Creeping Jethro Bodine-ism In The Republican Party

[BR_Parkway]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/3/9/94628/62426

It is a dirty little secret that we don’t like to talk about, but there is no really requirement for being intelligent and being a Senator or a Congressman. Sure, we love to think that the voters of this nation will make an informed decision and not elect an obvious fool to one of the most powerful offices of our nation, but the evidence just does not support that wish.

In some ways, what you have to do to be elected in our modern system actually selects against the truly smart. Campaigning, for candidates and for the most part consists of saying the same thing, the same way over and over and over and over and over. There is the basic stump speech, there is the basic door knock spiel and there is the basic fund raising pitch. For months on end this is most of a what a candidate will say. That is not something that most very smart people find interesting or desirable to do.

The smart ones who are elected do it because they know it is the way to get to where their thoughts and words can make a difference. However, that does not prevent those who are not so smart from doing it as well, the difference comes when it is time for them to do that actual job as opposed to the job of campaigning. This where we get our Jethros in Congress.

Think back the old Beverly Hill Billy’s show and you will see what I mean. Jethro was the completely gormless backwoods cousin Jed Calmpet brought with them to California. He was enthusiastic about everything, even though he was the complete and total package in terms of cluelessness. This allowed him to say and do the dumbest things with complete sincerity. It was never his fault that things fell apart, he did not have a mean bone in his body, he just went where he was told and did what he was told was the right thing.

This is the problem with far too many Republicans in the House and Senate. They are members of the CPAC training, which was about looking good, raising money and parroting the talking points of the leadership. This was the brain child of Newt Gingrich and it worked as long as there was a core of smart (and lets face it, corrupt and evil) leadership in the Republican Party.

Where things started to go bad for the Republicans is when the corruption got to the point where people like Newt and Tom DeLay and other Republican Revolution leaders were shamed out of Congress. This left the Republicans in the position of moving some of their Jethros up to leadership positions. This is how the frightfully orange John Boehner becomes the Minority Leader. A man so gormless that after a day of listening to substanitive back and forth about health care thinks it is okay and effective to repeat the stale and discredited Republican talking points. Or Minority Whip Eric Cantor who brought enough binders to make himself a little fort at the health care summit and proceeded to hide behind it.

I'm sure there are some who are dumb and pumped full of talking points - but some of them are just down right mean

[Jokerman]

1. Creeping? More like galloping.

Today's republican party is anti-science and anti-intellectual from the top to the bottom. Just look at their heroes:

Reagan was an amiable old fool.

W was a arrogant idiot.

Palin's abject stupidity makes both of them look like geniuses.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Dumbing Down The Message for the Masses

This is the Republican strategy: Make the message simple and the sheeple will remember it.

Sad but true.

Orwell mentions this strategy in Animal Farm, in the famous quote "4-legs good, 2-legs bad" which made it easy for the sheep to remember which side to support.

The real frightening thing, to me anyway, is how old this recipe for success really is. Older than Karl Rove, Orwell, Goebbels, and even older than Machiavelli. I found a quote that goes all the way back to the early middle ages and scares the hell out of me every time I read it:

"It is striking to see the most cultivated and the most eminent representatives of the new Christian elite, conscious of their cultural unworthiness compared to the last purists, renounce what they yet possessed or could acquire in the form of intellectual refinements so that they could make themselves accessible to their flocks. They chose to grow stupid in order to conquer. If this leaves us dissatisfied it is nonetheless impressive. This farewell to antique literature, often uttered by men fully aware of the circumstances, is by no means the least moving aspect of abnegation of the great Christian leaders of the early middle ages…. …Caesarius of Arles took this point of view further:

I humbly beg that the ears of the educated may be content to bear rustic expressions without complaint, so that all the Saviour’s flock can receive heavenly food in a simple and down-to-earth language. Since the ignorant and the simple cannot rise themselves to the height of the educated, let the educated deign to lower themselves to their ignorance. Educated men can understand what has been said to the simple, whereas the simple are not able to profit from what would have been said to the learned."

Jacques Le Goff
Medieval Civilization 400-1500
Barnes & Noble 2000

[monmouth]

3. Very scary. Yesterday there was an excerpt from Doris Kearn's book

on Lincoln. She wrote extensively of Lincoln's poor speech pattern, very rural, woodsy Kentuckian. Even though he had this speech pattern, the words coming from his mouth were educated but put in simplistic terms. He would talk for hours on end with interesting tidbits but sneaked that educational stuff in his talks..seems the people got it...

[hobbit709]

4. Jethro was clueless and NOT mean

These clowns know what they do and are mean to boot.

[peekaloo]

6. more like Milton Drysdale. nt

[Romulox]

9. Hello--principle theme of the show is that Hillbillies are pure, Hollywooders crass!

Uncle Jed didn't have no book lurnin', but he'd have made a far better Senator than Mr. Dreisdale (granny was too ornery). So would Miss Hathaway though, to be fair.

The author of the article didn't get (watch?) the show. At all.

[Itchinjim]

5. Jethro Bodine? Nah, more like

Jeeter Lester. Or the guy Burt Reynolds puts an arrow through in "Deliverance"

[Swede]

7. And the rest are Milton Drysdale the greedy banker?

Sounds about right.

[Juche]

8. Stupid and manipulative aren't the same thing

I think politics is a magnet for sociopaths, narcissists, egoists and people like that. And part of that is being willing to lie baldly to get what you want.

Like it or not, it is something both parties do. Clinton and Edwards were both excellent liars. But so are the GOP who can sit through a day long meeting then go out and tell lies about health reform that they know are lies.

Palin is stupid, but luckily the public actually turned against her for it. When Palin first arrived on the national scene in late 2008 she was one of the most popular political figures. Now she is one of the least. Her stupidity actually worked against her for everyone but the wingnuts.

At the end of the day, if we had an involved electorate and a functioning media it wouldn't matter. The lies would be caught. However we do not.

[L0oniX]

10. Beef Jerky ...going to be a brain surgeon types.

[blm]

11. Big difference - Jethro was unprejudiced and kindhearted.

.

[Bluenorthwest]

12. They are not Jethro

They are Boss Hog. Jethro was a friend to the world.

[troubledamerican]

13. Jethro wasn't a rabid, bloodthirsty, NSDAP sadist.

[anonymous171]

14. I care more about their moral integrity than their intellect.

[The Midway Rebel]

15. More like Mr. Haney on Green Acres!

Epitome of insincerity.