Intolerance and the GOP (and Open Thread)

 

"Eyeoneye" - Andrew Bird

A rather cool performance I thought.

On the road, writing from Tulsa, OK, which I am in the process of not really seeing.  One of those trips where you are in a place that is not conducive to walking anywhere, which I find tends to keep me stuck in the hotel -- not really my favorite way to travel.

I really liked this piece by Tim Noah on Richard Grenell's resignation from the Romney campaign.  Grenell, a vehement (and rather obnoxious) neocon and right wing true believer, is also an openly gay man who unabashedly supports gay marriage.  This had not stopped him from attaining a significant degree of success in right wing foreign policy circles -- he was John Bolton's spokesperson -- until now.   Although it is not completely clear what led Grenell to quit before he began as Romney's foreign policy spokesperson, it seems as though the most likely reason was the objections of members of the evangelical right to his appointment.  Although closeted gay men have long been part of the right wing power structure, it seems apparent that at this point in history -- one where acceptance of gays in the U.S. is a pretty mainstream sentiment -- those who run the Republican Party dare not openly accept them.  As Tim puts it:

Not to put too fine a point on it, if you are gay you'd have to be out of your mind to support today's Republican party. And if you believe in tolerance, or the necessary role of government in helping others, or the existence of global warming, or Darwin's theory of natural selection, or just about any notion of equality, you'd have to be out of your mind to vote for the GOP's presidential candidate, even though Romney likely believes in all these things (except maybe equality). The GOP will eventually learn to embrace these values, but that won't change until after Romney loses in November, as I think he will do, and it may take a few more big losses after that.

I think that a Romney loss, coupled with something like a fifty-fifty congressional result, is not going to prompt any soul searching in right wing circles.  I think Romney will bear the blame, largely for not being a true conservative.  I think it will require many more losses of substantial magnitude to change the minds of Republicans with respect to this and many other issues.

So what else is going on out there that's grabbing your attention?

 

Comments

[KN]

SC - I first typed WC different but interesting blog, wichersham's conscience, check it out. He's in Fairbanks.

SC - too true, anyone who thinks the rwnj are going to be banished in the near furture is seriously delusional. The 'war on Darwinism' has been going on for more than 100 years and shows no sign of let up. In a way, it is at the crux of all the things we contend over - reality versus fantasy.

For my own part though I do have some difficulty with the surreal junk that unwinds day after day. It is an unforgivable transgression of liberty to investigate the dirty dealings of hedge fund managers and investment bankers who profit from the disenfranchisement and impovrishment of millions of people, but a woman seeking to end an unwanted pregnancy has to submit to a physically violative procedure.

Can anyone imagine that the U.S. is not seriously fucked up beyond recognition?

Dial it up a notch - here we are, little humans. 50 or so kgs of organic matter flitting around, like so many billions of mosquito larvae in a small warm pond, except on a small hospitable planet, and we wake up one day to realize that in a sense we are pooping in our own nest. Well that is overly generous, it is more subtle than that, excrement is more obvious than CO2.

No one cares - we are wrapped up in a bunch of trivial issues that matter not a whit. No one will care at all about the rights of the unborn when the apocalypse of ecological chaos slowly and inexhorably envelopes humanity.

Yes, I know the evangelicals all hope for this to come to pass because they "believe" that it is their passage into eternal bliss. That kind of thinking is well, frankly, insane. As is the offering of nearly 1,000 bills in legislatures at all levels focused on mandating health care decisions for them thar wimen.

I think these people are so divorced from reality that they would not know even how to hold a fiddle whilst the conflagration consumed them.

There is another irony here. We are at this writing, a space fairing people, we have sent two messengers to the stars, and each day sees new insights to the vast universe in which we are an infinitely small speck. We are at the doorway to that vast experience. Yet there are a number of people who want to deny us that opportunity.

Who are the true perverts in this debate?

[oddjob]

"...What do Republicans call an openly gay man who has worked ferociously for their party for two decades, who called non-Gingrichites "squishes", who was a spokesman for John Bolton, whose school was a Christian college in Missouri, whose parents were Christian missionaries, and is and was, by all accounts, a true believer in conservative principles (which, in a sane GOP, would include marriage rights for gays)?

A faggot."

- Andrew Sullivan

[low-tech cyclist]

It's hard for me to give much credence to Andrew Sullivan when one week, he criticizes the expression "War on Women" as being an example of liberal screechiness and hackitude, and the next week, he's up in arms about, in his words, "The GOP's War On Gays."

