, vegetarian, etc. (I was going to say as “communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers” but that doesn’t make so much sense in the age of David Vitter and Larry Craig). In short, not the kind of people you run into at the Applebee’s salad bar.
This probably won’t work for much longer, because soon there will just be too many black, gay, Jewish, vegetarian, intellectual immigrants. But it is the basis of modern national American politics. And when the media starts comparing a Democratic president to an alien, we should be alarmed.
Senyordave
The bottom line is that there are many American who have no problem with voting for a dumbass like palin, becasue to be a dumbass these days is as American as apple pie.
DBrown
At least this time, the comarison is to a alien that holds many values and ideas that most real Americans feel are desirable and admired.
jeffreyw
0-4, but hey! I’m good enough, and dammit, people like me.
General Winfield Stuck
They said that about Jimmy Olsen too.:)
Seriously, you are correct. It’s how they operate like sewer trout and the media loves fishing the low waters for them. My motto, never underestimate the wingnut proclivity for message discipline. They are very good at it and relentless. They also have plenty of time now being in the political cellar, and what with no ideas on actual policy proposals, except the standard failed fare, we cannot escape the trollish inanity of it all, anytime soon./
gwangung
I think that a) many Republicans are sharp enough to be aware of this, and b) most of the mainstream media are dumb enough NOT to be aware of this.
arguingwithsignposts
@jeffreyw:
Wait, isn’t this a tag?
We are all black, gay, Jewish, vegetarian intellectuals now.
rob!
Spock would also not be a good bowler.
Oh no, somebody called Brick Oven Bill!!
beltane
Most media figures seem otherworldly to me. They are deeply unwholesome and decadent. It’s not exactly like they’re from another planet, but more like they are French aristocrats circa 1788 without the powdered wigs and beauty patches. It is painful to watch their inanity for more than a minute or two at a time.
Donald G
I seem to remember a handful of years ago that the neocon warmongers who guided us into Iraq were being referred to as “the Vulcans”. Interestingly enough, Vulcans aren’t particularly known for being warlike. Perhaps they should’ve been referred to as the Romulans, instead.
calipygian
I am exhausted by this shit. I am exhausted by the anti-intellectualism in the country. I accept the Idiocratization of America and I for one welcome our Brawndo swilling, “Ow My Balls!” watching overlords.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
I now want desperately for Sarah Palin to win in 2012 just to give the stupid fuckers that vote for her what they deserve and I am willing to suffer to see it happen.
Donald G
@rob!:
Spock (or at least the Nimoy version) was also a gawky and ungainly runner.
calipygian
@arguingwithsignposts: Its better than “We’re all Chunky Reese Witherspoon now”, that’s for sure.
jeffreyw
@arguingwithsignposts: It may be my new sig.
I almost decided to edit the 0-4 but left it wrong as a dare.
Christian
I think the other thing being missed here is that Spock isn’t as “other” as a gay black homosexual Jewish pornographer. The world is slowly coming to be run by nerds and Star Trek has much greater penetration into the national psyche now. The media elite are apparently trying to use the Spock meme as some sort of insult, but I don’t think they realize that to a large segment of the younger generation, Spock is a badass! He always knows the right answer or saves the day and utters funny lines in deadpan while doing so.
Is there really a large segment of the population who’s going to be turned off by characterizing someone as Spock? I think that segment already hates Obama and wouldn’t change their mind if he were to personally walk into their local Applebee’s and install a salad bar.
SGEW
N.B.: All of these mean “smart,” in one way or another. As in, “intelligent.”
This means something, no?
Sentient Puddle
@Donald G: Yup. However, the reference wasn’t to Star Trek, but rather the Roman god Vulcan, god of fire and metalworking. Which I guess is sort of war-like in some context. At least more so than the aliens.
One thing I want to say about Doug’s original point though…haven’t the Republicans also attempted to characterize themselves as well, only in a positive sense? Say for instance, W being a cowboy. Same thing, only a positive.
I may be sort of grasping at straws with that one, but honestly, I just don’t feel threatened by a Spock comparison, especially if Obama can own it and make it a positive. Besides, if Republicans wanted to characterize him as an “other,” there’s far more better material they could use.
Makewi
Yeah, if the bigotry isn’t overt or even existent you’ll just continue to pretend it’s there in secret code form. Your dogged determination would be admirable in some other area. In this, it’s just weak rhetoric to replace actual argument.
gwangung
@Christian: Yup.
