Republican front-runner Rick Perry wowed the crowd last night with his stirring defense of the Texas death penalty.
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I can’t say which is more disgusting … the fact that the audience applauded at the mention of Perry’s record number of executions — 234 — or Perry’s saying he doesn’t struggle over the possibility that some of the condemned might be innocent.
A few days ago I linked to a couple of articles about Texas executions, “Rick Perry set to carry out one or two more questionable executions as candidatee” and “Cameron Todd Willingham Execution: Rick Perry’s Role Deserves Scrutiny.” Summation: There is a high probability that some death row prisoners in Texas are innocent, and Perry not only doesn’t bother to review these cases before the execution, in at least one case he made sure no one else reviewed it, either.
Steve Benen reminds us that while Perry may have a pure faith in the infallibility of the Texas justice system, he has a low opinion of science. Perry is a pure distillation of meanness and ignorance. Yeah, just what we need in a POTUS.
The other part of last night’s debate that people are talking about is Perry’s calling Social Security a “ponzi scheme.” Will talk like that cost him the GOP nomination? One would think so, since the GOP’s voter base skews elderly. However, the “ponzi scheme” talk could work very well with younger voters.
On the third hand — the GOP establishment is not lining up to support Perry. Karl Rove disses him. More telling, perhaps, is Jennifer Rubin’s conclusion that Perry “failed to impress” in last night’s debate. My take on Rubin is that she pretty much reflects GOP beltway insider thinking.
But while the GOP establishment may not have been impressed with Perry, Jonathan Chait thinks Perry won the night with the base.
The media seems to consider Romney the winner. Pardon the condescension, but they’re not thinking like Republican base voters. Romney approaches every question as if he is in an actual debate, trying to provide the most intellectually compelling answer available, within the bounds of political expediency. Perry treats questions as interruptions. What scientists do you trust on climate change? I don’t want to risk the economy. Are you taking a radical position on social security? We can have reasons or we can have results. His total liberation from the constraints of reason give Perry a chance to represent the Republican id in a way Romney simply cannot match.
The baggers know that reason, like reality, has a well-known liberal bias.
Perry is a pure distillation of meanness and ignorance.
An excellent description. It’s not just his ignorance that bothers me, it’s the work that’s gone into it, the refining it and aggressively rejecting anything that might sully the purity of it, the angry affect that suggests he might, at any moment, unleash a can of whupass on any particle of actual knowledge or perception of truth that makes the mistake of coming too close. He says out loud “I don’t care what anyone says,” but what his affect says is more than that, he actively rejects what anyone else says, and he’s getting ready to do something about your right to say it.
But I’m afraid Chait is right. The GOP base loves that kind of alpha male jackass attitude, and Perry will go a long way on being purely mean and ignorant. Rick Perry isn’t running for President, he’s auditioning for leader of the fascist revolution.
Governor Perry, why should people vote for you?
“Vote for me, “Yosemite Perry,” ’cause I’m da rootiness, tootiness, meaness, dumbass Hombre, north of the Rio Grandeeeeee! Whoopee!”
Bang, bang, bangity, bang, bang, bang!!!
What about qustionable executions, governor?
“I’m da rootiness, tootiness, meaness, dumbass Hombre, north of the Rio Grandeeeeee!
An’ what Ah do, Ah juss kill ’em – an’ let God sort ’em out!”
Bang, bang, bangity, bang, bang, bang!!!
What about your comments that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, Governor?
“I’m da rootiness, tootiness, meaness, dumbass Hombre, north of the Rio Grandeeeeee!
An’, we-yell, under mah system, if’n you already got your’n, you can keep your’n! But, fer you youger folk, if you ain’t got your’n yet, you ain’t gotta worry ’bout payin’ for none o’ his’n, and he ain’t gotta worry none ’bout payin’ none o’ your’n. ‘Cause your’n is your’n, and his’n is his’n, and never the two shall meet. Did Ol’ Davy Crockett pay fer Jim Bowies knife, ‘n did Jim Bowie pay fer Davey’s COONskin cap? Hell no! They was rugged Murikan individauliss’ ‘n they died fightin’ Mexicans at the Alamo, in the Wer fer Independence, fer your rights o’ freedom ‘n liberty. Ah thank ya fo yo tahm, and remembeh, vote for me – “Yosemite Perry!”
Bang, bang, bangity, bang, bang, bang!!!
And this is how the West was won, and how the election of 2012 can be won! 🙂
Note: This is parody! I hope…
biggerbox,
Fascists depend on alpha male support.