Seems every time I start thinking he might be worth paying attention to, he manages to confirm my original impression that he's not worth bothering with.

[kathy a.]

grennell does not strike me as a tolerant person. consider his recent ugly remarks about women. i suppose he had been afforded access to inner circles because he meets most of the criteria -- comfortable white male, hateful rhetoric toward others -- and he assumed that his personal life would be overlooked. (cf., newt's demonstrations of family values; etc.) members of inner circles get passes; it's only those others who need to be controlled.

not sure what romney was thinking by making him a part of the team (knowing what enrages the base), but perhaps one thought was that the GOP could claim diversity and a big tent -- along the lines of trotting out token women and minority members.

what l-tc said about sullivan and his clunking refusal to understand that there really is a war on women, and the women (and men) who see it that way are not just hysterically over-reacting. (he claims he understands that, just doesn't like the "war on" language. short attention span, i guess.)

[oddjob]

...and the next week, he's up in arms about, in his words, "The GOP's War On Gays."

...My critics are right. It was a lazy headline and I should have tried for a better one....

[nancy]

This latest fit from Andrew has earned him three entries in a row wearing his "Waiting for Reagan" beanie and costume at Professor Driftglass's place. "Stupid Shit Andrew Sullivan Says, Ctd." Must be a record. Ouch.

KN -- Wickersham's Conscience is on my blog list too. Love it when he goes bird-spotting with his camera in tow.

[paula b]

KN -- How do you get up in the morning? You left me by the side of the road, bleeding.

[nancy]

Virginia doesn't love Eric Cantor. Somersaults anyone? One should pay for one's antics and a more deserving candidate I can't imagine. Man-child-and-all-around hot shot. "I want what I want when I want it" --yearbook senior line and eternal early-earned blot.

My wish is that Cantor's miserable standing might cause his surrogate and photo-op pal, my Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (see Meet the Press -- isn't that an ironic assertion now -- from last Sun. a.m.) a permanent stain and some big trouble. How the embarrassing light weight narrative has been rewritten about this woman, 'rising star of the party' and VP mention eludes me. Anything possible in the GOP 'women mouthpiece mics', I gather.

[KN]

Nancy - Yes he is an avid birder and a very good photographer. For some reason (probably my ancient laptop) I can't comment on his blog but would like to at times.

paula b - we have a little thing here called siesta. I don't always indulge in it but the equipe' does so if I am in the field I usually have to find something for my self to do while everyone else sleeps off their lunch. When I am in the office (which is pretty much all the time now) I may have a lie down for an hour or so in the afternoon when it is the hottest. So I get about 5-6 hours of sleep a night and that is usually enough.

Sullivan is an accolite of the "cognitive dissonance" school of philosophy.

AGW, however is real.

I do not mean that there is no war on women, there is, but there shouldn't be. Major problems confront us, bickering over delusional ideological trivia is absolutely counter productive.

I don't quite grasp how the subject became Andy Sullivan. Oh well, perhaps I got up too early.

[KN]

Here is a link that is the root of a saga of how elections will be run in the future. This was just a test.

http://www.themudflats.net/2012/04/04/municipal-election-2012/

That is the start, you have to follow up to get the whole picture.

[oddjob]

Virginia doesn't love Eric Cantor.

Hopefully his district feels that way, and strongly enough to vote him out.

[Paula B]

Good news about my (fake) best friend Eric! Maybe he can find a job as a CPA somewhere, but I don't know, the economy being what it is.

And KN, you took me too literally. I was reacting poetically, but obviously not doing it well enough to be understood. Your comments on this thread may be the most eloquent, clear-eyed reduction of the human condition you've ever offered on this blog, but they tore me to shreds, emotionally. I certainly agree that we've spend our wad, poetically and literally, in the West, but have to believe that life matters, at least to the living and those who will keep on living after us. I see my life stretched out in both directions, before and after, through generations which gives me some kind reason to play out my hand. Otherwise, if I felt overwhelmed by what everyone around me was doing, I might want to scoop up my cards and go home.

BTW, for the NiPpeRs out there, I "spoke" to David Rector yesterday by way of Roz, and he's making amazing -- but slow and steady -- progress.

[beckya57]

Like kathy I have no use for Grenell personally; anybody who's worked for John Bolton is either a nutcase or a creep in my book, and I gather he's a misogynist to boot.

