Dittohead In Chief

by digby

In spite of their paeans to patriotism and religion, I have always believed that the heart of the conservative movement was really just simple racism and authoritarianism and all their bleating about “values” is a nothing more than a weapon with which to hit Democrats over the head. After all, the highest rates of divorce, single motherhood and abortion are in the deepest of conservative red states. There’s a lotta preachin’ but not a lot of practicin’.

We are about to see if I’m right because if the Republicans nominate Giuliani, they will have shown their true colors once and for all. Via Steve Benen, Here’s John Dickerson at Slate describing this candidate’s strategy:

Running for the GOP presidential nomination, Giuliani is now the chief heckler of Democrats. He called Barack Obama and John Edwards “losers,” has revived the insult of “socialized medicine” when referring to Democratic health-care plans, and now charges the Democrats are trying to bring back the nanny state. He taunts Democrats to use the term “Islamic terrorists,” and when they don’t, he says it’s all the proof one needs they won’t keep us safe. I asked him in 2006 whether he thought Democrats were advocating appeasement with the terrorists. He said he didn’t see it that way. He sure does now, suggesting Democrats would invite another 9/11-style attack. I expect him to start showing up at Clinton rallies and making noises with his armpit.

Dickerson points out that Giuliani risks losing his “electability” cred by doing this because he is supposed to be able to bring in independents, but too much of this hyper-partisan bashing may chase them away. That’s true, but Rudy has no choice. Aside from the fact that African American New Yorkers hate his guts, he has nothing to recommend him to the GOP base except an extremely silly national security image he’s built out of his 9/11 press conferences. (His actual 9/11 performance doesn’t even qualify him to run FEMA, much less run US foreign policy.)

As both Kevin Drum and Benen point out, the substance of his speeches and public appearances are little more than gibberish — he’s the Italian George W. Bush, just trash talk and macho attitude. His personal life is so complicated that he makes Bill and Hill look like Ma and Pa kettle.

He has to go straight for the Republican id. And unsurprisingly the polls indicate that the Republican base is liking what it hears. And why wouldn’t they? Rudy’s campaigning as if he were a right wing talk show host. They didn’t care that Rush was a thrice married drug addict and they don’t care that Rudy’s a thrice married, pro-choice cross dresser. They just hate Democrats, period, and they don’t care what you do or even what you believe, as long as you hate Democrats too. Rudy is the first full-blown dittohead presidential candidate.

We’ll have to see if the country at large wants to take a trip to Limbaughland in the general, but if I had to guess, I’d say Rush’s schtick is way tired except to the hardocre talk radio haters. To the public at large it sounds like political Hootie and the Blowfish — a bunch of bad songs that were way overplayed and are now hideous reminders of an era that’s mercifully passed.

And that may end up being bad news for Rudy in the general. His Rushian soundbites are being dutifully archived for repeated playing if he gets the nod and I doubt people are going to enjoy hearing his version of “I Only Wanna Be With You” any more than Hootie’s. He can run as a dittohead but he can’t hide.

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