Authoritarianism for Wimps

T-Bizzy points us to this bizarre post over at Matt Lewis’ Townhall blog:

Romney Addresses House Conservatives

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 1:36 PM

Well, we just heard Gov. Romney speak to the Heritage Conservative Members Retreat in Baltimore. In a few minutes, he will grant a press conference. A few thoughts on the speech …

Romney received a standing ovation when he came in. He was interrupted just once — by applause — when he mentioned he cut the number of state workers in Massachusetts. He’s a good speaker, in the sense that he checks off all the boxes you would expect a good speaker to have. But he never touched me, or anyone I talked to, on an emotional level. There were no moments when eyes swelled with tears, or hearts beat with patriotism. Maybe that’s too much to ask?

In a word, yes.

Maybe I’m just an old-fashioned cynic, but I don’t want any damn politicians trying to touch me on an emotional level. I vote for politicians based on their ideas and their ability to do their jobs, and not how well they validate my feeeeeeeeeeeelings of worth as a human being. When evaluating presidential candidates, for instance, I think it’s useful to look at the following criteria:

1.) Are they actually qualified to be president of the United States? (I know this one seems like a no-brainer, but we’ve had some serious deficiencies in this area for the past six years.)

2.) Why do they want the job? Is it because they have good ideas for solving problems, or is it because they enjoy having power?

3.) What the hell are their ideas? Do I think their ideas would help the country? Do they mesh with my ideas about making the country a better place?

And so on. A politician’s ability to make my “eyes swell with tears” and my “heart beat with patriotism” is very low on that list. Lewis’ desire to feel emotionally connected to the people he votes for is really kinda sad. The way Lewis talks about his dream politician is the same way I used to talk about Wade Boggs when I was 8 years old (or hell, how I talked about David Ortiz last year). That’s not a good thing.

Continuing (my emphasis):

So what did he say about Iraq? The Governor probably heard Rich Lowry’s criticism (that he didn’t mention Iraq at the National Review Summit last weekend). I say this, because he did mention Iraq, Still, he focused much more on Iran. He probably devoted three-times as much time to Iran than Iraq.

I think this is an intentional effort to change the subject from Iraq (an issue Republicans lose on) to Iran —where voters may trust a Republican to keep them from acquiring nuclear weapons.

In short, let’s just change the subject and move on to the next war. Wow.

This is a good one too:

UPDATE: 2:30: Governor Romney just addressed the press. In this setting, I think he was more charismatic than on stage. He didn’t duck any questions, and was very personable. At one point, he meant to say, “our country,” but he instead said “our company.” He never caught the slip, but I suppose most Americans wouldn’t be opposed to running America more like a business (as Ross Perot claimed he would do).

Welp, Mitt, you just got your ass compared to Ross Perot. Good luck with that whole “winning the preznincy” thang.

 

Comments: 22

 
 
 

Remember that Romney’s real first name is Willard!

 
 

Geee, who else did the wingnutz think would run the country like a company, and lo and behold they did it. Massive orgnaizational failures, a refusal to recognize fault and passing the clean-up to the next guy. The only thing that’s missing is the multi-million dollar golden parachute for failure.
Yeah, like we want another one of those.

 
 

At one point, he meant to say, “our country,� but he instead said “our company.� He never caught the slip, but I suppose most Americans wouldn’t be opposed to running America more like a business (as Ross Perot claimed he would do).

This spirit of Calvin Coolidge is strong in this one!

 
 

There were no moments when eyes swelled with tears, or hearts beat with patriotism.

Poor Matt Lewis. He thought his keepers were taking him to a showing of Forrest Gump, and he ended up at a political speech. I’d have been pissed off, too.

 
 

Bush and Cheney ARE running the country like a company.

 
 

Remember that Bush ran as the “MBA president”.

…and the hostile takeover of a smaller outfit ran into trouble due to a clash of corporate cultures – but the principals made out like bandits.

 
 

I thought it was the liberals who were supposed to be big Alan Alda wussies, running around all teary-eyed and emotional, basing decisions on ‘feelings’ instead of cold hard facts…

This is quite amusing, in a pitiful way.

 
 

Candy- there are plenty of examples on the liberal side. If you’ve ever read any of Eileen McNamara’s columns on Deval Patrick, you know what I’m talking about.

 
 

I must admit I haven’t read any Eileen McNamara. My point is that those of us on the left don’t generally go around making fun of people for being moved, or men for for having emotions, and the wingnuts do. That makes them hypocrites in my book, and fair game for mockery.

Me, I’m a burned out cynic, and a hard boiled lefty, so I rarely get teary eyed over any damn thing a politician says, or anything else for that matter…..

 
 

I have not seen any polling to indicate that this

where voters may trust a Republican to keep them from acquiring nuclear weapons.

is not just another fucking GOoPer lie.

