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You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute / It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it

It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it

by DougJ|  December 7, 201112:33 pm| 47 Comments

This post is in: David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute, Election 2012

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Steve M. takes young Conor apart for believing that Newt’s previous policy positions should hurt him with the the teahadists. It’s a thorough dissection, but I’d make it even simpler: both of the leading Republican contenders supported individual mandates for health insurance, yet opposition to that provision of ACA is one of the bedrock principles of teahadism.

It’s true that the real wingnuts prefer Gingrich (who has only supported things similar to ACA) to Romney (who actually enacted something similar to ACA), but I doubt that this reality-based analysis explains the preference. Teahadists want the candidate who rocks the hardest. It’s that simple. Rick Perry rocked when he talked about guns and lynching and Ben Bernanke, not so much when he took too many pain-killers before the debates. Cain rocked when he was 999 all the time, not so much when he was singing spirituals at pressers. Romney never rocks, so he’ll never appeal to the hard-core right, no matter how much he contorts his policy positions. (“Electability”, support from the establishment, and the ineptitude of the candidates who can rock may give him the nomination anyway.)

It’s just plain stupid to think that past policy positions — and maybe even current policy positions — have anything to do with any of this.

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Reader Interactions

47Comments

  1. 1.

    agrippa

    December 7, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    There is no penalty for lying.
    You can say or write anything you like and you will probably get away with it.

  2. 2.

    smintheus

    December 7, 2011 at 12:39 pm

    Wingnut neighbor is for one thing or one candidate one day, and unashamedly against the next. Consistency is irrelevant to him.

  3. 3.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    December 7, 2011 at 12:39 pm

    The first candidate that says “That boy in the White House needs to know his place” will get the nomination. They can’t use nigger – it makes them squirm to hear it in public, though they may say it in private – but “boy” works in its place.

  4. 4.

    g

    December 7, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    The top priority for Wingnuts in a candidate is to find someone who will piss liberals off.

    Why they think that’s a winning characteristic speaks volumes about their intellectual process.

  5. 5.

    azlib

    December 7, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    I am sure Bachmann is wondering right now why she is not leading the pack. What a weird primary.

  6. 6.

    Benjamin Franklin

    December 7, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    The Dark Knight (2008)

    Some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men…just want to watch the world burn.

    — Alfred Pennyworth

    Teahadists want the candidate who rocks the hardest.

    That they simultaneously don the cape of Revolution, it is not fundamental change forward, they seek. What they want is a return to the consolidation of power once fully enjoyed by the Status Quo. It’s a phony proxy revolution, like when the ayatollahs sent ‘students’ to the UK Embassy. Thats’ why they hate ‘Occupy’. Counter-intuitive revolution is their objective.

    “Power to teh Property !”

  7. 7.

    smintheus

    December 7, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): Gingrich is coming closest to the racist ideal, especially with his repeated references to Obama as ‘the food stamp president’.

  8. 8.

    artem1s

    December 7, 2011 at 12:47 pm

    Looks like The Historian is going to miss the filing deadline in Ohio.

    http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/12/report_says_newt_gingrich_migh.html

  9. 9.

    DougJ

    December 7, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    @artem1s:

    They just changed the rule so he’ll be fine.

  10. 10.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    December 7, 2011 at 12:53 pm

    Romney never rocks…

    And I believe that distinction alone qualifies Mitt to be the Pat Boone of contemporary Republican politics…

    And that would most likely make Herman his Little Richard…

  11. 11.

    MikeJ

    December 7, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    @DougJ: Did he ever get delegates for NH?

  12. 12.

    catclub

    December 7, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    Gail gray comment on Pierce’s site: “Hell, I will start believing in the FSM again if only we could get so lucky as to get Newt! against Obama next year. I would happily sacrifice all of my lovely jars of homemade marinara sauce if, with one jiggle of its noodly appendages, the FSM could make this happen

  13. 13.