That said, here's what I find so striking about this saga. We keep hearing about how Romney, now that he has the nomination sewn up, needs to "pivot to the center" and away from the right-wing yahoos. This situation seems to have provided Romney with a perfect opportunity to do just that--a true "Sister Soujilah" moment. He could have made a speech about how in meritocratic America (in which he professes to believe) it's the quality of your work that matters, not your private life. (Of course people like us don't consider the kind of work that people like Grenell have done to be "quality," but the neoconservatives in the GOP sure do). This was a moment in which he could have (metaphorically)said to the center, "I'm not a captive of those weirdos who are obsessed with the sexytime (apologies to Charles Pierce here) that you properly think are strange. Now let's talk about important stuff, like how I know how to be a job-creator and that Kenyan Socialist doesn't have a clue." And he totally blew it. I don't get it; I would never expect Romney to stand on principle on anything (other than the principle that he should be President), but this doesn't make sense politically either. The Christian Right is going to either vote for him or stay home; they loathe Obama with a passionate white-hot hatred. It's the swing voters he needs to woo, and I don't see how pushing Grenell out helps him with them at all.

[oddjob]

It demonstrates well how weak a candidate Romney is. Shrub could've done something like this because he was regarded as a member of the tribe.

Romney isn't and he doesn't know how to walk that tightrope.

[Sir Charles]

Hey guys!

Released from meeting hell to airport boredom time. Jesus, the Tulsa airport is like a freaking morgue. And I have hours to kill. I suppose I should try to post something.

I would love to see Eric Cantor get his ass kicked. I can't imagine too many more enjoyable outcomes to the election. One of my union clients resides in his district and just loathes him with a passion. We will certainly be pulling out all of the stops to try to take him down in November.

Romney has and will continue to have many moments where he could plausibly stand up for decency or sanity against the extremist wing of his party -- I am not holding my breath.

[oddjob]

Looks like Sen. Lugar (R-IN) is going to get primaried by a Tea Party acolyte.

[janinsanfran]

FWIW, what I took away from reading the book by Boston Globe reporters The Real Romney was that the salient adjective was not "meritocratic" but "patrician." That has seldom played well in US politics (except FDR).

[KN]

Just checked back briefly, will comment further later when there is more time.

#1 make no mistake, Rmoney is a religious nut and the question is whether he is more loyal to his lifelong subscription to the mandate of his religious nuttery or to the constitution. I know on which I would bet.

I get the initial impression this election is going to be a blood bath. The thugs are pulling out all the stops to try to derail their inevitable demise. They might succeed, they sure have a pile of advantages.

paula b - life indeed does matter. I have no particular investment in it though beyond my own slightly over abundant flesh. I'll try to say more about this later, for now we are about to gather to drive the stake into the heart of the Juruena project and be done with it. One way or another. Should be fun. I hope I will not be burnt in effigy, or literally for that matter.

[kathy a.]

FDR was probably the strongest politician ever for the little guy, for the many. he and eleanor may have had their problems, but she was as incredible and awesome as he -- and she was fearless; she went places he couldn't, on his behalf. that could not have been even remotely possible in that time, to someone without considerable clout. we all can bear in mind to use our superpowers only for the good.

in a related note, the edge of the american west, a wonderful mostly history-oriented blog, has relocated to the link. they don't seem to have the tags up and running at the new place, but one of the classic tags is "FDR pwns everyone infinity no backsies." so, gotta love them.

[KN]

another eaten comment.

Here's a link to the election fraud in AK -

http://www.themudflats.net/2012/05/04/election-commissioner-and-poll-worker-clash-at-assembly-meeting-thats-a-lie/

to work backwards from.

I think we should all take note of this and more importantly demand that the DOJ and FEC freeze things as they now are to prevent the ballots from being destroyed in 30 days and then investigate everyone involved.

This is a travesty and if allowed to skate sets a very low bar for the kind of chicanery that will occur in November. Do we want the reigns of government to be held in the hands of a minority of utterly unscrupulous opportunists?

[KN]

Sorry the link broke for some reason, here's another try:

http://www.themudflats.net/2012/05/04/election-commissioner-and-poll-worker-clash-at-assembly-meeting-thats-a-lie/

[nancy]

Janinsanfran and KN -- I suspect that an awful lot of people don't understand that Romney's wealth combined with his Mormonism yield a version of "patrician" they've not encountered before. I think he represents what he and the GOP think is an overdue and welcome return to patriarchy in this country. Which of course not only won't happen, but would be a disaster, should these people get their wish.

I know a bit about this first hand. (Husband had the pleasure of paying for two wedding receptions for Mormon weddings to which he was neither welcome nor invited). Church patriarchy and exclusiveness, us and them, not 'family' as we are used to understanding it, per se, are the 'solid citizen' Mormon businessman bottom lines and reading of the world. Mitt's worldview. People had better wise up to that.

