The dangerous candidacy of Scott Walker
That’s not my title. It’s the title of a John Cassidy piece that appeared at The New Yorker website. I’ll briefly summarize what Cassidy is saying in his essay: Scott Walker is a bottom-dwelling POS who panders to the worst of the right.
No, that’s not a direct quote. But I’m only exaggerating a tiny bit. For example, here’s the lede:
Let’s stipulate up front that Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, is an odious politician whose ascension to the Presidency would be a disaster.
And later Cassidy writes:
In a more just world, Walker’s indecent and craven antics would disqualify him from playing any further role in the Presidential race.
So, what has Walker done to earn such disgust? “Indecent”—did he do it in the street and frighten the horses? “Craven”—did he exhibit cowardice on some important principle, or did he bow to Saudi royalty?
No, he refused to play “gotcha” with the press and pundits by answering their demand that he give an opinion on whether Obama loves America, whether Obama is a Christian, or to give his opinion on evolution. In other words, he refused to agree or disagree with some of the principles of the liberal catechism. What’s more, he—gasp!—instituted conservative policies in the state of Wisconsin in the process of “running what used to be one of America’s more progressive states.” What used to be—so sad to say goodbye to all that, and the people of Wisconsin were so very sorrowful about it that in the midst of their mourning they kept giving him votes of confidence.
But I digress. Cassidy’s premise is that, despite the completely obvious vileness of the reprobate Walker, his appeal to conservatives (and his ability to raise money) might just win him the Republican nomination. Then Democrats will have to look at his slimy face and hear his evil voice for quite some time. The last sentence of the piece is, “We’d better get used to it.”
That would be nice. Because Walker Derangement Syndrome has started early. Actually, it started a long time ago, when the left mounted one of the biggest campaigns in history to unseat a governor. In Walker’s case, they failed, although they kept trying. And they won’t stop now.
[NOTE: By the way, that “personhood amendment” reference in Cassidy’s piece links to a Times article that rests on a single anonymous source who says he heard Walker say it at a small meeting. Good old Times. What’s more, Cassidy’s characterization of what such an amendment is about is, of course, incorrect. It would not “outlaw the termination of pregnancies.”]
So much hate from the media so early in the election cycle. Walker must scare the bejebus out of those people.
Let the sliming and demonization begin.
The Left is clearly afraid of him, just as they were with Sarah Palin.
That’s good enough for me.
What they should be getting used to is an execution scaffold.
Incidentally, I found this National Review article this morning. For anyone who is still on the fence about “net neutrality”, it clearly describes the overtly Marxist roots of the movement.
“In a more just world, Walker’s indecent and craven antics would disqualify him from playing any further role in the Presidential race.”
The double standard is a thing to behold. The great Obama himself did not just refuse to criticize someone who called a sitting president unpatriotic, he called GWB dishonorable and unpatriotic. He did so for Bush’s 4 Trillion added to the national debt. Of course Obama has racked up more than that (so far) and so would be, by his own standard–dishonorable and unpatriotic!
Off topic, but do not miss Diana Wests latest post.
Driving in San Francisco, you stop at a traffic light, there’s often a guy who lives on that corner, holding a cardboard sign, screaming, shouting at the cars. That’s where you eventually get when you have a derangement syndrome for everything. I think I’ll start calling those guys “Lefty.”
The attack is well-coordinated — An e-mail sent by the DNC today: Scott Walker Compared Wisconsin Workers To Terrorists: He Wants To Be President.
Scott Walker sits on a throne of skulls. He’s got the right temperament to do “that which needs to be done.”
It’ll be interesting to watch. Not that the media or the Dems may overreach, or anything like that. Check this out:
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2015/02/stop-scott-walker-ann.html
There’s some quiet good taste for you. Althouse has been watching this build for awhile now.
I wouldn’t underestimate the left’s ability to destroy through demonization. They’re pretty good at it. Majorly, Nixon, Goldwater, Quayle, George W Bush, Palin, and a host of others, not to mention untold numbers of others on state and local levels. I live in a very blue state, and the common practice of the Ds together with the media is to marginalize Republican candidates as looney tunes nutjobs as soon as they become anyway name-worthy, so they never gain any traction.
They tried with Reagan, and it worked to an extent. Most on the left still scoff at the mention of his name and still see him as a cartoon figure. But Reagan rose above above it, almost good-naturedly, and turned the tables on them with most voters.
Nixon gave as good as he got, and that’s what really earned their enmity, a long, long time before Watergate. Doing battle with them eventually drove Nixon bat $hit paranoid crazy (but he wasn’t wrong, they really were out to get him), his fatal flaw.
With Walker they’ll keep digging and making runs at him, including making things up about him, until they get something –anything– to start a feeding frenzy.
Cassidy ex of CNN, has he managed to stay sober & crawled
Out from some gutter to pro offer a, protect the castle walls of the MSM, dumb observation ? Must be trolling his *buddies* for a job.
G Joubert is absolutely right about not underestimating “the left’s ability to destroy through demonization”. Two pieces up at Commentary now show pretty clearly the fruits of their labor.
