Lanny-yap: Salon | "Frat-Boy" Conservatism

18 June 2012

Salon | "Frat-Boy" Conservatism

Daily Caller reporter Neal Munro interrupts President Obama as Obama speaks

about immigration at the White House on Friday 15 June.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

Joan Walsh writes:

... I’m not one to revere the imperial presidency, but it’s unbelievable how wingnuts treat [President Obama] with such unprecedented and bullying disrespect: from Rep. Joe Wilson screaming “You lie” during Obama’s 2009 speech to a joint session of Congress, to Speaker John Boehner denying him his choice of dates for another congressional address (for the first time in history) last fall, to Donald Trump’s persistent, humiliating demands for the president to show him his papers (with no rebuke from ally Mitt Romney). And for right-wingers who insist Democrats are too quick to cry racism: Really, what else explains this constant, in-your-face (literally) contempt for a president?

... Conservatism has always been associated with deference to authority, but lately it’s only for authority they respect. The Romney campaign has been glorying in this new form of frat-boy conservatism, first sending campaign supporters to heckle Obama adviser David Axelrod during a press conference, and yesterday sending its bus to circle and disrupt an Obama event, honking its horn. It reminds me of the famous “Brooks Brothers riots” in Miami during December 2000, when supporters of George W. Bush threatened to physically prevent county officials from recounting votes in that heavily Democratic stronghold. Of course, it also harks back to Romney himself in prep school, tackling a gay classmate and cutting off his long blond hair while he cried and asked for help.

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18 June 2012

Salon | "Frat-Boy" Conservatism

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