TomFitz
Mayor
I thought I would share this unfortunate post. Ostensibly it's about Sandra Fluke. It is the usual rude and vulgar attack. But what's more, it reflects the very low standards that the hard right sets for leaders and for people in public life.
Consider the meat of the attack.
How was Sandra Fluke "thrown under the bus" by liberals? It seems as if she testified about an issue she was active in before Congress. There is no evidence that she had any other motive. Fame and fortune did not enter into it. She is not meeting with ghost writers, negotiating a contract to be a "Guest commentator" on a partisan public relations TV network, and she's not doing the rounds of the talk shows.
But for many conservatives , getting involved in government and public policy apparently must involve the ulterior motive of "fame and fortune".
I wonder why that is?
Perhaps it's because they're conditioned to it.
After all, the conservative movement over the past few years has been populated with people who gained notoriety and cashed in. Sarah Palin is exhibit one. Joe the Plumber is another. Both were actively promoted by the conservative noise machine, and both have cashed in. Public service doesn't really seem to mean much to either one of them.
Then there are opportunists who used their connections to use the political process to cash in for themselves, while trying to pass themselves off as champions of the cause. Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich fit this mold. Here again, self aggrandizement is far more important to both of these men than is serving the country. Newt Gingrich serves so many of the people that his various organizations occupy several floors of a building on K Street. Herman Cain has a shorter list; RJ Reynolds and Koch Industries.
And finally there's Donald Trump, who used political grandstanding to promote the flagging ratings of his television show. Again, public service was talked about, but it was apparent that the "candidate" had little real interest in it.
The sad thing is that many conservatives, particularly of the talk radio/Fox New variety, take this sort of tabloid politics for granted. They seem to think that politics is a big game show played on the radio every afternoon. Of course, the media feeds that for ratings. (that is bi partisan).
But the modern conservative movement is so shot through with the "I've got mine, now screw you" mentality, that much of the audience for people like Cain, Palin, Limbaugh etc actually expect this as a norm.
And they wonder why they get the leaders they have.