    KG

    December 7, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    @g: funny, I had a similar conversation with my relatively moderate Republican family a while ago, before the GOP field took shape (when I say “relatively moderate” I mean to say, pro-choice, pro-gay rights, but quite anti-tax, anti-spending), and we were talking about who we should vote for in the primary (yes, I’m still a registered Republican because I’m too lazy to change my registration and because California has open primaries for everything but president now anyway). My sister’s contribution was “Sarah Palin, right? That’s who pisses off KG, so that’s who we should vote for.” I tried to explain that picking the person who pisses off other people isn’t the best way to win elections, but she just laughed.

  14. 14.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    December 7, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    I think you can distill the Right’s expatiation in a candidate down to just they expect the candidate’s rhetoric to match the theirs. Just the problem is it’s all emotion based sloganing now.

  15. 15.

    r€nato

    December 7, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    I would differ from Steve on one point: if Newt does get nominated and loses to Obama, I think it *does* harm the teabuggers’ credibility in the GOP. I suppose they could weasel out of the blame by saying they shouldn’t have nominated an obvious DC insider like Newt…

    OTOH if Mitt gets the nomination and loses, that ensures the GOP will double-down on the teabuggery for the next couple election cycles.

  16. 16.

    Jewish Steel

    December 7, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    Can you hear that? Listen. There. It’s my heart. It beats, Newt Newt, Newt Newt, Newt Newt…

    You know what I don’t want to hear? The MSM telling us at some point down the road, “America, it turns out Romney really was a fighter and a winner after all. I mean, look at that bruising primary campaign he survived. And see how his numbers are rising in the polls (the post convention bump)? That just tells you that America is taking a second look at this battle scarred warrior. And America likes what it sees!”

    Nor do I want to have this conversation: Government should be run efficiently. Okay. Like a business. Uhh… And who better to run an efficient businesslike government than a successful businessman? Ah, well, you see… In my mind, the matter is settled. But… Settled.

    I don’t want to hear that shit. So, instead I listen to my heart. And my heart lays it down, Newt Newt, Newt Newt, Newt Newt…

  17. 17.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 7, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    Yup, young Conor is a serious fucktard, no question. Anyone who relies on the vile pustule that is Jonah Goldberg is beyond any hope.

    The Teabagger movement is monarchist in nature. Only Rethuglicans can legitimately hold the White House. Their movement didn’t exist during the regime of the deserting coward. It was born at 8PM PST on 4 November 2008, when the election of the near sheriff was announced on the networks.

  18. 18.

    ChrisNYC

    December 7, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    I’m sure I’m not cynical enough but disagree with the conclusion that GOPers don’t get discredited.

    You know that “Americans Elect” thing? “Let’s elect people, not parties!” I saw gross Mort Zuckerman singing its praises on MSNBC. I’m convinced that thing is about allowing GOPers to run as “people” so they can avoid the horrible consequences of affiliation with the GOP — the GWB years, Iraq, fin crisis, Tea Party, Palin, Bachmann, O’Donnell, various sex scandal pols, Rush, Glenn Beck, this ludicrous primary, etc etc etc.

  19. 19.

    DougJ

    December 7, 2011 at 1:01 pm

    @MikeJ:

    I don’t know, I’ll check it out.

  20. 20.

    catclub

    December 7, 2011 at 1:02 pm

    @KG: I wonder how much Sarah palin’s stock is rising in the view of GOP voters, because she is not in the clown car.

    Sarah Palin drafted in a brokered GOP convention. A body can dream.

  21. 21.

    Benjamin Franklin

    December 7, 2011 at 1:02 pm

    The Tea Party is the proverbial Tail, wagging the Dog. The only reason they have such gravitas is the squeaky wheel syndrome. They cause a ruckus, it makes news. The GOP, unlike Obama, is anchored in the Base, and is helpless to offset teh looniness. But, I believe, the Convention will produce a massively predictable nominee. Romney’s the One.

  22. 22.

    Barry

    December 7, 2011 at 1:05 pm

    Core essence of the Tea Party is hatred of all things associated with the modern day Democratic Party.

