Thursday, July 10, 2014

SEAN HANNITY AND RICK PERRY, ACTION FIGURES

Been to Sean Hannity's Twitter feed lately? It's a trip....





What's happening? Well, Hannity jetted down to Texas, where he checked out the border in Rick "Photo Op" Perry's helicopter...



... before the two of them boarded a Texas Highway Patrol boat ...



... full of badass firepower ...



...after which they posed for more photos guaranteed to put hair on your chest:



Last night, Rachel Maddow quoted something Kevin Drum wrote that's absolutely correct: Congress won't work with President Obama to try to solve the problems at the border.
Well, of course it won't happen. The crisis along the border is tailor made for Republicans. It makes their base hopping mad, it juices their campaign fundraising, and anytime the government is unable to address a problem it makes Obama look bad. Why on earth would Republicans want to do anything to change any of this?
Right-wing insiders don't give a crap about solving this problem. Their interest in it is strictly for the agitprop value. It gooses ratings for Fox News and for radio shows like Hannity's; it's a base motivator for the GOP in November; and it really might help rebrand Rick Perry after his gaffe-prone performance in the 2012 presidential race -- it might make angry GOP voters forget that he use to act softhearted when talking about educating immigrant children.

Decades ago, Rupert Murdoch began injecting a tabloid-newspaper sensibility into post-Powell Memo right-wing propaganda. It worked. It continues to work. You and I may think Hannity and Perry look ridiculous, and might scoff at anyone who thinks they look like heroes, but there are more of them in America than there are of us. The people who thought non-combatant Ronald Reagan was a war hero because he saluted all the time, or non-combatant George W. Bush was a war hero because he donned that flight suit, are the audience for this nonsense. It's a big audience.

Democrats don't give ordinary Americans the government they want, and Republicans actively and avowedly seek a government of, by, and for the rich ... but the right, at least, knows how to generate this kind of phony, macho theater. It's what drives angry old white heartlanders to the polls in non-presidential election after non-presidential election. It's what keeps our political balance skewed as far to the right as it is now.

Posted by Steve M. at 1:24 PM 0 Comments
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