Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the BigMyths of Republican Politicss (2008)
Glenn Greenwald is also the author of several other good books. All of which I plan to read.
Chapter 3 has a fun pun title: Tough Guise.
Central to the right wing mythmaking machine is the depiction of their machine is the depiction of their male leaders as swaggering tough guys in the iconic mold of an American cowboy and brave, steadfast warrior. Above all else, Republican leaders are invariably held up as exuding the virtues of traditional American masculinity — courage, physical strength, “regular guy” ness, and most of all, a willingness and ability to stare down America’s various and numerous enemies — in war, if necessary — and defeat them through superior strength.
Vital to this masculinity marketing campaign is the demonization of Democrats and liberal males as weak, sniveling, effeminate, effete cowards — spineless little creatures whose cowardice and lack of manliness make them laughingstocks. While right-wing leaders are the football players and swaggering touch guys, liberal males are the glasses -wearing nerds, the woman-controlled [!!!!], gender-confused, always -vaguely-gay loser who are as feminine and week as their women are masculine and threatening.
Good Heavens, WOMEN-CONTROLLED!!!! Those fellas just don’t know how to treat beat a woman right. /sarcasm
The REALITY, in virtually every case, is the OPPOSITE. Those who end up as leaders of the right-wing movement in America have nothing in their lives to demonstrate any actual courage . . .
He repeats himself a bit here, and the hyperbole is a little over the top, because JOHN MCCAIN is such an obvious exception. However, in looking up some other names because I had a hard time believing they were all chickhawks, I found a fascinating reference to some semi-popular beliefs that Mitch McConnell is in the closet and his wife his beard. It is one explanation, apart from political ambition and self-serving interests for her families’ major shipping business that he has a wife at all. He joined a reserve and ended up getting out early with some senatorial pull. Destined for greatness I guess. (choke, gag)
However, to my surprise Strom Thurmond was a genuine war hero! He received 18 awards including the Purple Heart. Too bad he was such a horrible human being.
Anyway, he goes on to describe some of the horrible things Ann Coulter has said, at CPAC conferences in 2006 and 2007 involving death threats, talking to liberals with baseball bats, and so on. Getting standing ovations instead of censure. And as I have noted before or will in the future, she loves to say outrageous things to get her 5 minutes on Fox, then when asked if she is a little over the top, she claims “joking” or “hyperbole – do you know what that word means” (condescending sneer). Yeah, like the next time someone jokes he’d like to rape her with a little choking to death for enhanced experience. Since she is gung ho for torture of others, surely she would like it for herself?
Sadly, “the hard-core party faithful consider her a heroine for expressing the thoguht that they themselves believe but that, other, less courageous Republican figures are afraid to express.” (p. 100) Until now with Trump; who is sucking up to and waxing ecstatically about Trump. She probably imagines he will tap her for some top job in his rule of the White House if that dystopian nightmare becomes fact. But I suspect, short of sexually favoring him with White House Blow Jobs, she will get little else from him because she is too much a conservative star in her own right and Trump likes his women quiet and obedient. To her credit, to keep her opinions to herself would be asking more than she could bear. On the other hand, Trump might think she would make a great press secretary because she knows how to pander, says the same shit he does, and would be a faithful dog to him.
The book has a number of amusing anecdotes, except it is the kind of makes you weep kind of funny throughout. Concludes the book illustrating that the anti-torture stance of John McCain was a lot of public posturing, but when it came time to vote, he did not always vote no.
So this is an amusing book, it names names, and provides some insights into just how fallible our elected representatives are. I am pretty sure a similar book could be written on the Democratic side given Barbara Boxer’s shameful behavior at the Nevada State Convention last Saturday. And the conduct of Democratic Party leadership.
BERNIE BERNIE BERNIE BERNIE!