The first talks about the latest Pew poll which shows that while Republicans win on policy ideas, they do “quite poorly in terms of image and public perception”:
The second piece is a response to the first one, and suggests one way to begin to deal with those findings:
Both pieces are worth a read.
We should call people who spew hate against Walker as leftist turds because that is what they are.
BDS launched the great “drsanity” blog.
Sadly, there is no book, not even a self-published eBook, of Professor Patricia Santy’s greatest hits.
Will “WDS” launch a few more blogs from the right-side to counter all the vapours coming from the MSM and Lefto-sphere bloggers?
I can’t wait for the hysterical fun because it can’t come soon enough!-not when one is fore-armed with a decades’ worth of insights from Pat.
“…whose ascension to the presidency would be a disaster.” THAT should have been the Vapid Toad Cassidy’s prediction/lament preceding Obama’s ascension. Ya Think..??!!
“Ann” quotes from a Pew Poll discussed at COmmentary.
It is the smears and lies of the MSM that has poisoned the well of the ‘head-space’ of democratic government. Like with totalitarianism, once the healthy sustainence of waters are believed to be toxic, the body politic will suffer dehydration.
The absence of any honesty in the media perpetuates this cycle. And an analytical and functional account of how Reagan and now Walker counter this corruptions of politics is desperately needed, in order to revive any home for liberty worth living in.
The American I grew up with and loved is surely dying on the real and imaginary toxins of post-Marxist melodrama and lies.
The theory of the enlightenment is that a free press will empower a free people to find their way forward. Today’s media aids and abets the marxist power lusters. They make delusion the most “real” fear for the masses.
If this delusion cannot be broken, the future is dead for freedom.
Talk about sticking your fingers in your ears, there’s no comment thread for Cassidy’s piece. Maybe they don’t want to hear contradictory opinions?
BTW only the media bubble NY, DC, & Hollyweird are in a dither that a candidate would diss their *lordships* by declining the Gotcha game. Walker can count himself a hero
To us regular Joes. LOLeven the celebrated Nora O donnell, who nervously ran away from harmless questioning from
Oreilly’s charming Jesse Waters, huffed one day last week
Re Walker’s reclaim of the dialog, “will this become the new
Norm” ?????
The American I grew up with and loved is surely dying on the real and imaginary toxins of post-Marxist melodrama and lies.
The theory of the enlightenment is that a free press will empower a free people to find their way forward. Today’s media aids and abets the marxist power lusters. They make delusion the most “real” fear for the masses.
If this delusion cannot be broken, the future is dead for freedom.
Richard Fernandez has posted another of his visionary essays on this topic – the core of what you describe is defined by him as entropy, which defines this about as well as I can imagine, now that I think about it.
See “The Trouble With Entropy”
http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2015/02/27/the-trouble-with-entropy/
Walker and the emerging ‘Walker Derangement Symptom’ is the latest proof of an aphorism; ‘The greater the threat is perceived to be, the greater in response is the hate and hysteria.’
Walker has the left pooping in their diapers. If he can win 3 elections in 4 years in Wisconsin despite everything the union thugs and the likes of Soros threw at him, they know he can win in 2016. Walker is the one for 2016. It will be amusing to see WDS infect the zombies.
I can’t remember if I’ve said it publicly here, since I used to be a bit of a Perry guy, but I’ve wholeheartedly switched over to Walker.
I hope you can forgive me, neo-neocon, for being a Matty-come-lately.
Walker is the man, because as Jonah Goldberg says, “Vanilla is nobody’s favorite, but everyone’s second-favorite.”
Works for me, Parker!! Throw in Bobby Jindal as Veep and it’s perfection.
rickl:
That leaves a small problem; where exactly is Sarah Palin these days? Currently she holds no elective office, and if I had to guess, will never hold and elective office ever. And this isn’t because, if she runs the left will do everything they can to destroy her again, but because the right will turn their collective backs on her because she’s “damaged goods” (that is how I heard her described by a “conservative” when she was toying with running for President in ’12.) In fact, how many people still believe that Sara Palin said, “I can see Russia from my house!” (A hint for those that don’t know, she never said that. Tina Fey said it in her Saturday Night Live skit of Palin.)
Articles like this are meant to dirty Scott Walker up a bit; put seeds of doubt in people’s minds. The problem is that it’s working. I’m already hearing rumblings that perhaps Walker, how did it go, ah, isn’t ready for prime time because of what the author considered a botched interview.
Take a moment and reflect on what happened to the previous conservative presidential candidates in ’12, especially Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, when their “blemishes” (my word) started to show.
KRB
P.S. Yes, I’m still ornery. Must be getting old. I’m starting to sound like my grandfather.
kae arby
The hate is the same; the voice is not.
The hate is the same; the exposure is not.
The hate is the same; the money is not.
The hate is the same; the time is not.
The hate is the same; the experience is not.
The hate is the same; the college experience? Well, we all kind of love that.
(It will be hard to “Romney” Walker.)
And don’t worry about early reports of his demise. He has proved longevity. Like no else perhaps. He’s in for the long run and will survive and will win.