PS Meatwad has a better chance of being elected President than Romney does. So does Joe ‘Clean and Articulate’ Biden, for that matter.

 
 

And, not to get all utopian on one’s ass or anything, but what does it mean when “our hearts beat in patriotism”? The fatuousness of the sentimentality of the complaint aside. What is one’s heart beating for, exactly? “Love of country”? What does “country” mean to the heart-beater?

If not the landscape, the people, the dogs and cats, etc. (not that they’re all not the greatest in the world), then what? The “principles on which our Republic was founded”? Please. Anyone whose heart beats for “principles” needs to see a good, or even a bad, shrink, and find out what that beating really means.

Even the fucking soldiers risking their lives do it for each other, not for “the p. on which our R. was founded.” Any school child knows that.

These imbeciles. And it never occurs to them that the people most vocal in proclaiming of their beating hearts and their “love” of “country” are always the first, and the worst, to violate the principles and “fuck” the “country.”

 
 

MrWonderful,

Its easy to spot where your well thought out argument goes wrong; it’s a well thought out argument. You’ew not going to set their little hearts a flutter with that sh1t.

“Facts? Pff, you can use facts to prove anything.” – a middle-aged English taxi driver

 
 

Massive orgnaizational failures, a refusal to recognize fault and passing the clean-up to the next guy. The only thing that’s missing is the multi-million dollar golden parachute for failure.

That, and they’re still working on liquidating our pension funds.

 
 

Meatwad is not an American citizen. Also, some question about his age.

Could we *please* get some answers to the “Why do they want to be President” thing in future? And not just Gore and Hillary, either, like all the wingnut columnists want to psychoanalyze. I want some damned answers from all of these assholes. Bush didn’t know why outside of some creepy daddy issues, and look where we are now. I fucking want to know why you want the fucking job, okay? I’m paying you. If you want to mow my lawn, we maybe don’t have to get into your career aspirations or anything, but dammit, I want to know why you want to be president. Because, as it turns out, “I think that red phone is cool” is not a good enough answer. How about some tests? Literacy. World events. Geography. Constitutional Facts. You Must Be This Emotionally Stable To Ride Air Force One.

Instead, we ask ’em how much money they got, how much they can get, and whether they can pose with a pig at a fair or would be fun to have a drink with.

This is not how you run a government, people! This isn’t even how you run a popsicle truck. I don’t especially want to get all touchy feely with these people, either, and I don’t even really think it’s the President’s job to make me feel safe. I suspect the job might include in some measure, but not be limited to, making me *be* safe, which is a vastly different thing, as we all now have reason to know, though this one isn’t doing too much of that for me either. But at the very least, could we just ask ’em why they want the job? It turns out that’s important.

And, oh yes, how about a decent criminal background check?

 
 

One of the best sites on the web for information about Mitt Romney and the 2008 presidential election:

http://www.mittreport.com

-MR
Together, we can find the truth…
http://www.mittreport.com

 
 

“run the country more like a corporation”? Hmm, isn’t there a word for that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

 
 

So wait, where’s Nawlin’s again?

 
 

He never caught the slip, but I suppose most Americans wouldn’t be opposed to running America more like a business (as Ross Perot claimed he would do).

Anyone who “wouldn’t be opposed” to that stupid shit does not understand something very basic: businesses and governments have different goals, so running them both the same way would be stupid.

Governments provide services to their citizens. Businesses turn profits for their shareholders. Not the same.

 
Herr "Ausweiss, bitte"
 

“Eyes swell with tears”??????!!! “Heart beat with patriotism””????

I know that everyone is leery of the constant comparisons to National Socialism, but that sounds more like the way Josef Goebbels described his reaction to first hearing Hitler speak than anything I ever hoped to hear from an American of any stripe.

These fools WANT to be led by the nose. The final orgasmic glory might have been achieved by the audience chanting USA!! USA!! in an ever increasing frenzy as they rushed forward and prostrated themselves before the stage. But, alas, the swelling and beating didn’t occur.

Poor patriot.

 
 

In regards to the above……exactly.

People think that the Nazi regime that took over Germany was an aberration, that the Germans temporarily lost their minds or something.

Nope.

This is how people are. This is what they want in leaders when they are too lazy/scared/confused/ignorant to lead themselves. There’s nothing aberrant about what happened in Germany; it could happen again at any time, anywhere.

Like it or not, we do sort of seem to be ramping up for it.

 
 

I think this is an intentional effort to change the subject from Iraq (an issue Republicans lose on) to Iran –where voters may trust a Republican to keep them from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Because that worked so well with North Korea.

 
 

So we’re looking for a candidate who makes our “hearts beat with patriotism”? How about Muhammed Ali, a man who was willing to go to jail for his principles. Or is that not what he means?

 
 

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