NovShmozKaPop
This is classic Republican fare. They are accomplished schoolyard bullies and name-callers, from long practice they do know how to find the names that stick, and despite what your parents may have told you the names will actually hurt you among the brain dead.
jeffreyw
So, didn’t spock have a damn mind meld thing? Mebbe he oughta try it on Judd Gregg, thatt bastardd.
DougJ
Yeah, if the bigotry isn’t overt
Where did I call it bigotry?
Sentient Puddle
@Makewi:
Or we could, I don’t know, link to an article where it is plainly existent.
But eh, talking in code sounds like it’d be more fun.
gwangung
@Makewi:
Pretty weak, even for you.
Shawn in ShowMe
I appreciate the sentiment DougJ but they picked the wrong alien if the intent was to make Obama “the other”. Kids grow up wanting to be like Spock.
calipygian
One of the funny things is that while Dems are characterized by the press as “others”, Cons in recent years have STRIVED to become who they aren’t.
GWBush, pretend West Texas cowboy, born with a silver spoon in Greenwich, CT.
Newtie Newt, recent convert to Catholicism.
St. Zombie Reagan, literally an actor.
David Vitter, perpetual diaper clad infant.
Larry Craig, Charlie Crist, others, gay men masquerading as straight.
John Ensign, Christian masquerading as a Plato’s Retreat denizen.
John Bolton and Dick Cheney, pant wetting pussies masquerading as warriors.
The list goes on.
New Yorker
I think that the underlying reason for all the anti-Obama hysteria is that the teabagger demographic finally realized, viscerally, that this country really isn’t the white, small-town, evangelical monolith that they believed it was (with everyone not fitting that description being “un-American”).
First, the manufacturing jobs in their small town went to China or Mexico after the buyout firm in New York took over the company. Then their children left to go to college and the big city, and when they visited for the first time in 6 months, they were doubting the literal truth of the Bible. Then the local doctor became Indian, the local grocer Filipino, and even their next door neighbors became Mexican…..but as long as the President was an “ordinary guy from West Texas” and Palin was telling them that they are the “real” Americans, they could keep their belief that “America” really is just like they believe it to be.
Not anymore. The guy in the White House doesn’t look like them, and the reason he’s there is those communist, Jewish homosexual pornographers in New York and their goddamned Mexican neighbors who flipped their own state blue!
And I think this is what is underlying the hysteria of these people.
gwangung
@DougJ: Makewi’s trying to play the race card and blame it on you.
Like I said, pretty weak and clumsy.
bobbo
Spock liked hippies. Also.
SGEW
[Also, props to the post title: love that film]
smiley
The villagers resent people who are smarter than them and the republicans know it and are all too willing to reinforce and embrace it. It’s all part of the long-range right-wing strategy to turn the media in their direction while the simultaneously demonizing the media. It’s pretty brilliant really. I wonder who thought of it.
Donald G
@bobbo:
(Making vaguely egg-shaped gesture with thumbs and fingers).
“We reach.”
Well, as long as the conservatives are no longer comparing Obama to Dr Ton Sevrin and his space hippies from “The Way to Eden” (which some on the conservablogs did during the campaign), I guess Obama will cope.
D0n Camillo
I don’t even want to imagine the kind of salad tossing David Vitter and Larry Craig like to engage in.
General Winfield Stuck
@DougJ:
Makewi is on his double reverse projection tour. I think he got it from Rove. Attack your enemies strength, or something, maybe. Who knows?
Makewi
@DougJ:
Oh, my bad. When you said…
…you apparently didn’t mean to imply this was bigoted behavior.
BombIranForChrist
I am with you most of the time, Doug, but this really does work both ways. The left, of which I am a proud member, often characterized Dubya as a monkey or Hitler or etc. etc. etc. He was also characterized as a cowboy and fratboy, with the difference being that he actually pretended to be one, and was the other in his youth, but even in these cases the Left was basically demonizing little Junior there.
Makewi
@gwangung:
It’s just that you are trying very hard to pretend you don’t understand.
Pb
…or, Obama as Tuvok…
D0n Camillo
Say, wasn’t Spock’s father also an alien?