Mitt thinks its his turn. And that he's earned it, for some reason. Noblesse oblige it's not.

[Crissa]

http://www.bentalaska.com/ had the best review of what happened, so far.

Something that was polling 58% getting 42% is annoying, but not out of field... But running out of ballots when you have 30% turnout when 40% is normal? That's a WTF moment.

[kathy a.]

in case anyone was wondering: romney is no FDR. not remotely.

nancy -- good points.

[oddjob]

Romney was not a religious nut as governor of Massachusetts, nor was he a religious nut when he campaigned against Ted Kennedy in '94 for the Senate.

Don't pay overmuch attention to his Mormonism. He doesn't except when it suits him.

Whatever he thinks he needs to be to win the next election - that's what he tries to be.

He doesn't have any convictions beyond trying to win the next election (even as he simultaneously is an awful campaigner).

[beckya57]

oddjob, I think he does have convictions--about selling the country to the highest bidder. That's basically what he did at Bain.

[oddjob]

But it wasn't what he did as governor. As governor mostly he tried to find a way to get along - until the state supreme court gave him an opening to run for president by loudly opposing their ruling that gay residents of Massachusetts had a right to marry their loved ones.

[oddjob]

Candidate Romney's Medicaid plans probably imperil Governor Romney's "Romneycare":

A proposal by Mitt Romney to curtail Medicaid spending would dramatically undercut the way the Massachusetts health care overhaul law has achieved near universal coverage.

...

“It would have been impossible for Massachusetts to do what it did without increased federal Medicaid support,’’ said John McDonough, a major architect of the state’s health care overhaul law and now director of Harvard University’s Center for Public Health Leadership....

[nancy]

Oddjob -- It's not religion I see at work with Romney, but a particular form of Mormon culture which reveres success and achievement and is comfortable measuring those strictly materially. His expedience is second nature and he obviously doesn't think that's a problem -- which is why most people find him so extremely, or rather, "severely" weird. He'll say anything now, but should he succeed, ever, perish the thought, I think he'd be quite imperious and autocratic.

My extended family can't wait for his inauguration and they think he's a shoe-in. All they need to know is that he's a hugely wealthy former CEO . The Mormon family divide has caused a lot of tension over the years, but mostly we have quietly avoided political discussions. Not so easy this time around as they are all giddy for Mitt.

I think that a Romney loss, coupled with something like a fifty-fifty congressional result, is not going to prompt any soul searching in right wing circles. Agreed. Except at the state and local level where the ideological purity tests can be dispensed with in the future. That would be a good start.

[oddjob]

Thanks for the insight into the culture (a culture I've always avoided any opportunity to experience closely).

Except at the state and local level where the ideological purity tests can be dispensed with in the future.

From what I gather that may happen in Pennsylvania. Apparently wingnut Governor Coburn's popularity has suffered, particularly among women, thanks to his aggressively anti-higher education state budgets and his offhand remark about how the women forced to get ultrasounds before abortions thanks to a law he endorsed & signed into effect merely need to "close their eyes".

He really did say almost exactly that.

Who knew the women of Pennsylvania were so extremist and partisan?

(Eyeroll.......)

[oddjob]

Oh, and as to Romney's success: given that it came via running a successful chop shop?

I'll pass thanks.

[beckya57]

My sympathies, nancy, that must be pretty difficult. I have only one wingnut relative (my sister), and that's hard enough.

[KN]

will this work?

[KN]

well it did, but it ate my earlier post which was about 30 minutes worth of diatribe. one wonders.

In any event, I ranted mostly about the election fraud issue, all of you out there should look into it, it is a serious problem. If it is not obvious from their propensity to lie about anything, it should be obvious from the 2000 and 2004 elections that republicans have no reluctance to cheat if they think they can get away with it, and all that takes is a few key people in key positions.

The other thing I talkaed about was the fact that being distracted from real problems by the storm of bullpuckey coming from the right is not only obstruction but destruction.

I'll leave it that and y'all can try to guess what I might have said.

[Paula B]

Just posted this on Esquire.com re: Romney, after reading the WashPost story about his "pranks"

Perhaps the most prophetic paragraph of the Washington Post story is this one:
Between the seventh and eighth grades, the faculty selected a dozen or so students to enter an advanced-placement program. Romney at first was not among the chosen, and he objected. “He went into the headmaster and convinced him that ‘I should be in this,’ ” John French, who had been friends with Romney since they served together as Cub Scouts, recalled Romney telling him. “He had gumption. He had his sights on what he wanted to achieve.”

