Uh, Mona, Glad you can see it now (something about scales falling from your eyes - perhaps?) but this description fits what has been going on at Fox and Friends, on Hannity (and on the defunct O Rielly Factor) for years.
“There’s a tone of sort of sophomoric clownishness that’s creeped into conservatism now,” she said. “There’s this mood of trolling the opposition, that if you can create liberal tears than anything goes.”
I remember an event for John McCain in his '08 campaign in which given a scenario of a war vet, losing insurance, was met with jeering from the audience of “let him die”! This isn’t new. It is just now straight at the heart, rather than the fringe of the party.
“There’s a tone of sort of sophomoric clownishness that’s creeped into
conservatism now,” she said. “There’s this mood of trolling the
opposition, that if you can create liberal tears than anything goes.”
If a big, loud, brassy and discordant clown car can be considered a tone, then yeah. Seriously, she has just described her rationale for leaving the Republican party. It is not a political entity anymore.
“It was again to create a response, to jab a needle in the eye of liberals.”
If that is all they are there for, then governance is no longer a mission for the party. Leave it, jump ship and find something that makes sense and is actually productive.
It is good that she is setting some sort of bar.
It is sad that the bar is set so low.
It is sadder that so many Republicans fail to clear it.
Governance hasn’t been an issue for the republicans since Eisenhower.
I think it actually was during a Republican candidates debate. Five Republicans on stage not a single one reacted to the “let him die” shout - not one.
Can we just say they do not even dial it home anymore?
That sounds right. The details didn’t stick with me - but the appalling incident and lack of comment sure as heck did.
2008 was when McCain shot down some nutty lady who was shouting about Obama being a seekrit mooslim. I believe the “let him die!” was a 2012 GOP presidential primary debate.
“…basic principles of dignity and integrity and belief that we should stand up for honesty…”
Like during the George W Bush administration, right Mona?
Of course it’s a game. A game of money and power. If I can get it I’ll say anything and deny it later. Works for Trump, why not the GOP as a whole?
Run for office. Any office. Just get out there and RUN!
The technical term is callithump…
Well, when you work your entire career to foster sophmoric clownishness and a mob mentality - you ought not to be surprised when they act like a mob.
Why attack Mona when she has seen the light? Just like those who attack Joe S. Folks who used to be against you who are now on your side, is a good thing. Every morning Morning Joe attacks trump and the repubs. Why would folks think this is bad because Joe has changed? Aren’t we glad when folks post how they use to be repubs, but now have moved left? We need all the help we can get to get control of our country.
‘a tone of sort of sophomoric clownishness’…yes since January 2017.
Another “principled conservative”, Erick Heart Attack Waiting Too Long to Happen Erickson, is attacking David Hogg personally and with name-calling. Erickson shares Charen’s distaste for Trump’s sexual escapades, and is often lauded as a conservative who has courageously stayed off the Trump train.
“There’s a tone of sort of sophomoric clownishness that’s creeped into conservatism now,”
When conservatives and Republicans let their party get taken over by frat party leftovers like James O’Keefe, Tucker Carlson and the Trump sons it’s not surprising that they have been led to the current state of affairs.
“There are fewer and fewer people Republicans who are speaking up”
FIFY Mona.
And this is why conservative apparatchiks like Charen deserve qualified praise at best or none at all: they are still ‘color blind’ so most of the nation’s population remains effectively invisible to them. They also cannot see how the foundation they helped build could support what it was so clearly intended to support: white nativist dominance. They lament the vulgarity, sure, but more than that they lament the loss of control over their creation.
Addendum: Charles Pierce comments on Marco Rubio WRT his (very slightly) softened gun stance during town hall “…when a goat sings opera, you don’t worry much about whether he’s off-key” pretty much captures my attitude toward Charen and her ilk but so also does my old pappy’s quip that a dancing bear surprises us so much we don’t notice how poorly it does it.
One person’s sophomoric clownishness is another person’s fascism and I think the latter is a more accurate description. But, that aside, it is good to see a non-fascist conservative with the courage to say something.
Someone is angling for a regular slot on Mornin’ Joe.