The Moar You Know
Nope. Spock is the half-human “green-blooded freak” who has supernatural powers, no feelings, and makes his human co-workers look and feel inferior and stupid. And if there is one thing my 44 years of life on this planet have taught me, it is that people really hate those who are smarter than themselves.
Might as well call him “Mubango the Twelve Inch Thick-Dicked Witch Doctor”, but this way enables you to be racist as fuck without anyone being able to challenge you on it. For the GOP, this is a total win/win narrative.
southpaw
Christian has it right. The framing doesn’t work because Spock is acknowledged in American culture as heroic (cf. the French).
Shawn in ShowMe
The Poutrage Lobby is mad at Obama because he’s too much like Spock. They convinced themselves that they had elected Klaatu.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@NovShmozKaPop:
No kidding. “Rum, Romanism and Rebellion”, anyone?
DougJ
…you apparently didn’t mean to imply this was bigoted behavior.
Actually, I didn’t, no. For example, I don’t think George W. Bush is any kind of a homophobe, but he used gay-as-other to help win Ohio in 2004. Lee Atwater had lots of black friends, but it didn’t stop him from using race to win races.
It’s a political strategy, not a sign that the strategists are themselves bigoted.
Aimai
Makewi, unless you want to argue that Nixon, who was on record and taped himself hating on Jews, blacks,and gays (I’ll spot you the vegetarians) what’s your fucking point? Of course it’s bigotry. No ones making it up– it was hardly some kind of secret.
Aimai
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
From the late, not so great Obi Wan Atwater, orb of southern strategy and racist code talking
I always love an opportunity to link this quote. It’s so……Republican.
DougJ
The left, of which I am a proud member, often characterized Dubya as a monkey or Hitler or etc. etc. etc.
Sure, though monkey a lot more than Hitler. Both sides try to do this. The Republicans try harder and more effectively, that’s all.
And the AP Science Writer never wrote a piece about George W. Bush resembled a monkey.
gwangung
@Makewi: Dear, see #35. It’s a better approach to the argument.
All Doug did was a simple content analysis of the arguments. And appeals to xenophobia have been staples of political movements for decades. That’s just not that hard to understand.
Makewi
@DougJ:
That’s some real fine parsing there. He isn’t an actual bigot, he just plays one on tv. Faking at bigotry for money and fame?
danimal
DougJ, Spock is popular. Frenchmen, vegetarians, gays and the like are notpopular in Main Street America. You’re right about the right’s malignant motives, it’s just that they are doing a real poor job of finding an effective narrative portraying Obama as the “other.”
Don’t worry, at some point one of their evil narratives will stick. They don’t have anything else, and the media elites want it. But it won’t be Spock.
gwangung
@Makewi: Atwater, dear. No parsing needed.
Donald G
@Pb:
Yeah, but only in the sense of skin-color. Tuvok was full Vulcan, while Spock was a human/Vulcan hybrid. Also, Voyager just isn’t as iconic as the classic series.
Also, in the context of the series, Vulcans do have emotions; they suppress them because – if uncontrolled – they lead to disastrous wars and strife.
Makewi
@gwangung:
No, I get the argument. I just disagree with it is all. I don’t see it as that much of a staple anymore, because it already doesn’t pay dividends. I do see some increasingly desperate to pretend it still is one.
gwangung
@Makewi:
You’re assuming competency in the people wielding it, and an awareness in why it’s being used. I’m not sure that’s a good assumption, given the level of competency in political matters these days (and particularly in the Republican party). And given that Atwater specifically articulates this as an overt political strategy (and there’s little doubt that it was effective in the past), I think it’s weak to claim that it’s use is non-existent now; there are always stupid people in politics who’ll use way past the point of diminishing returns.
Ann B. Nonymous
@Makewi:
You got it. If I were a middle-aged white man with a childlike face and a natural ability for poutrage, I would con the Republicans for everything they had using fake bigotry. And then I would yacht off to Bali, leaving the wreck of the GOP behind — which I am assuming is Palin’s strategy, except I doubt she could find Bali on a map.
BFR
Isn’t Spock a pretty popular character though?
The other ones are all pretty self-evidently negative but I don’t think Spock is.
Midnight Marauder
@gwangung:
Fixed and all that.
gwangung
@gwangung: By the way, this doesn’t even take into account that there can be legacy effects. The Atwater strategy was used in the past, building up a lexicon of dog whistles and terminology to be used in political strategies. That they can be used well past their effectiveness date would not be surprising, nor would the ties to the underlying bigotry necessarily be gone.
pk
Actually I consider being compared to Spock as a compliment. Republicans are Klingons without the honor.
