Glenn Greenwald's latest typically excellent post lays it bare once again - that being a Republican is no longer anything more than being and/or admiring big, tough, manly MEN.
But there's a tragic root cause he's overlooking.
Not only have you got Chris Matthews getting hot and bothered over how Fred Thompson probably smells (I wish I was kidding), you've got Rush Limbaugh, well, being Rush Limbaugh.
... Virtually the entire show is now devoted to an overt celebration of masculinity -- by Rush Limbaugh -- and to claims that Democrats and liberals lack masculinity.
As but one example, Rush claimed that the New York Times buried the story of the JFK terrorist plot on page C30, immediately prior to the Sports Section, because nobody would see it there, because the "wimps and sissies who read the New York Times don't read the Sports section, because it's too macho for them."
There's Instapundit and his version of an existential threat:
"Are we turning into a nation of wimps?"
There's Joe Lieberman shaking his fist in triumph at fictional, onscreen U.S. military victories as preparation for encouraging war with Iran (via Jeffrey Goldberg in the New Yorker):
Lieberman likes expressions of American power. A few years ago, I was in a movie theatre in Washington when I noticed Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, a few seats down. The film was "Behind Enemy Lines," in which Owen Wilson plays a U.S. pilot shot down in Bosnia. Whenever the American military scored an onscreen hit, Lieberman pumped his fist and said, "Yeah!" and "All right!"
Etc., etc. And Greenwald, as usual, nails it: "this mentality has come to dominate our political culture, as those who so plainly perceive themselves (understandably) to be lacking the traditional masculine virtues degrade and exploit our political system in order to satisfy those cravings."
Read the whole thing. It's more than worthwhile.
But he lacks compassion. Can't he see what's going on here? It's a medical tragedy affecting roughly 29% of Americans.
Testosterone poisoning.
It can hit men or women. It does not discriminate based on age, although often children who are hit with it grow out of it. The symptoms include a desire to overpower, an inability to admit mistakes, demanding more courage from others than one has ever shown oneself, and a general urge to smash.
UPDATE: How could I forget Commander Guy?
This is no joke. This disease is often fatal, sometimes to the victim, but often to innocent people.
We need to break free of the grips of this terrible malady. It's one of the biggest killers in the world.
Can't we have a telethon or something?
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