    Newt impeached Bill Clinton over a blow job. For the Tea Party, that trumps all else

  23. 23.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 7, 2011 at 1:06 pm

    @ChrisNYC:

    You’re absolutely right. “Americans Elect” is a bunch of old line Rethugs running away from the teatards and from the deserting coward they backed and who turned out to be a guy who gives James Buchanan nightmares about being replaced as worst.president.ever.

    Zuckerman is precisely the sort whose head should be displayed on a pike in Times Square, as a warning to others.

  24. 24.

    jacy

    December 7, 2011 at 1:07 pm

    Hell, if Republicans cared a whit about policy, they’d all become Democrats. Republicans are now the party of “LA LA LA, I CAN’T HEAR YOU.”

    And young Conor is a doofus. Also. Too.

  25. 25.

    MikeJ

    December 7, 2011 at 1:08 pm

    @Barry: Now, now. Newt didn’t impeach Clinton over a blow job, He impeached Clinton because he had to ride in the back of the plane.

  26. 26.

    Legalize

    December 7, 2011 at 1:08 pm

    They want the sizzle. They don’t give a fuck if the steak is really cat food. Literally.

  27. 27.

    serge

    December 7, 2011 at 1:09 pm

    I’ll miss Herb Cain and his “nine, nine, nine.” Never knew what he was talking about because I was apparently talking apples to apples. I should have been talking to an apparition that only I could see.

    Bring on the Newt. The asshole is dead, long live the asshole!

  28. 28.

    gnomedad

    December 7, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    We! Are! The 27 Percent!

  29. 29.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 7, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    @Legalize:

    Yup, they’re that fucking stupid.

    Idiots.

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 7, 2011 at 1:15 pm

    I’m sure I’m not cynical enough but disagree with the conclusion that GOPers don’t get discredited.

    it might be overstating it to say they never do, but look at John McCain– the media still treats the Man Who Picked Palin as an elder statesman, especially when it comes to war. even Gingrich still gets favorable press about being an “idea man”. Americans Elect is just a front for Republicans who don’t like all the grubby religiosity of the Republican base, find the Tea Party socially embarrassing, and know that their real agenda, gutting Social Security and Medicare in order to preserve a 15% capital gains tax rate, would lose them those power-scooter and oxygen tank libertarians. In their hearts, they just want to let Romney be Romney, or Bayh be Bayh.

  31. 31.

    jomo

    December 7, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    Absolutely agree. They are voting for the person that will justify their Obama hate loudest and most effectively – period. But I think in a low information electorate – it does somewhat cut both ways (though far from the same degree). How else does one explain people so disappointed with Hilary not getting the nomination that they would vote Republican?

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    December 7, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    @r€nato:

    I suppose they could weasel out of the blame by saying they shouldn’t have nominated an obvious DC insider like Newt…

    Any failure will be blamed on the party elite denying the Teahadists their preferred candidate. After all, most of the people lining up behind Newt now were previously supporters of Palin, Trump, Bachmann, Perry, and/or Cain. The Teahadists just have to pretend their favored candidate- who obviously would have wiped the floor with the Kenyan in Chief- was forced out by nefarious backroom dealing rather than manifest incompetence. Teahadism can never fail, only be derailed by party insiders.

  33. 33.

    Culture of Truth

    December 7, 2011 at 1:20 pm

    The first candidate that says “That boy in the White House needs to know his place” will get the nomination. They can’t use nigger – it makes them squirm to hear it in public, though they may say it in private – but “boy” works in its place.

    Reince Priebus was on Meet The Press this Sunday saying people are tired of Obama going around giving speeches and “prepared remarks” and being surrounded by “pageanty.”

    You know, acting like he’s so special – I mean who does he think he is anyway.

  34. 34.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 7, 2011 at 1:20 pm

    @gnomedad:

    The stupid. It burns!

  35. 35.

    bemused

    December 7, 2011 at 1:20 pm

    @gnomedad:

    Wow. OMG.

