A Grudging Tip of the Hat to My Foe

Admit it: You’ve done it before.

No, not that; that’s gross.  What I meant was, every once in while, you creep over to the wing of the house that you’ve been told not to got to, the one about which the rumors swirl dark and evil.  In the dead of night, perhaps, or for a few minutes from the anonymity of a work computer, you click over to Free Republic or Little Green Footballs or Michelle Malkin (sorry no links; I seem to have momentarily forgotten how to do that), and you marvel at the vapidity.  Bereft of ideas and unencumbered by conscience, these last defenders of the indefensible are a case study in the death of a political movement, and in their final throes (heh) they’re apt to say the darndest things.

But every once in a while, a post like this one (danger: RedState) can actually do some good, either by helping a progressive see things in a different light or by exposing the vitriol that is the sole foundation of the “philosophy” of some wingnuts.  The one linked above, entitled Freakin’ Awesome Obama Music Video did both for this moonbat, and I just gotta tip my hat to author Ericka Andersen.

It’s not a pro-Obama diary (perish the thought) but it is profoundly respectful of a music video put out by a group of Obama supporters – and it’s on RedState‘s front page (pre-dawn update: it’s now on the DKos front page, too).  Here’s the piece in question:

The author uses words like “inspiration” and “rustle something good in your heart” to describe it, but in the comments, she’s taken to task by a few Neanderthals who, rather predictably, find it “annoying, out-of-synch, and shrill” or “updated 60’s bull!!”  I’ll leave the Gentle Reader to decide how (or if) it impacts him or her, and try to confine my ranting to how the RedStaters reacted to the diary, and how it helped me to make up my mind with regards to my state’s caucuses, coming up on Tuesday.

Some of the commenters, of course, got their Melville mojo working, and seem as always guided by one of his immortal quotes (though most of this type of RedStater likely think it originated with Khan Noonien Singh on the bridge of the U.S.S. Reliant):

“To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee; For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.”

And indeed, one needn’t go far into the comments to find expressions of this sort – modified, of course, for the wingnut audience.  Here’s a couple:

This just makes my skin crawl – an empty, meaningless hoseanna to noble-sounding platitudes that mean nothing and do nothing but distract and shut off critical thinking. Reminds me of the hysteric ultra-radical sixties propaganda used to excuse just about any left-wing atrocity or absurd power grab.

When a candidate does nothing but go for the gut, he’s hiding some revolting ideas in my book.

–Veritas Reality

This video combines two of our nation’s biggest embarrassments: Our idiotic Washington politicians and our idiotic Hollywood celebrities.

–Vryheid

Fortunately, some of our adversaries are a little more willing to admit that this video is some powerful stuff, even if they do it a bit grudgingly…

Seems people here aren’t getting it. It is slick! Of course it is intended to appeal to people in the gut instead of the head. But it does a darn good job of that, and that’s the point. Obviously the content is lacking. Add those kind of production values to a Mitt Romney or John McCain video and we’d really be getting somewhere.

–mcg

…and often accompanied by an assurance that although they personally weren’t persuaded, they can see how it might affect the weak-minded:

You can disagree with almost every word Barack Obama says. I certainly do. But I think you have to have your head buried in the sand to deny that his speech(es) and this video are going to be powerful to some people.

I think much of America, as a whole, doesn’t necessarily vote on the issues. If you look at exit polls, where McCain wins the pro-choice crowd in Florida and Edwards wins the pro war(!) crowd in Carolina, it seems obvious to me that people vote from their gut and not necessarily their heads, Which is something a powerful speaker than lacks in substance like Obama can use to his advantage.

McCain needs to make a video like this.

–Mattpat11

You can count me among the flaccid-brained, I suppose, because this one worked on me.  My days are spent amongst teenagers, so it’s not the hyper-hipness that got me, but I do respect both message and the way in which it was delivered.  Kudos to producer will.i.am. – I wouldn’t walk across the street to listen to the Black Eyed Peas, but this, to paraphrase Randy Jackson, is hot.

And as I mentioned above, it helped me make up my mind about Tuesday.  I’d been thinking of caucusing for Mike Gravel, so as to assure my singular obstinacy a place in the footnotes of the history of a tiny mining town in the Rockies – forevermore, I would be able to point to the minutes of a 2008 Democratic caucus and say, “see there!  That one vote for Gravel in the first round of viability voting?  That was me!”  I figured that’d be about truest I could be to that old dictum, vote conscience in the primaries, party in the general, now that the progressives have all been muscled out of the campaign.

But “Yes We Can” is something I can get behind, and it feels a lot more positive than “no more dynasties.”  Thanks are due, then, to Erika Anderson, elmidd (who oughta win a Voice in the Wilderness award for efforts to lift the scales from the eyes of the zealots), and the RedStaters who commented so wisely and level-headedly about Ms. Anderson’s diary – it’s not like your side is losing a vote here, but your discussion helped prompt me to make a decision that’s been in flux for a few weeks now.  Kudos, and thanks for helping me to avoid looking like the town lunatic when caucus time comes around in a couple of days.