Makewi
@Ann B. Nonymous:
Well you could try to work for Hillary instead, and plant the idea that Obama wasn’t a natural born citizen. Then later you can pretend that this was a Republican idea created due to racism.
But don’t forget the code words.
@gwangung:
Then again, you are far more willing to make claims that disagreement is based on racism where policy disagreement is just as likely the culprit, so weakness all around.
Jay
Applebee’s has a salad bar? When did this happen?
gwangung
@Makewi: Now THAT was a weak ass response.
Was getting worried you were getting reasonable on us.
Nellcote
It seems sort of Dan Quayle/Murphy Brown fail to try to compare the Prez. to Spock. Though I must admit I don’t see being compared to Spock as a diss.
Cain
I suppose that means President McCain is Kirk! Then we change Osama Bin Laden to “Khan” and what do you get?
KHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANN!!!
cain
Makewi
@gwangung:
Face it, the Democrats need to have the GOP as the racist boogieman even if it isn’t one. It’s what fires up your base into thinking they are taking moral action by simply voting in another carbon copy crook with a million dollar smile. The GOP has a black head of the party and ran a woman as the last VP candidate, and rather than be proud that the country has actually moved in the right direction, finally, you guys are still pretending it’s 1950. Now that’s weak.
Donald G
@danimal: DougJ, Spock is popular. Frenchmen, vegetarians, gays and the like are notpopular in Main Street America. You’re right about the right’s malignant motives, it’s just that they are doing a real poor job of finding an effective narrative portraying Obama as the “other.”
Roger Moore
@New Yorker:
Fixt.
gwangung
@Makewi: Dudette, you’re still trying to play the race card you brought out in the first place.
Nice try.
Michael Carpet
Sorry Makewi — what gets your base fired up is the fact that a black man is president. That is what all the “I want my country back!” whining and crying is about. You can bring up the Fool Steele or Condi, or Palin; but face it: the GOP base is reacting to the fact that Obama is black.
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
My, we are feisty tonight Scarlett.
@Makewi:
We hope they are the ticket in 012. Would be best vote getters for dems in. Then we could run Bugs Bunny and win in a landslide. Save Obama for later.
gwangung
@Michael Carpet: Acutally, what Makewi is saying is that if I had been repeatedly punching her in the neck every time I saw, and I kept on threatening to punch her in the neck every time I saw her, she wouldn’t take any precautions if she saw me coming her way.
She’s really a sweet, trusting sould that way.
bago
Makewi likes em blonde, boneheaded, and busty.
While we’re on the subject of “real ‘merkins” might I present to you this lovely video of Wal-Mart on Friday?
bago
@Pb: Nah. You need Obama as Turok. Then there’s no birth certificate question.
Makewi
@gwangung:
Keep ignoring the topic of this post. It helps you pretend it’s me playing the race card.
Makewi
@Michael Carpet:
And you know this because of your circular reasoning that the GOP is racist. Proof of that isn’t actually required. Evidence to the contrary is ignored or explained away in terms of conspiracy or lies.
You know it to be true, and thus, it is.
Makewi
@gwangung:
I’d ask you to explain this, but you don’t seem to really understand my argument let alone the one made by Doug.
gex
@New Yorker: Exactly. I read an article that researched the usage of the phrase “small town values” in the media. Can you guess when that took off? Shortly after the majority of the population shifted to living in urban/suburban centers.
SpotWeld
The smart response to this would be to characterize the GOP as the juvenile 5 yr-old who won’t eat dinner “because noodles are icky”.
Of course the book deal on “Obama the alien” is probably already in the works.
So, how do we get a retaliatory media narrative out there.
gex
@BombIranForChrist: Are you comparing GOP leaders to blog commenters or Dem leaders? Because I think yes, at the rube level this happens on both sides. But consider the actual tactics of the Republican party and try this false equivalence crap again.