  36. 36.

    wasabi gasp

    December 7, 2011 at 1:20 pm

    Romney always appears anxious, like he’s gotta run to the kitchen and flip his flapjacks before they burn.

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 7, 2011 at 1:24 pm

    @gnomedad: Jeebus. I’m a card-carrying elitist, I made the card myself, but even I’m astounded that FoxNews would put poor Victoria Jackson on TV. She makes the googly-eyed crazies of the Clenis-era Geraldo show look like a Kennedy School panel on redistricting.

  38. 38.

    Maus

    December 7, 2011 at 1:26 pm

    @gnomedad:

    Miller, who remembered her for her “Gams”

    *RETCH*

    @36:

    even I’m astounded that FoxNews would put poor Victoria Jackson on TV

    This is like everyone who’s surprised at Sully’s new “shocking” bout of stupidity.

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 7, 2011 at 1:34 pm

    @Maus: I don’t watch Fox, and until fairly recently–when the Stanford grad on their Morning Zoo show pretended she had to look up the words “czars” and was shocked to learn it meant “kings”!– I underestimated their sheer contempt for their own audience. Trotting this poor woman out to babble her talking points borders on exploitation.

  40. 40.

    Tom Hilton

    December 7, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    You can flip-flop all you want as long as you project absolute conviction. Gingrich does; Romney doesn’t.

  41. 41.

    FlipYrWhig

    December 7, 2011 at 1:55 pm

    The Rosetta Stone, the skeleton key, the Theory of Everything for the wingnut mentality is three words:

    Show Of Force.

  42. 42.

    Chris T.

    December 7, 2011 at 2:02 pm

    The Teahadists should run Yosemite Sam.

    Not someone playing him, the actual cartoon.

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    December 7, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):

    YOU ARE ON POINT

  44. 44.

    DFH no.6

    December 7, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    @Jewish Steel:

    I don’t want to hear that shit.

    Unfortunately, that is exactly what we are going to hear from our vaunted liberal media if Romney gets the nomination (which I still believe is most likely).

    Which is a large part of why he is Obama’s most dangerous potential opponent, and why I am – like you – rooting for Newt, now (I had been rooting for Perry, previously).

    If Willard gets the nod, he will be portrayed as just the sort of business-savvy leader we so desperately need in these trying economic times, as well as – as you put it – a “battle scarred” winner as proven by his grueling primary victory.

    That’s what the true swing voters (actual independents – not those who call themselves “independent” but always seem to vote Republican – and conservadems) will hear non-stop till November 6th.

  45. 45.

    Barry

    December 7, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    @r€nato:

    “I would differ from Steve on one point: if Newt does get nominated and loses to Obama, I think it does harm the teabuggers’ credibility in the GOP. I suppose they could weasel out of the blame by saying they shouldn’t have nominated an obvious DC insider like Newt…

    OTOH if Mitt gets the nomination and loses, that ensures the GOP will double-down on the teabuggery for the next couple election cycles.”

    They’ll repaint Newt as Just Another DC Insider, and go on from there.

    Remember, less than three months after Obama took office, they were holding massive demonstrations allegedly against what their guys were doing for years, while they were cheering them on.

  46. 46.

    Jenny

    December 7, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    It’s just plain stupid to think that past policy positions—and maybe even current policy positions—have anything to do with any of this.

    I wouldn’t act so high and mighty on this point, cuz liberals are just as guilty of the same sin.

    Remember John Edwards? His voting record in the Senate was rancid. He co-authored the invasion resolution with Joe friggin Lieberman. Yet, like Newt, everyone gave him a pass and their hard earned money because he gave them limitless amounts of red meat (including you, Doug).

  47. 47.

    Solomon Kleinsmith

    December 8, 2011 at 4:36 pm

    Your conspiracy theory obsession with these people is hilarious. I’ve seen far deeper into their organization than they’ll ever let someone like you, met some of them in person and I’ve not seen any of the demons lurking in the shadows of your hallucinations.

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