After all, it’s the alpha males who get to wear the brown shirts, beat up on the designated brown people, and keep their white women-folk barefoot and pregnant, making little alpha males for the good of the future of the country. It’s starting to look like Germany in the early 30’s (again – like it sometimes did in the early 00’s).
Weimar?
Why us?
And the answer, I hate to say it, is – probably because we don’t deserve any better – if we let this happen.
We Americans will have nothing but our own selves to blame. I will go down fighting tooth and nail against this kind of mindless, violent, ignorant dystopian future. But, for about 30% of the people out there, this is their “American Dream.”
I hope enough of the remaining 70% realize that their dream is our nightmare. But, with our MSM, all bets are off.
If Perry’s rhetoric pulls the majority of Republican voters into his camp, we’re in deeper shit than I imagined. Have to admit that I did more channel surfing during the debate than I’ve probably done in months, so my take on the debate in general may be compromised.
Body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, subject matter, couched language…I got ‘time to put this black man in his place and his place isn’t in our White House.’ (What’s the refusal of some Republican legislators to attend Obama’s speech tonight but ‘putting him in his place.’)
The only light-bulb that went off in my head from last night’s debate was the thought that Obama’s seeming complacency, willingness to compromise, fear of causing waves, knuckling under etc. comes from his experience of being a black man in ‘white’ America for his entire life and surviving it.
Perry is a pure distillation of meanness and ignorance.
This is the best description I’ve seen of Perry. Perry is also asking the Feds for money to help Texas out with its wildfires, while never losing an opportunity to diss the Federal Government. Excuse me, but who cut firefighting services in Texas? I can guarantee you it wasn’t President Obama.
I read this at another site, and I love it. So, I’m liberating it:
“Read my lips! NO NEW TEXANS!”
“Read my lips! NO NEW TEXANS!â€
LOL! Does that ever deserve to be a bumper sticker!
I’m going to AZ for 10 days, and I am intentionally leaving the laptop at home. I need a break from looking at Perry and worse, his supporters, and seeing … well, whatever.
Bill Bush,
Enjoy!
I don’t blame you.
And don’t worry, I’ll increase my bitching and whining output while you’re gone.
🙂
The worst part about people who call Social Security a Ponzi scheme is that the difference between a “Ponzi scheme” and an “insurance company” is actuarial standards.
Look at life insurance: “we collect investors, and give *fantastic* payouts to some!” Well, that’s *kind* of like a Ponzi scheme… only some people get the big payout, others just pay in, and get nothing.
But actuaries figure out how high premiums should be, and how much can be paid out.
What makes a Ponzi scheme a Ponzi scheme is that you *can’t* balance it, that you promise things that *can’t* be true. You can’t put it on an sustainable footing. If you *can*, it’s no longer a Ponzi scheme.
But that requires a bit of education. And, it requires that reporters be biased against being bullshitted (bullshat?) to.
This is the kind of thing that liberals should push back against. We should be asking news organizations who report on Perry saying this “why don’t you point out that it’s not a Ponzi scheme? Are you so incompetent you don’t know? Or are you so biased for Perry that you’ll give him a pass?”
Here’s an interesting article on hunger in Texas:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/08/314174/hunger-rate-rises-in-perrys-texas-as-it-stays-steady-nationwide/
‘Gulag!
Thanks, bro!
I am rolling on the damned floor……
All reptile brain, all of them. Nothing more civilized in their skulls than Velociraptor vs. TRex.
I just feel that picture is proof. How Newt’s distended belly opens the avenue for Michelle, she looks as if she’s feeding off all the treasures, everything Newt and Callista can offer. Publishing, cheap right wing book pedaling. Yeah lets make some right wing money. Once her and Newt get together, look out below. Hey Marcus, look out below, yeah!
you ain’t gotta worry ’bout payin’ for none o’ his’n, and he ain’t gotta worry
Bout payin, His’n, nuff for me.
How did our media manage to put these rejects on par with the president of the United States?
Can 21% save the rest?
If Perry should ever win trhe White House, it would speak volumes about the inability of a large number of Americans to learn from recent history with GW. It would also say a lot about the GOP’s preference for “alpha male jackasses.” That kind of male (or female, for that matter) is belligerent, short on introspection, and emotionally immature. He (or she) mistakes bravado for actual strength. People like that have a my-way-or-the-highway mentality that touts ignorance as being “authentic” as opposed to being elitist. (read anti-intellectual).