The Lady Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks

I love the line, (0.00 / 0)

"Separating the player queen from the queen in this play within a play becomes more difficult day by day."

The lazy intellectuals of conservatism would probably not understand this article at all.  I think most conservatives take the easy road by simply believing that Obama doesn't think America is exceptional, whereas the conservatives do.  

The "real" conservative intellectuals, like Newt Gingrich for example, provide the supposed explanations to back up what the lazy ones believe.  However, such "real" conservative intellectuals fall into one of two categories:  either they are secretly using their powers of persuasion to dupe their followers, or they are so delusional that they truly believe what they are saying.

follow me on Twitter.

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by: frankoanderson @ Mon Nov 29, 2010 at 19:21:32 PM UTC

With Newt, It's Dupe; With Sarah Its Delusion (0.00 / 0)

I agree with you and these two are the exhibits.  

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by: Dan Sullivan @ Mon Nov 29, 2010 at 19:30:27 PM UTC

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Yes, she doth protest too much and there is a reason... (0.00 / 0)

Just about everything GOPhers rant about strikes at the heart of some of their very own demons.  It is as if they try to deflect away from themselves and try to project their own shortcomings and worst characteristics and fears onto others.  In this case, Sarah's husband was a a member of a secessionist group.  Now she pretends to know who is "real American" and who "isn't."  The truth is that none of the people she tries to demonize come close to the treachery once right within her own household.  We do not know if he has changed.  This was only a few years ago (he quit before she ran for governor).  We don't know is Sarah agreed with him, but he sure rode right beside her in their governor's office, even having a desk in the executive offices right near her. So if Sarah isn't a former secessionist, she is married to one and keeps him close in her political activities.  So she has some nerve questioning and attacking the President's citizenship.  He's spent a lifetime doing good and she --has not.

There's nothing in the middle of the road except yellow stripes and dead armadillos (Jim Hightower). PS I'm on Twitter here.

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by: KathyinBlacksburg @ Mon Nov 29, 2010 at 20:50:42 PM UTC

Good Points (0.00 / 0)

This is all just another part of the alternative realty that has become the republican party. When I first heard of palin, I found the website of the Alaskan Independence Party. They had none other than sarah palin giving a welcoming address to the party by video on their front page.  Not only that but one of the party leaders, in a video, mentioned her by name, and said she left the party to join the republican party to get more exposure.  The only way that you can be associated with an anti-American fringe party and lecture on being a real American is to live in an alternate reality.

Since I seem to be venting, I have been blessed to know a few exceptional people in my life.  Not a single one has ever gone around talking about how exceptional he/she is.  
America was certainly founded on exceptional ideas and after World War II, we clearly were exceptional.  However, exceptional countries do NOT start wars with no plan to win.  Exceptional countries do NOT let a bunch of rogue bankers and wall streeters come close to crashing the whole world economy with no penalty.
 

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by: normanva @ Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 01:08:50 AM UTC

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But I do like (0.00 / 0)

her new specs.

There's nothing in the middle of the road except yellow stripes and dead armadillos (Jim Hightower). PS I'm on Twitter here.

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by: KathyinBlacksburg @ Mon Nov 29, 2010 at 20:51:09 PM UTC

Someone needs to read Andrew Bacevich (0.00 / 0)

Andrew Bacevich, Colonel, US Army (Retired), now teaching history and international relations at Boston College, published his views on the topic:  "The Limits of Power:  The End of American Exceptionalism."

Here's a clip from Amy Goodman's interview:

AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean by "exceptionalism"?

ANDREW BACEVICH: Well, this is not an idea that's original with me. It's clear that from the founding of the Anglo-American colonies, from the time that John Winthrop made his famous sermon and declared that "we shall be as a city upon a hill" a light to the world-it's clear that, from the outset, there has been a strong sense among Americans that we are a special people with a providential mission.
In the twentieth century, probably going back to roughly the time of Woodrow Wilson, certainly since the end of the Cold War, this concept of a providential mission, a responsibility to the world, has translated into a sense of empowerment or prerogative to determine the way the world is supposed to work, what it's supposed to look like, and also, over the last twenty years or so, an increasing willingness to use military force to cause the world to look the way we want it to look. And I think that that expression of American exceptionalism is one that's not only utterly false, but is greatly at odds with own interests as a country.

Full interview here:
http://www.democracynow.org/20...

Of course, the problem is the same problem we have with everything the rightwing produces:  They have a ten-second sound bite that resonates with voters, we have a book read only by nerds and policy wonks.  We need more ten-second sound bites.

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by: CleetusMaggard @ Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 03:54:18 AM UTC

The Providential Multiplier (0.00 / 0)

Is a planning factor those responsible for military and civilian strategy and operations never have on the table. It is a compound reserved for jejune ideolgues who want to polish away the rough spots of reality.

Maybe Colonel Bacevich comes from the "God helps those who help themselves" school. Or maybe he has disdain for the arrogance of power and those who assume we are a preordained perpetual hegemon; that success doesn't result from the fruits of our labor.

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by: Dan Sullivan @ Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 12:59:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]