You’re right, Kae Arby. If Walker gains traction with the conservative base (and he is doing so), the GOP establishment and their sycophants in the press will do everything they can to torpedo him.
We need a real opposition party. We don’t currently have one. The D’s and R’s are both part of the ruling oligarchy.
“There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Republicans and Democrats.” George Wallace
Now, what?
Opps guess the Cassity, late of CNN was “Jack” not John
My bad .
There *was* not a dime’s worth of difference between the establishment Republicans and establishment Democrats, as those two parties existed at the time George Wallace said what he said — 1968.
At this point, there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between go-along-to-get-along RINOs and Democrats, only in the velocity with which we all merrily careen off the fiscal and moral cliff.
There is a gulf between go-along-to-get-along RINOs, heavily backed by the same old go-along-to-get-along big money, and those of us who recognize what’s going on and wish to apply the brakes. I hope it’s not too late to apply the brakes, but I fear it is. You mileage may vary.
The impending battle between the Jeb Bush go-along-to-get-alongs, and us brake-appliers, is going to be epic and bloody — and I truly hope and pray that “bloody” is merely figurative and not literal.
Most of you have a clue. You know. You’re not plugged into the street like I am, but you know.
Get ready. The streets are emptied. Somehow the fucking left has made a front and they are, believe me, ready.
They want a war. They’ve been living a war (not really because they are pussies and have been subsidized. When it comes down to real war, we’ll swat the shit out of those flies).
But get ready. The Left is more than ready to do anything to achieve its purpose.
But it won’t work. Because we are not Europe. Weird shit doesn’t impress us. We fight back thanks to our bill of rights. You can’t stop us speaking and carrying guns. You can’t search us without cause and you can’t make the federal government more powerful than our state governments.
And you can’t replace us with a bunch of foreigners!
wade.in:
But they can and will “regulate access” to ammo.There were only muzzleloaders when the 2nd Amendmant was written, and people made their own musket balls. The Leftist strategy is obvious.
Buying a couple thousand rounds as an ammo stash is advisable. Long shelf life!
The bulk of your reasoning rests on dubious grounds. The Constitution has no army, no enforcement divisions!
GO, Scott..!! GO, Marco..!! GO, Bobby..!!
An absolute wealth of conservative tough guys with fine brains and mucho ability.
__________________________________
Hillary…???? Please, show me the sparkle, the fire, the intelligence, the governing-leadership ability?! Ohhhh…And, imagine for 2-minutes, the malignant narcissist/compulsive sex-addict Billy Bubba ‘unleashed’ in the White House!!
__________________________________
GO, Scott!! GO, Marco!! GO, Bobby!!
Walker was interviewed on Chris Wallace’s show on Foxnews this AM. Wallace tossed a lot of curve balls, but Walker deftly refused to go for the bait. As the campaign progresses he will only get better at avoiding the gotcha questions and turn such tactics into an asset for him.
It’s early, but I’m excited. This may be the beginning of a viable counter-MSM strategy.
Orwellian terminology — Net Neutrality — is reality inversion.
The proper term of art: a Politicized Web.
&&&&
Up until now, just about any one any where at any time can pop up and offer a new twist to exploit the WWW.
With Politicized Web, ONLY the (politically) connected will have a hope in %$#@ if they want to offer a new twist.
As for Rush Limbaugh et. al. — NN HAS to mean that ‘Equal Time’ will make its return to deaden ears and minds from coast to coast.
Any Equal Time pressure will never be expanded to include Hollywood or the coastal media barons.
BTW, the vast bulk of the media barons are to the LEFT if not far left.
The ONLY big name in the center is Rupert Murdock — and he is already transitioning for the big departure, hence his promotion of kin and kindred.
What’s killing the Left is that the government manipulations that have aided and abetted the Left for the MSM just don’t exist to thwart the vox populi.
NN is an oblique attack on the 1st Amendment, no doubt.
Certain factions in the US or the world, are beginning to notice something.
They are ahead of the curve, although not ahead of the prophecies.
http://www.voxday.blogspot.com/2015/03/christianitys-killers.html
Imagine how effective Easy Company would have been if instead of being expected to follow the killers’ example, its nonkillers dedicated themselves to explaining at length that instead of flanking the German gun position on D-Day and killing the German gunners, they should all prove themselves to be better than the Germans by being nice to them. And then, when the killers ignored them and began the flank attack, instead of laying down covering fire, the nonkillers started shooting at the killers. Does anyone seriously think this would be a successful way to wage war?
Some of the things listed are ironically, reminiscent of political affairs in the US right now.
The MSM’s power to destroy people can be understood by examining how the pop culture fashion world works. A few elites decide what to push as the latest and greatest and they count on people’s fear of not being hip to advance it.
All they will do to destroy Scott Walker is declare him unfashionably out of step and the fashion obsessed public will do the grunt work of passing that meme on.
Its why a horrible President like Obama has such high approval. He’s been declared fashionable from on high and half the population cant circumvent their powerful fear of appearing out of step with the times.
SteveH, in re President Obama being “fashionable” —
“but the Emperor is not wearing ANY clothes!” said the child.