Category: Old Dish

Yes, we now know, after much speculation, something that is obvious to any devoted fans of the Comedy Central cartoon show, “South Park.” This brilliant, scatological, hilarious concoction of anti-p.c. Gen X genius is the product of two men – Trey Parker and Matt Stone. And at a recent award ceremony hosted by People for the American Way, no less, they came out as … Republicans! Well at least I now have a quick response to the next person who asks me to sum up my politics. I’m a South Park Republican. But shhhh! Don’t tell Robert Bork.

GIULIANI ON WALKER: “I could feel sorry for someone and still string ’em up,” Rudy tells MoDo of the Times. At last a definition of “compassionate conservatism” that makes some kind of sense.

MARIN LIBERALISM: The New York Times, after yesterday’s damning profiles of Walker and Spann, goes into spin-mode today. The headline for the follow-up story, “An Improbable Incubator for a Militant Muslim,” gives the game away. The piece does its best to portray the echt-liberal enclave of Marin county as a conservative-leaning suburb, but is honest enough to let some facts get in the way. My favorite is a quote from a Marin resident: “”I find that people here are basically very forgiving, no matter what their point of view. With the Walker kid, I can’t imagine anyone here thinks he should go to jail for 25 years. I think most people are compassionate about him, especially when they think about his parents.” Notice it doesn’t even occur to her that Walker might be executed. And the thousands of victims of the terrorist group Walker aided and abetted? Compared to the pain of Walker’s parents, they don’t seem to count.

A reader objects to the term “war pessimists.” They should be called according to what they are: “defeat optimists.”

“If Israel were a Palestinian state, complete with superior firepower and all the privileges of internationally recognized statehood, and the West Bank were a Palestinian occupied Jewish enclave, do you really suppose there would be any Jews left to protest?” Norah Vincent nails the depravity, illiberalism, intolerance and hypocrisy of the ascendant Arab culture. People ask why Americans tend to sympathize more with Israelis than Palestinians. It’s not racism. It’s a recognition that, for all their failings, the Israelis live in the same moral universe as we do. The Palestinians palpably, brazenly do not.

“As Streisand groped for equilibrium after Sept. 11, her shock turned to uncertainty in matters both grave and trivial. She relates, ‘One day I tell myself, ‘Screw everything, I’m getting a Carl’s Jr. hamburger and eating fried chicken three nights in a row. I don’t care about my weight.’ The next day, my optimistic side takes over and I think, ‘Wait a minute, life goes on, people will get wiser, justice will prevail. Maybe I should watch my diet.’ I’m still in that state of confusion.'” – Barbra Streisand, on her response to September 11. To be fair, she also has some decent and appropriate things to say as well. Then she plugs her new album.

The esteemed Bill Buckley worries that Osama is achieving a mythic status of invulnerability. Something tells me Buckley couldn’t be more wrong. Chill, Bill. We’re gonna get him. And soon. And then the myth implodes in exact proportion to its inflated grandeur. In fact, the myth helps us. The crushing psychological blow to the murderers and fanatics and mischief-makers who lionized bin Laden will only make our military victory more emphatic. Then on to Somalia …

“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” – C.S. Lewis, “The Abolition of Man.”

THE FORGE OF WAR: Some interesting results from the latest poll from the New York Times. One number that piqued my interest was that most Americans still don’t really have a clue who John Ashcroft is. But of those who did know, his favorability rating was 31 percent and his unfavorability rating was a mere 8 percent. And to think of all the money, time and ink that some people have spent trying to peg him as the source of all evil. I guess no one really internalizes Frank Rich. Then there’s the astonishing fact that 61 percent of Americans approve of president Bush’s handling of the economy, even during a recession. Bottom line: there doesn’t seem to be a massive disconnect in people’s minds between domestic and foreign affairs. This makes intuitive sense to me. One of the reasons that Bush’s poll numbers are so high is partly patriotism in a time of crisis, but also surely that people admire the crisp, effective and mild-mannered presidency the war has revealed. The idea that this will have no impact on his clout in domestic matters seems to me to be unlikely. The analogy of his father doesn’t hold. Before the Gulf War, 41’s image with the public was already pretty set – out-of-touch, inarticulate, pushed around by his own party, not as impressive as Reagan. The war didn’t change this identity; it merely helped give the old guy more respect. But this war has come at a very different time for 43. In Dubyah’s case, the best analogy, I think, is Thatcher. She dealt with a surprise attack early in her first term – the Falklands. She performed brilliantly under pressure and saw her approval ratings grow domestically – even though her economic policies were never very popular, and she precipitated a brutal recession in her early days. The war transformed her image when it was still formative in the eyes of the country. It never changed. I think there’s a good chance the same thing is happening with Bush, which is why Democratic faith that they can compartmentalize the war and insulate it from domestic politics is, in my opinion, misplaced. This poll suggests I may be right. Well, we’ll see, won’t we?