Ah yes, he had his sights on what he wanted to achieve. Shortly before high school graduation, he would lead an attack on a fellow student, slam doors in jest on faculty faces and pretend to put his aunt in a straight jacket at an airport, all part of a pattern of practical jokes or seriously inappropriate behavior. Your choice.

According to what I've been able to find of his bio, within a year after the hair-chopping event, Romney was in a foreign country telling people how to live. Two years into that adventure, he was behind the wheel in a serious auto accident, one that left him injured and a friend, dead. Romney was not charged, but credited the accident with forcing him to take life more seriously. Within months after the accident, he married his high school sweetheart.

I guess it's possible for someone to go from viciously attacking one classmate to having the maturity to marry another in less than four years. But, I don't buy his claim that these were simply juvenile pranks. How could Stanford accept such an immature 18 year old, when his peers were out putting their lives on the line for civil rights? Why would the LDS send a 19 year old with the judgment of a 10 year old, to represent them in France? Of course, I can answer both of those questions with one of two possible scenarios. One involves money and the other, his sights on what he wanted to achieve.

There you go.

[nancy]

Paula -- Why would the LDS send a 19 year old with the judgment of a 10 year old, to represent them in France? Because he's of 'more Mormon than thou' heritage. The Church elders were going to place him prominently.

The bullying pattern is even worse than we might have expected, but it doesn't really surprise anyone, does it? By 18, one's character is in place in my opinion. Maybe as a female I tend to view cruel adolescent behaviors more harshly -- seems to me though that some people are capable of carrying out something like this and others simply aren't. The hair-cutting incident was assault, pure and simple. Not alcohol-fueled either, obviously. Here's the report from the Post.

[oddjob]

Neither of these is a long read.

Read this, and then read this.

After reading the two, what do you make of them together?

[oddjob]

(Do note that the second link is to a column written last Jan., and by a liberal columnist, a former reporter for the Boston Globe and nephew of former columnist Mary McGrory.)

[Joe S]

nancy, I don't think one's character is in place by age 18. Lots of people change and grow. Some people are the same jerks they were in high school, but I don't think that applies to everyone.

[nancy]

Obbjob -- Having read those entries, I would add page 3 and beyond of this 6 pager in Vanity Fair from last February. All of these taken together seem a disturbing and consistent pattern.

Pierce describes him as "Nixon, without the awesomeness." Forgetting occasions when another person has been seriously fearful and visibly distressed due to threatening behaviors which one has initiated -- that screams either sociopath or entitled sadist to me. "I don't recall" or "that just didn't register as anything worth remembering."

Damage control when no one likes him? G'luck. Somewhere -- I can't find it -- was the report of the college student working the Olympics who felt physically threatened when Romney showed up on site in a rage, which I heard second-hand at the time from shocked SLC friends.

Maybe Becky will drop in and give us her professional assessment.

[Paula B]

Thanks, oj, for those two pieces. What do I think? I'm more confused now than I was before. It was easier when I thought he had no conscience or empathy. Your pieces showed a scared little boy hiding behind a public persona, one who trips over his own feet and doesn't know when someone is extending a hand. A guy who puts up and takes down masks faster than anyone can count.
How do you deal with someone who can't see right, wrong or anything in between? How can we trust him? How do we know what he'll do or not do?
I think Nancy's right. Dr. Becky?

[nancy]

Joe -- Well, sure, I agree. Everyone changes and grows past 18, but having watched an awful lot of young people mature into semi- and full adulthood, I just think character is pretty clear early on. There is, of course, room for the 'defining moment' as well as the ill-or-positive influence of friends, mentors, and experiences. No one I know would read the Mitt tales and conclude that he was just 'being a jerk.' Jerkdom doesn't quite describe his trail in my mind.

As I said, that's just my personal observation. And by character, I guess I mean fundamental decency and unwillingness to trade on that. And the necessity to try to honor it even when it's difficult or challenged.

[oddjob]

No one I know would read the Mitt tales and conclude that he was just 'being a jerk.'

I agree. That hair cutting incident comes across as the sort of adolescent torture we usually call bullying.

[oddjob]

More relevant background:

A high school classmate of presidential candidate Mitt Romney [now an attorney] told ABC News today that he considers a particular prank the two pulled at Michigan’s Cranbrook School to be “assault and battery” and that he witnessed Romney hold the scissors to cut the hair of a student who was being physically pinned to the ground by several others....