You know, the fact that the Republican candidates for President have effectively made illegal immigration the central issue of their ongoing campaigns is rather charmingly démodé. It's vicious, don't get me wrong, but tarted up with sarcastic nostalgia and nostalgiac irony, it transmogrifies into dark comedy. Their debates read like Coen brothers' scripts: shockingly inarticulate people hurling themselves against injustices that seem cosmic to them, comic to us. Their back stories are insane, and also Coenesque. The slick Mormon with a barely hidden streak of sadism. The egomaniacal, satyriac, thrice-married, ex-Catholic, mobbed-up lunatic Mayor of a New York made into a glistening parody of itself. The circus-freak fat-man who loved Jesus enough to lose the weight. The absolutely monomaniacal congresscreature obsessed to the point of paranoia with the fluoridation of the American bloodline through Mexican subterfuge. The senile, exhausted, former-prisoner-of-war, Vietnam vet Senator who seems, in every instance, on the verge of tears. Ron Paul, the lone man of principles, who seems continually bemused, and then astounded, by the capacity of his partners to stuningly miss the point, and who is genuinely confused, hurt, and angry when a madman like McCain hauls off and accuses him of loving Hitler. It is the single most preposterous collection of human beings ever to share a stage in the entire history of the human race, a catalogue of human failure, the ultimate proof of the folly of our species and all its works in this world. They are not the worst people the world has ever produced, nor individually the most ridiculous, but together they achieve a surpassing silliness.
8 comments:
Cool, Ioz. I think one could find an equally scathing summary of some of Paul's loonier aspects, though. (As much as I agree that he is the only Man of Principle on the war). :)
"Ron Paul, the lone man of principles, who seems continually bemused, and then astounded, by the capacity of his partners to stuningly miss the point, and who is genuinely confused, hurt, and angry when a madman like McCain hauls off and accuses him of loving Hitler."
Well it's true, if Hitler had seen a quick and tepid intervention, say in 1936, he might have decided to take his time to build up his armies, instead of ignoring the deadlines and rushing to war. That might have allowed him to handle both fronts, he might have decided not to engage the US yet, and then get to finish his studies on missiles and maybe get the nuke.
I guess that was what McCain had in mind when he tried to second-guess an alternate future in this very complex world.
They are The Mystery Men of politics.
Prof.
why it's almost enough to make me want to register as a republican, just so i can vote in the primary.
I voted in the 2000 primary as a Republican so I could do a protest vote for McCain. Not sure who this guy is now though.
As for the General Jack D. Ripper allusion, our precious body fluids are so polluted with this campaign that flouride would be a good thing. Of course, since it prevents decay and can repair some enamel, they should pour it over these guys.
Crusader AXE of the Lost Causes has decided that he no longer cares about who the candidates are going to be. I will pay attention again in April. I can only take so much grotesque inanity. And, then there are the Republicans.
I defend the "isolationists" of the 40's here.
Very nice. I called them caricatures today. A friend read my post and sent me here to see the caricatures spelled out.
OK, I admit I laughed at "satyriac." Bravo.
Post a Comment