Thursday, January 24, 2008

Stone Cold Misogyny

Early this month, I remarked on how the blind, seething hatred held by the right against Hillary Clinton was one of the main forces pushing me into her camp. I don't want people to think that they can engage in this cesspool of toxicity and still win elections. And the best thing that could be done to accomplish that goal would be to stuff a Hillary Clinton presidency straight down their misogynist, Neanderthal throats.

When I first saw this, I just assumed it was another juvenile, hateful antic from some random mid-twenties Hillary-basher trying to prove his masculinity and failing dramatically:



Charming, isn't it?

But it turns out that this not the work of some random dude. Rather, it's a project of Roger Stone, a top Republican operative and one of the doyens of modern smear campaigning. In addition to being a Watergate conspirator, Stone has plenty of links to the modern party: he worked on Reagan's presidential campaigns, Dole's presidential campaign, even Arlen Specter's aborted presidential campaign, and was enlisted by James Baker to start street riots to shutdown the Florida recount in 2000.

Stone isn't connected to any campaign (or if he is, they've got some 'splainin to do real fast). But he is a critical component of the Republican Party apparatus. The hatred of Hillary Clinton is not just the work of some Limbaugh-listening hicks in trailers. It is institutionalized by the modern GOP. They buy into it as a party.

But this year, finally, folks are starting to push back. Folks are saying they're tired of this sort of treatment, and they're rising up it against it. So keep it up, Stone. you'll demean her right into the White House.

3 comments:

Celtic Dragon said...

Considering the slime the Clinton's peddle each and every time one of them campaigns, I'm calling this pot, meet kettle. You can't call foul when someone does right back to you what you do to them, without being a frikkin' hypocrite, which is the Clinton's waking state I suppose.

And street riots? If the left takes to the street it's calledf a protest, when the right does it it's a street riot? Talk about hypocracy...

David Schraub said...

I'm not sure what "hypocracy" is -- "government of those beneath"? Anyway. I'm not a fan of Hillary Clinton's campaign tactics. But she hasn't called any of her opponents racial slurs. She hasn't denigrated their sexual orientation. She hasn't done anything akin to laughing when someone asked "How do we beat the bitch", ala McCain. There's no comparison.

Difference between protest and a riot -- the former expresses a viewpoint (generally a discontented one) peacefully. The latter actively tries to intimidate people into immediately changing their action. The Brooks Brothers rioters literally stormed the Miami-Dade canvass board, assaulted several officials, and forced them to reverse their decision to recount. That's a riot.

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