Although the true subtext of the rambling, garrulous Christopher Buckley op-ed called The Manchurian Conservative appears to be I like John McCain because he pisses off all my Daddy’s friends, the point in the text is … um … well, may I quote the last paragraph in full?
I’d love to have been inside his brain—or to have had a mind-reading crawl run across the bottom of the TV screen—as he was offering his emollient words. I’m guessing it was something along the lines of, “All right, you blinking, high-maintenance idjits, if this is what it takes, I’m willing to do it, but honestly I’d rather be doing vodka shots with Hillary Clinton.” But then defiance—defiance of the gleeful kind—is a quality I’ve always associated with conservatism.
So. What's great about John McCain is his gleeful defiance, the kind of defiance that is completely silent and inside his brain, or even better, can be imagined to be inside his brain. That's defiance! The willingness to put up with high-maintenance idiots instead of drinking with political bedfellows. That kind of defiance. Yep, the one thing you can say about John McCain is…
Well, actually, it looks like you can say whatever you want about John McCain.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.
That’s funny, defiance of the gleeful kind is what I’ve always associated with liberalism.
Maybe we’re not so different, after all. Maybe there’s hope that my side of the aisle and Mr. Buckley’s can get together and work towards making a better nation for our children instead of another dollar for ourselves. Maybe we’re on the verge of a great political sea-change, and moneyed, special-interest lobbies won’t be able to buy legislation, and the Executive branch will return to governance by rule of law! Maybe…
Naaaaahhh…
Gee, if he really wanted to irk his daddy’s pals, couldn’t he have endorsed Kucinich a couple of months back? And if he really, really, really wanted to cheese them off, he could listen to some of the original songs of Matt Hulan via the web by streaming WUVT’s broadcast tonight at 7:00 pm Eastern Time. I’ll be there too, because I really want to help Chris Buckley annoy his elders. Yep. I’m a helper. Just go to:
http://www.wuvt.vt.edu
Endorsing Rep. Kucinich might make his Daddy mad at him, but I doubt that Rep. Kucinich can himself raise the Buckley blood pressure. In fact, I suspect that Rep. Kucinich has never told any of Mr. Buckley (pere)’s friends to go fuck themselves, or even called them chickenshit. Could be wrong. But I’m guessing that it’s personal between the Arizona Senator and the National Review gang, which lets Mr. Buckley (fils) endorse the man, tell his Daddy that he’s being a good boy, and then laugh and laugh. The invasion of Iran would just be the icing on the cake.
Frankly, he’d probably be better off listening to Matt Hulan on WUVT.
Thanks,
-V.
Aw, gee. Chris doesn’t mention that he’s a third of the band Xenolith, of which I’m just a part. We’re doing songs by him and Jon, as well, so thanks for the plugs and all, but it ain’t about me.
peace
Matt
AND we plugged this very fine website in our own ineffective way. I think things went south when I pronounced your name “varbibididianenenen.” Finally we blurted out, “Tohu Bohu!”
Our intentions were good, though.
Well, I guess he doesn’t have to worry about pissing daddy off anymore. I’m at an age where I can lament the passing of a “better breed” of bastard.