The Order of the Whinging Wingnut

Bill Clinton, who made the term “politics of personal destruction” famous as the GOP conducted a witch hunt in his pants, might be surprised to learn that the political tactic he described was actually co-invented by Hillary Clinton and Saul Alinsky and that it was applied exclusively to George W. Bush until very recently.

That’s the theme of this Moonie Times editorial by Andrew not-so-Breitbart (aka “Kenneth Gladney”), which surpasses even the annual spate of “war on Christmas” essays in its hilariously ill-timed assumption of the victim mantle.

First they came for Joe the Plumber

Leave it to a guy who is such a knee-jerk asshole that he once flipped off college students who were marching against human slavery, genocide and the forced conscription of children to cry over the mistreatment of such wingnut luminaries as Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber even as cretins are swarmimg health care town halls with automatic firearms and “Obama = Hitler” signs.

How stupid is the latest Breitbart piece? So stupid it inspired me to deploy my crappy Photoshop skills to strike a medal and invent a new award in its honor:

There is an extensive body of writing from both sides of the political aisle that has analyzed the extraordinary depths of hatred leveled at former President George W. Bush.

His birth into a wealthy and politically connected family is where a lot of the animus starts. His rejection of his Connecticut roots and adoption of a rugged Texan persona naturally riled his birth-constituency. His disjointed speaking style also alienated many others - especially those who covered him in the Northeastern media. Naturally, some of his initiatives were controversial. His allies say he didn’t do enough.

But all presidents make mistakes, pursue unpopular ideas, possess off-putting personality traits and don’t do enough to appeal to their core supporters. Something far more insidious was at work in the hatred of our most recent former president.

Now that Mr. Bush is quietly going about his retirement, this strain of rage - the GWB43 virus - has spread like wildfire, finding unsuspecting targets, each granting us greater perspective into what not long ago seemed like a mysterious phenomenon isolated only on our 43rd president.

It was totally “mysterious,” this animosity toward Bush. It had nothing to do with his airy dismissal of a warning of a possible terrorist attack prior to an actual attack that killed nearly 3,000 Americans. It certainly wasn’t due to his lying us into a ruinous war, driving the economy into Great Depression Part Deax as his “birth-constituency” grew richer or eating birthday cake with John McCain while an iconic American city drowned. Surely it wasn’t because Bush destroyed the country’s international credibility by using taxpayer dollars to fund a Christian supremacist mercenary outfit and by creating offshore gulags. It can’t be because he abridged Constitutional rights at home either.
 
Nope, the “extraordinary depths of hatred leveled” at Bush were purely a by-product of his assumption of an ersatz cowpoke persona, his tragic inarticulateness and his regrettable failure to be conservative enough.

It’s all in yer head

The millions in public money wasted on a right-wing witch hunt centered on Bill Clinton’s wienie? You imagined it. The wild accusations about the Clintons—that he was a serial rapist and they were both murderous drug-dealers? All in your head. Bush was the first victim of the “politics of personal destruction,” and the “mysterious phenomenon [was] isolated only on our 43rd president.“

But now the virus is spreading, and Breitbart laments the sad parade of victims who have fallen since Patient Zero Bush:

The first person to catch the virus was Sarah Palin, whose family also was infected, including, unforgivably, her children. Then it was Joe the Plumber, for asking a question. Next were the Mormons. Then it was Rush Limbaugh - who hit back. Next, tax-day “tea party” attendees were “tea bagged.” Then there was a beauty contestant. And a Cambridge cop, too. And now we have town-hall “mobs.” Smile ... you’ve been “community organized.”

The ACORN connection

ACORN must be behind the whole malicious shebang. Palin is just a virtuous hockey mom, not a demagogue who alternately uses her children as political cudgels and wails when anyone else mentions them. Not-Joe the Not-Plumber is merely an honest working man, not a self-aggrandizing camera whore prone to making ignorant statements on policies he clearly can’t begin to comprehend.

And the poor Mormons—just minding their own business and funding a massive, mostly out-of-state effort to disenfranchise the LGBT community in California and—bam!—gay meanies just shit all over them for no earthly reason. Then poor Rush. Next that defenseless, Blue Moon-swilling cop. And plucky “opposite marriage” advocate Carrie Prejean.

Wingnut rage: The teabaggenning

But saddest of all must be the Glenn Beck fans and Medicare enrollees who are against government-sponsored health care. Imagine, there you are at your local civic venue, innocently shouting down a state rep, brandishing your shiny AR-15 assault rifle and comparing the president to Hitler, and out of the blue, sneering libtards bastardize your clubby nickname to evoke an image of you with a set of testicles on your head and call your efforts to foment violence and squash discussion of an important policy issue “mob” behavior.

Oh, the humanity! A hearty “thank-you” and the inaugural Order of the Whinging Wingnut Award—100% gold-plated with a inlaid portrait of a weeping Glenn Beck immortalized in silver plating—to Andrew Breitbart for bringing the sad plight of these folks to our attention.

Posted by Betty Cracker on 08/18/09 at 08:10 AM • Permalink

Sorry, commenting is closed for this post.