Ryan flying very close to the sun
by digby
I see the right wing’s Churchill fetish continues apace. You’ll recall that Junior Bush and his slavering sycophants had a thing for him. In fact Bush reportedly compared himself to Churchill and found Churchill wanting:
The president confided to (Andrew Roberts, author of “The Churchillians”) that he believes he has an advantage over Churchill, a reliable source with access to the conversation told me. He has faith in God, Bush explained, but Churchill, an agnostic, did not. Because he believes in God, it is easier for him to make decisions and stick to them than it was for Churchill. Bush said he doesn’t worry, or feel alone, or care if he is unpopular. He has God.God as BFF. how convenient.
Newtie has been famously compared (and compared himself) to him too. (In fact, his spokesman Tony Blankley compared him favorably to every great leader in history, including Gandhi.)
There are just certain conservatives who feel so great about themselves that they can’t help but publicly wank on about their historical place in histgory and compare themselves to greatest Generals and Leaders. Guess who the latest one is:
The House Budget Committee chairman finds himself at the center of a national debate over Medicare and, clearly reveling the fight, is using British metaphors to explain his desire for a top-to-bottom debate over his budget blueprint and the massive restructuring of Medicare it envisions for every American 55 and younger.
“This is a Churchillian-type of moment in history,” Ryan told National Journal. “The polls are predictable. They are regrettable. But this is a unique time in our history. We can’t go wobbly.”
That piece is written by Major Garrett who spent years inside the Fox bubble. He helpfully explains the Churchill syndrome:
Winston Churchill carries a dual metaphorical meaning for conservatives. They invoke him as someone who was politically scorned and isolated for warning of a foreseeable but underappreciated danger–Adolf Hitler. They also see Churchill as indefatigable and heroic in summoning British grit, perseverance, and tenacity in the face of the Nazi blitz.
Many Americans revere Churchill for these same qualities, and the adoration is by no means uniquely Republican. But Republicans claim Churchill more frequently than Democrats. Ryan’s reference to “wobbly” is straight from the Iron Lady–former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher–who famously told President George H.W. Bush after the United Nations approved a resolution enforcing an embargo on Iraq that “this was no time to go wobbly … and we must not let the faint hearts grow in strength.”
Ryan, in essence, intends to be Churchill and Thatcher as the debate over Medicare’s future intensifies. And Ryan thinks this is his moment.
“I was made and wired for this type of thing,” he said in an interview from his Capitol office late Thursday. “We are on the right side of history. We are ready. I talked to at least 100 Republican members in the last two days. They all told me, ‘We gotta go, we’ve got to defend this.’ They are not queasy. They are all saying, ‘Put me in coach.’ Our members are comfortable.”
For some reason I’m not reminded of Churchill so much as Napoleon. (Or maybe Icarus.)
Ryan is drunk on Republican kool-aid — the poison kind that makes you sick with conservative hubris. It will kill him politically. It always does. The question is how much damage he does in the meantime — to his party and to the country.
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