Friday, April 23, 2010

Morphing Agnew into Obama

Since 1960 when I became voting age (21 then) I've heard and seen a lot of politicians. I've been trying to remember what president has been as condescending, whiny, hostile, insincere, two-faced, arrogant, flippant, contemptuous of other viewpoints, and such a bald faced liar about transparency as our current White House resident during this period in our history. And I think I’ve found him at Old Hickory’s Weblog description and remembrance of good old Spiro Agnew, President Nixon's first vice president who resigned in disgrace.

Thanks, Old Hickory, for the stern finger pointing photo and this phrase: "bullying, faux-populist tone" because I've been trying to come up with a phrase to describe his chastising, eye-flashing, finger wagging mannerisms, and after reading through your Agnew piece, I’ve found just the right essay. And with just a few strike throughs, you have other phrases I can use.

"throws out a standard article of Party doctrine"

"today's bipartisanship means that some Democrats Republicans do what the Republicans Democrats all want"

"he used that race as his segway for talking about race that"

"This is the Vice President talking about the government his Party heads as though it were some alien force that the Republican President was struggling to control"


"Then he takes his audience into the heart of darkness in their worldview, to the evil doings of The Liberals capitalists"

"The first thing that strikes a former Mississippian liberal like me is the astonishing amount of projection of unpleasant and antisocial traits onto The Liberals The Conservatives. These descriptions applied to the everyday behavior and attitudes of the segregationists wealthy of the day today."

That last sentence is enigmatic. He's accusing the Evil Ones of wanting to excuse crimes committed by the disadvantages Wall Street, again without actually naming any of these risible liberals conservatives who supposedly think that.

Agnew's Obama's speeches are significant because they show what came to be the dominant authoritarian sentiment of today's Republican Democratic Party at a time when "the Sixties" were are still happening. Agnew Obama was is the darling of the conservative leftist culture warriors in of 1969. [Bill Ayers, Days of rage, etc.]

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