On Swift Boats and Manservants
In his post Adventures in Obscenities the Carpet Bagger touches on a piece of a bigger issue. While he discusses recent Republican outbursts in terms of casual (and inappropriate) use of profanity, I’d like to suggest something more to the point of the Republican style:
The more I thought about it, the more I remembered similar examples from recent years — all of them regarding elite Republicans. Dick Cheney, on the Senate floor, told one lawmaker to “go f— himself.” During the 2000 campaign, Bush told Cheney, “There’s Adam Clymer, major league asshole from the New York Times.” In 2002, Bush poked his head into a national security meeting to announce, “F— Saddam, we’re taking him out.” In 1987, Bush approach the Wall Street Journal’s Al Hunt and, in front of Hunt’s 4-year-old daughter, said, “You no-good f—ing son of a bitch, I will never f—ing forget what you wrote.”
The point of the outbursts is not that the author of the remark has lost control. No, the point is that it’s part of a bogus macho posturing. Bush, Cheney, Scalia, etc., are doing their best Tony Soprano imitation. I’m the boss, see. If you got a problem with that I may just have to rearrange your face.
There’s a good article in Arab News about how this bogus macho posturing, while part of politics since the world began, is particularly acute in the US right now:
None the less, the tendency of some US voters to dismiss Kerry, despite all his medals, as “French” — which for Americans, as for Britons, is often a euphemism for effeminate — and to be impressed by George Bush’s bluster, his wearing of a Stetson, a leather jacket and cowboy boots on his ranch, and images of him chain-sawing trees, suggests at the very least a degree of confusion about what does constitute masculinity.
This is surely one reason why the Republicans — and, indeed, some Democrats (think of Bill Clinton’s busy sexual adventurism) — have been tempted in recent times to use postures of masculinity to such a crass degree. They are not acting this way because Americans possess a strong and confident cult of the masculine virtues, but rather because many are anxiously uncertain about just what these virtues are.
These uncertainties stem in part from America’s own domestic situation. In some respects, female emancipation has progressed further there than in Europe. At present both the Republican and Democratic parties possess powerful female figures who may well come into play in 2008, in Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.
One of the reasons I bring this up is that I often hear Democratic leaders dismissed as “spineless.” And, make no mistake, there are times when that is just the right word. The lack of support among key Democrats for Feingold’s censure proposal is an example of this, imo. Often, though, I wonder if the “spineless” gauntlet is being thrown down in a pique of bread and circus. By this I mean, that the crowd wants to see a flexing of the muscles. To be sated in a display of machismo.
The other reason I bring this up is in preparation for the 2006 elections. The Republicans have squat. They have failed in their duties to preserve, protect, and defend the country. To add insult to injury they’ve taken bribes for doing squat. The only they’ve got is to throw salt in our eyes. To use the confusion of sexual identity against the electorate.
March 31st, 2006 at 1:37 pm
You’re right on Hippo. There is a huge disconnect between George W. Bush’s public immage and his equally public behavior.
I’ve been amazed at George W. Bush’s ability to get away with appearing macho. The man is the
scion of a wealthy business and political dynasty. He was a cheerleader in college. I’ve never
thought that was considered macho. What’s so macho about cutting brush? His so-called ranch does
not now have, nor has it ever, any livestock of any kind. He is certainly not out roping
bighorns. His own wife once joked about him trying to milk a horse. At least she isn’t fooled.
Using fowl language in public, in front of children no less, is inexcusable. But for some reason
Bush and Cheney’s die-hard supporters think these guys are good and decent people. I met Adam Clymer once. He was pleasant and friendly.