alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

July 25, 2006

Who Or What Is Cliff May?

by AltHippo @ 1:24 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

You may have seen this post from ThinkProgress on Cliff May’s response to K-Lo at the NRO Corner blog:

On Friday, the National Review’s Katherine Jean Lopez wrote a rather innocuous review of the new Oliver Stone movie, World Trade Center. Lopez wrote the movie was “about why we fight.”

Someone emailed Lopez, objecting to the line “it’s about why we fight,” and noting that “you do not fight - you never have and, hopefully, never will have to. You are not a member of any of the branches of the armed forces, nor a reservist.” Lopez was fairly contrite, responding, “To anyone reading from Iraq, Afghanistan, or otherwise serve in our military, let me clarify: I don’t fight. Thank you for serving so we may go about our days of blogging.”

But Cliff May, another National Review blogger and prominent right-wing pundit, objected. May insisted that Lopez, by blogging for the National Review was “fighting a war” and this war was “equally consequential” with the wars that are fought by the U.S. military.

Cliff May concludes, or if you prefer, finishes oozing:

So yes, Kathryn, you are fighting a war. And your e-mailer is ignorant about how wars are fought, about how wars are won and lost, and about the way the world actually works.

A war for what, or against who? And just how, in Mr. May’s opinion, does the world actually work?

It’s interesting to note that May is a product of all the usual east coast institutions that Republicans usually belittle: Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia University (journalism and public affairs), and the New York Times where he was a foreign correspondent.

After leaving his job as communications director for the RNC, May joined the ranks of what some call “wingnut welfare,” a series of think-tanks and NGO’s where folks sit around and talk about eliminating world poverty by eliminating the world poor.

This is the kind of war that May is talking about. A war of ideas, whose basic goal is to a.) advance Republican and particularly neo-conservative agendas, and b.) keep folks like him from being in an actual war. Indeed, the whole idea is to preserve and even strengthen a rigid class-oriented society in which the warrior class does the fighting, while the political intelligentsia, i.e., folks like May, cash the checks.

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2 Responses to “Who Or What Is Cliff May?”

  1. eRobin Says:
    July 25th, 2006 at 3:35 pm

    Pick up the checks? Do you mean cash the checks?

  2. AltHippo Says:
    July 25th, 2006 at 3:51 pm

    Oops, yes, I meant cash. I don’t think May is planning to pick up the check for the war in Iraq.

    Now it’s fixed.

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