THE CULT OF PESSIMISM: Useful piece by Jake Weisberg on how war pessimists endure, against all the odds and against all the evidence. Speaking of which, this latest piece from the Guardian probably deserves a prize for finding the dark lining in every silver cloud. Don’t kid yourselves: these people never ever learn.

Okay, you officially win this debate. Not because I’ve been proven completely wrong in my first take on Walker/Spann but because you’ve definitely persuaded me it’s much more complex and more interesting than my original impression. I don’t mean to be wishy-washy, but I’m still thinking about this. Memo to Weisberg/Noah/Lewis: I still think you were wrong but not so wrong as to owe me an apology. There’s a lot of room for doubt and debate here, but the easy equation of Walker’s background and his eventual politics is just that: too easy. The letters page now contains a new swath of points from all sides. I’m constantly amazed by the knowledge and intelligence of my readers, but this time, you surpassed yourselves.

One email has really got me thinking. The best point of those who disagree with my earlier post on Walker/Spann is that Walker wasn’t/isn’t really a lefty. He’s actually a right-wing religious zealot. Here’s the case:

“Maybe I missed something, but I am not sure how a religious fundamentalist and zealot like John Walker is an embodiment of the American Hating Left. He is a right wing religious nut just like the guy arrested here in Cincinnati last week for sending fake anthrax to abortion clinics. While you may be correct that his permissive parents and his multicultural context may have produced him (sounds like something some right wing nut case would say about homosexuality, right Andrew?), what it produced was a right wing Islamic religious nut who hates the West and America for its decadence (which he enjoyed and benefited from) and sin, just like his brothers on the right wing Christian extreme (like maybe Tim McVeigh, who was a Catholic to boot?). Let’s at least be honest that Walker represents some of the worst of American permissiveness and multiculturalism, while being the embodiment of right wing religious fanaticism. I think we all get caught on this one.”

This strikes me as pretty smart. What it misses, though, is that Walker actually rebelled against Catholicism for being too strict when he was younger. I think he was attracted to Islam as much by its exoticism as by its strictures. I think we have a classic case of being brought up with really permissive parents in a really permissive culture. You want to rebel, but your authority figures approve of ‘rebellion’ so you have to find some sort of anti-liberal rebellion. Islam fits the bill perfectly. Hip-hop was a mite too predictable and you can imagine his parents almost approving. The extremism with which he pursued his rebellion is probably inexplicable out of psychoanalysis. But the link between his chosen lifestyle and the culture in which he was born is still valid, I think.

You weigh in against me (mainly) on the Walker-Spann divide.

It strikes me that the old Clinton-enabler has a very good point in his latest column. Why are we admitting any students from countries that sponsor terrorism? Subjecting all of them to lengthy interrogations about their possible terror connections seems to me hugely time-consuming, expensive and prone to failure. And the possible sympathy some might acquire for the United States by studying here is far outweighed by the costs of even one terrorist finding his way here as a result. Look, I’m a big fan of immigration, natch. Student visas for foreign students are a great idea and a critical part of this country’s educational excellence. But this is clearly one area where new circumstances merit changes. Why not increase the number of student visas from friendly countries to make up financially for those from countries that still harbor terrorists? That seems like a preferable compromise to me.