Charles P. Pierce advising calm in the face of in this whole Christine O’Donnell thing:
O’Donnell is a creature of an age in which politics have no meaning beyond performance art. She is the Creature From The Green Room, with no apparent public career beyond being available whenever some teenage booker from the cable shows needed someone to say something reliably stupid. She is one of those people who’d show up at CNN with a waterbowl in her teeth if someone there blew a dog whistle.
She is what politics produces when you divorce politics from government. She is what you get when you sell to the country that nothing government can do will help, and that the government is an alien thing, and that politics is nothing more than the active public display of impotent grievance.
The whole thing is good, and reminds us that most of the power of these nutbags lies in us talking about them, and pretending they matter. Even if this loon actually ends up becoming a (gasp) U.S. Senator, does anyone seriously think she’ll have any power? No. She’ll spend her whole term saying crazy things on TV while doing absolutely nothing for the people of Delaware (if that’s even a real place) and then she’ll disappear.
Thanks President Reagan. The biggest thing about the Reagan legacy that has stuck is this belief that govt = bad, bad bad. It caught on with Liberals and Conservatives born post 1940 in a really scary way and we’ve been seeing the effects for about 30 years now.
The thing is Reagan the man didn’t believe any of it–he lived through the Depression, WWII, etc and knew that quite often government IS the answer and his actions were actually quite moderate compared to what the Right Wing claims his legacy is today.
But the brilliant actor’s message: government is the problem, folksy simplistic solutions are best, etc resonated and stuck.
Disappear the way Sarah Palin did? Fuck.
Funny you should bring up Reagan because they considered him an unlikely too before he got elected. But yeah, I hope the “impure sexual virgin” lady disappears once and for all.
Or get her own reality TV show. Because we live in the era of “reality” politics.
@1,
Reagan pretty much saved Social Security (through a massive tax increase on the middle class). So, yeah, his mythology is just that.
Fuck you, I grew up in Delaware; of course it’s a real place. I certainly left DE as soon as I could, but I wager it’s no worse than the majority of America.
If ‘marstorr’ is even a real person…
To have a voice like this taken seriously is scary, weather or not she is elected Senator.
I think it says something really scary about our culture that people like this have any chance to win a primary of a major party, let alone actually win any elective office anywhere!
The culture war rages on, even more ridiculous and void of answers than ever.
What Pierce is missing is that the Senate does not operate off of performances, it operates from blocs. O’Donnell may be an idiot, but that doesn’t matter; what matters is her voting with the Rs. Nobody gives a shit what she actually says — but here’s a clue: nobody gives a shit what ANY senator has EVER said. What counts is votes, and those votes line up in two columns. O’Donnell is exactly as damaging to the US as John McCain or any of the “serious” senators.
@9 – Yes, that’s true if people like her take seats away from Democrats – changes in the balance of power definitely matter. Whether it’s this nutbag or a “serious” Republican, though, doesn’t much. What I found best about Pierce’s piece is the state of the media and politics which O’Donnell is a symptom of.
O’Donnell = Craswell. UNELECTABLE!
@9: Thank you. Absolutely ridiculous post.
We have plenty of examples of people who don’t hold office (Palin, Beck, etc.) who have done plenty to hurt the progressive cause.
@9: doesn’t Sen. Kyl’s (R-AZ) recent spate of out-of-pure-spite holds on Obama nominees show that 1 senator can do plenty of damage to government outside of their caucus & votes?
If you don’t recognize the power of a single Senator, you haven’t been paying attention for the last four years. Single Senators have successfully gummed up the archaic procedures of the upper house of Congress repeatedly. The most recent incident I could name was Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning refusing to permit the Senate to unanimously agree to take up an unemployment bill out of order.
Because one Senator can do that. He can grind the entire chamber to a halt. Now imagine six years with a handful of these fuckwit lemmings running around jamming their peckers in the gears every chance they get.
yeah how are we supposed to take you or your post seriously if in then you end you say something so incredibly snobbish, inane, stupid and elitist such as “if [Delaware is] even a real place”
Actually, no. Senator Murkowski of AK followed the same strategy (of ignoring her cray-cray Tea Party opponent Joe Miller) and lost the primary. Fnarf’s called it correctly–Teapartiers will continue to spout nonsense, but if we as liberals keep saying “oh, they’re just being SUPER DUMB and we’re always right because THEY’RE CRAZY,” then we a.) lose credibility from them, because we look like assholes, and b.) never see it coming when they suddenly win. Christine O’Donnell is just a very, very loud voice of a larger political base.