Bold Theory: McCain and Bush Smitten with same Disconnection of Arrogance.
by C. Edmund Wright
What do the Straight Talk Express and it’s “maverick” inhabitant and the “new tone” of George Bush and Karl Rove have in common? It’s an arrogant disconnect with their base supporters. Or a disconnected arrogance? Or both.
And it’s largely an un-recognized and therefore an un-reported story. Afterall, most folks fall all over themselves to give Bush credit for his “new tone” and his “compassionate conservatism” and fall even harder to do the same for the Maverick and his so called “straight talk” express. These things are considered noble and signs of goodwill and signs of courage.
So let me be the first to say that they are NOT noble, NOT signs of goodwill and they are the OPPOSITE of showing courage. Oh, and for the record, they always eventually fail. Bush and Rove’s “new tone” has resulted in approval ratings ahead of only lawyers, poisonous snakes and the Democrat congress….not necessarily in that order.
Meanwhile, McCain’s “courage” and ability to “reach across the aisle” has won him friends among the liberals and in the media so far. But just wait til he starts campaigning against the “Obamanation” (my little triple entendre phrase). You will see the liberals and the media turn on him faster than they did on Don Imus. And for many of the same reasons.
OK you say…so it doesn’t work. But what about the arrogance part of the equation? I’m so glad you axed. First, understand that the new tone and the straight talk express have been concocted for one purpose. To make the person in question (Bush and McCain) loved and respected. These paradigms are designed for purely self serving purposes. Now beyond the obvious and inherent self serving nature of asking for political power, these are designed to do so while appearing to be courageous and selfless efforts to actually share power and share the love.
If it’s all the same to you, I’d much prefer Mitt Romney’s statement at C-PAC that “I HATE to lose!” Say what you will about Mitt, but he’s honest about wanting to make money in business (which he has) and wants to win elections (he normally does). To me, THAT is a show of courage. It's like "yes, this is about me winning…but join me and the country can win too."
Now contrast the Bush and Rove strategy: to let Ted Kennedy write the education bill did not one bit of good in getting teachers unions to vote Republican, but it did waste a lot of taxpayer money. Letting McCain-Feingold go through did nothing to make McCain and Feingold like Bush…but it did insure that money and politics are now more closely tied together than ever before. Oh, and it chipped a nice chunk out of the Constitituion. And the worry about collateral damage in Iraq? Has done absolutely nothing to make the anti war left hate Bush less…but it has cost American soldiers lives and more taxpayer money.
But I digress. I can’t seem to get off the abject failure part of this and get to the stinkly little motivational arrogance. And it is indeed the height of condescending arrogance. Consider:
First, Bush was arrogant enough that he thought the sheer force of his personality and a little harmless compromise here and there would make the Washington Democrats like him. Afterall, it worked in Austin. Uh Mr. Prez..not so much in D.C.
Second, he was willing to throw his base conservative supporters under the bus to accomplish this. You know, HE was going to bring a “new tone” to Washington….as in a tone different than our tone. He was above us… more enlightened than us…. morally superior than us and heck, just nicer than us. And he was going to be liked by the Ted Kennedys and the Clintons and the rest of the left….and we were supposed to just sit there and tolerate it while these very same folks continued to call us racists, biggots, greedy homophobic mean spirited intolerant idiots.
Uh excuse me Mr. Bush…but this “aint’ about you.” You cannot rise above your supporters. It is impractical. It does not work. It DID not work. And it was very self centered and arrogant of you to think it would. Plus it showed a stunning naivete about what a Washington liberal is about.
And the Straight Talk Express is just another shade of the same pale pastel (a little Reagan clarity is always helpful). It’s McCain’s way of saying He is better than us. He is smarter than us. Nicer than us. More enlightened than us. More courageous than us.
Of course, he is none of those things. He has risen to the heights because he has belittled us, made fun of us, cut our legislative legs out from under us at very key times….and a willing media has gone along because McCain’s success in those things was thwarting a conservative agenda.
It would show stunning arrogance and stunning naivete for him to think that now…when compared to Obama he is much more conservative…that this same modus operandi will play with this same media and have the same results. He needs to see how it worked for Bush….and for Imus. And in light of those lessons, perhaps the Maverick can reconsider just how important and "productive" it will be to throw the conservative base under the straight talk express bus.