Michael Carpet
Makewi, just look at the rich diversity of middle aged white people at the teabagger rallies, and look at their signs. Like it or not, that is your base, that is the face of the GOP. Look at the GOP conventioneers versus those at the Democratic Party convention. Please tell me with a straight face that Jesse Helms was not racist; that the Willie Horton ads didn’t play on race (and yes, I know, Dukakis’ primary opponents used him first); that the Nixonian southern strategy did not play on race; that the birthers are just seeking the truth; and on and on. What we are seeing is the sad end of a once great political party reduced to furious chattering noise.
Mike in NC
Seems to have worked quite nicely for Ralph Reed, eh?
Maybe she’ll go to the Aleutians. Alaska is a lot bigger than Bali and that map would be easier to read.
Makewi
@Michael Carpet:
It’s not the end of the GOP, not that I care. I do love it that pointing at a group of white people is considered proof that the group is racist. White=racist. Got it.
Are you currently wearing a helmet or are you still in the market for one?
Quiddity
.@calipygian:
You wrote:
But those two are married, so I think you might be mistaken.
randiego
The GOP IS tribal and racist, and I think it’s a little bit of both.
He’s a black dude with a “D” next to his name. Their base has been conditioned for 30 years that Dems are taxin’, spendin’, weak on national defense, effeminate, give your tax-dollars-to-the-Illegal-Mexis-and- Blacks, traitors.
If John Edwards or Hillary were president, the freakout would likely be just as loud, just as long, but probably with far different content.
They just hate losing. They LOST. For them, it’s the win and nothing else. Their problem is they don’t know what to do when they win, and people have noticed.
eyelessgame
The thing about Spock-as-other that resonates is that Spock was not in command. The resonant theme of STTOS was that you had Spock as the intellectual who didn’t understand emotion, McCoy as the emoticon who didn’t care for logic, and Kirk as the balancing leader who was fully human because he had both.
Spock as advisor to the leader is fine. Spock as leader is something people find scary. He’s too smart; you can’t trust him. He might decide that logic dictates that you (or your money) be sacrificed for the greater good, without concern for the “human” cost.
That is the othering sort of crap that resonates with people.
S’why they want things like “flat taxes” and “1040 form the size of an index card”, because anytime complexity is introduced people figure complexity is there to screw them over. Sometimes they’re right; often enough that it becomes a lazy way to avoid thinking about whether a given instance of complexity is good. Simple is good, even if it’s wrong.
People don’t want a president smarter than they are. That’s what’s scary.
kommrade reproductive vigor
When I lived in Indiana, there was a white supremacist group that claimed African-Americans were brought here from outer space by the Jews for the specific purpose of being mean nasty and scary to the white folks.
I’m not saying the dipshits who are spreading the Obama is an alien thing are aware of this. I’m just sayin’
Texas Dem
I agree with the previous comments that framing Obama as “Spock” just doesn’t work in political terms. Spock is an accepted part of American culture and a beloved figure in large swaths of so-called “red” America. If you guys want to worry about something, worry about the unemployment rate, Afghanistan, health care, and the deficits.
gnomedad
gnomedad
gnomedad
gnomedad
@eyelessgame:
You are exactly right, but it may not matters as I doubt many wingers are conversant enough with Trek lore to grasp this.
Exactly. To the extent that the Spock meme is a liability, this is the issue. That and the general dumbing-down of the discussion.
Phoebe
It’ll work for people who already hate him & hate smart people, but to anyone out there who doesn’t think it’s an abomination that a half-Vulcan is part of a Starfleet crew, this can only backfire.
Normal people love Spock. if anything, he makes them more comfortable with “otherness”; yes, he has pointy ears, but he’s still cool.
Ash Can
@Quiddity:
Don’t kid yourself.
Avi
In my view, comparing Obama to Spock doesn’t make Obama ‘alien.’
Spock is great and this comparison makes perfect sense! Spock is all about reason and logic – Spock represents the exact opposite of Stephen Colbert – that you can make up facts because they feel right and because you want to.
And America today is more like the Klingon empire than the Federation unfortunately.
valdemar
Re: Spock – remember, in the mirror universe he didn’t want to be captain. Too big a target. Obama may not quite have his nous, methinks.
My mother remarked, as soon as his bid started to look credible: ‘Oh, I hope they don’t shoot him.’ This was a very common sentiment in the UK, and the ‘they’ did not refer to the gays – or to Al-Qaeda for that matter.
We all know who ‘they’ are, and over here in Little Old England we can see them holding up some amazingly deranged placards on YouTube – if we want to spend our time that way.