Nasty is just nasty, Eric
Why is it, the Left thinks it’s cool to be nasty?
Eric Alterman, professor of English and prince of the run-on sentence, wants you to know he thinks Michele Bachmann is an idiot, that any suggestion she run for President is idiotic.
That’s about it.
Eric thinks Michele is stupid and you should know what he thinks, and agree with him, because, well, he is a professor after all, and only professors should determine who should run for President. The great unwashed are simply too uneducated to decide such things without help you see, harumph, harumph.
(It’s a good thing we followed the advice of the intelligentsia in 2006 and 2008 given the results, wouldn’t you say?)
Eric’s headline in The Daily Beast a couple days ago: “Stop Taking Bachmann Seriously!” Since he claims most people agree with him that she is not to be taken seriously, one presumes his target audience for this column is very small, corresponding to his peripheral vision no doubt.
Ordinarily, a rational person takes a look at a candidate and considers whether or not to take them seriously based on the candidate’s accomplishments, qualifications, experience, voting record, personal integrity, track record and presence, or electability. (Obviously, most voters were not being rational in 2008, and no doubt, Eric voted for the victor, a demonstration of his wisdom in these matters.) As with making an executive hiring decision, selecting a President is serious business to be conducted in a serious fashion.
Not with Eric.
He wants you to dismiss the Congresswoman because she made fact errors in a couple speeches. That’s right. For Eric, the idea of a Bachmann candidacy is a charade, a “foolish and ridiculous spectacle,” an “exercise in vanity and self-delusion,” because she made a mistake. By that measure, no one should run for office. By that measure, perhaps no one should obtain tenure?
Eric informs us Michele is “obviously mentally and emotionally challenged,” so any suggestion she run for President is ludicrous, a story not to be taken seriously, a story he goes on to write about, endlessly, apparently taking her seriously in some way or other?
Who is emotionally/mentally challenged?
Anyone would be well-advised to be suspicious of the motives of a writer who claims everyone else is crazy, and only he possesses the keys to sanity. This is precisely what Eric does in many of his writings, going so far as to insist he has a superior IQ because most intellectuals reside exclusively in his neighborhood.
Of course that would exclude real intellectuals like Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, William F. Buckley, Marvin Olasky, Michael Medved, Janice Rogers Brown, Charles Krauthammer, F.A. Hayek, Allan Bloom, Dennis Prager and Thomas Sowell , because, you see, there is no such thing as a conservative intellectual in Eric’s universe, and thus he reveals his inner bigot to go along with his apparent intelligence deficit.
Eric doesn’t really do a very good job skewering Michele. His accusations aren’t that penetrating. His presentation is humorless and witless. He mistakes sarcasm for satire. And he is fairly transparent. He simply doesn’t like conservatives so he indulges himself in personal attacks and calls it legitimate commentary. Of course it is nothing of the kind, but never make the mistake asking a Leftist to demonstrate integrity. Why bother since integrity is glaringly absent in the first place.
Truth be told, Michele Bachmann is among the top five contenders for the Republican nomination. She is an attorney. She worked as an attorney. She has served in the House for four years representing Minnesota. Before being elected to the House of Representatives she served in the Minnesota State Senate for two years. Michele and her husband raised five of their own children and provided foster care for 23 others. The Bachmann’s started a Christian counseling clinic which they operate to this day, and they have an ownership interest in farming in Minnesota.
Like Sarah Palin and her husband, the Bachmann’s are self-made, hardworking, responsible and successful professionals who have also succeeded in their private lives and in public service. They are unapologetically Christian pro-life patriots who've gone the extra mile for others for many years.
Perhaps this is why Eric is so worked up.
Perhaps he makes the mistake of comparing himself to others more accomplished and more successful. That can be disappointing to an academic divorcee who has never worked outside the academy, one whose entire existence is confined to the deafening echo chamber of the seething, envious and eternally derogatory Left.
What is it about Leftist men and Conservative women, especially unattractive Leftist men and very attractive Conservative women? Given the vicious and never-ending attacks perpetrated by Leftist men, you have to wonder. Is it fear of failure, fear of rejection or just cover for gross inadequacy? How does the little man compensate, feeding as he does from the public trough?
Oh well. Eric is only 51. He probably just needs a little more time to grow up. Eventually, adults determine adolescent nastiness is ‘inappropriate.’ Give him time.
It might help if he came down from the ivory tower. Perhaps he should rub shoulders with the great unwashed at ground level and find out what they think. After all, in the words of George Bailey from Bachmann’s Midwest, “they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community.” They kinda like Michele.
Does that make them idiots too, Eric, or just teabaggers?
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