"O'Donnell is a creature of an age in which politics have no meaning beyond performance art."

[highplainsdem]

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/christine-o-donnell-delaware-091510

Can We Calm Down About Delaware's Tea Party Already?
September 15, 2010 at 12:27AM by Charles P. Pierce


-snip-

Seriously now, she was a crackpot when she rose on primary morning, and she's a crackpot now, and she will be a crackpot whether she wins or loses in November. She no more belongs in the Senate of the United States today than she did the day she was born. That 30,000-odd primates in Delaware thinks she belongs there is their problem. If enough people in Delaware come to think so, then she becomes our problem.

O'Donnell is a creature of an age in which politics have no meaning beyond performance art. She is the Creature From The Green Room, with no apparent public career beyond being available whenever some teenage booker from the cable shows needed someone to say something reliably stupid. She is one of those people who'd show up at CNN with a waterbowl in her teeth if someone there blew a dog whistle.

-snip-

She is what politics produces when you turn them into a game show and the coverage of them over to a generation of high-technology racetrack touts. She is what you get when political journalism reduces politics to numbers on a scoreboard, divorcing them from the real world consequences of what are increasingly seen as cute little eccentric decisions.

She is what politics produces when we abandon self-government for self-gratification. And that's the real obvious irony in her victory on Tuesday night, and the only thing about it that truly matters. Christine O'Donnell's campaign is a successful exercise in angry, misfit masturbation, with as little to do with the deadly problems this country faces as some guy wanking in the balcony of a grindhouse has to do with Romeo and Juliet.

[laughingliberal]

1. K & R nt

[Bryn]

2. K & R

[dkf]

3. Wow that is totally it. And its first practitioner was Sarah Palin.

[Hannah Bell]

6. reagan

[MinneapolisMatt]

4. Spot. ON.

Brilliant.

[highplainsdem]

13. I agree. I hope everyone reads the complete piece at the link.

[TexasObserver]

5. Yep. It's 8th grade Home Room politics now.

[ladjf]

10. As I recall from my youth, our Jr. High politics seemed to have

had more substance than what is happening now in American Politics. nt

[Swamp Rat]

7. k&r

[xultar]

8. Grizzly Pitbull will be out shortly to play victim...good thing is

She is feeling over confident about a bid for President in 2012

[southmost]

9. unfortunately, to most people politics already had no meaning

and sadly, politics is being played out like a train-wreck reality show

[glitch]

11. K & R well said. It's been that way since perception became the sales pitch and

looting became the reality.

[paulk]

12. K & R

great editorial

[me b zola]

14. Ouch!--Nurse!

Recommended :thumbsup:

[tavalon]

15. Bad performance art at that!

[DirkGently]

16. Nailed it. (nt) +1

[MH1]

17. Well said, Mr. Pierce!

[Jade Fox]

18. He's good.

[spanone]

19. astute statement. no real position on policy is necessary

[DinahMoeHum]

20. IOW, a GOP version of Karen Finley ??

http://books.google.com/books?id=z1x-BsizLXwC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=unspeakable+practices+unnatural+acts+taboo+art+karen+finley&source=bl&ots=sXrGLURofR&sig=YHqaFtAhnfKhONNrp2giTbdpgGA&hl=en&ei=moWRTNvnHpPSsAOd67DCBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=unspeakable%20practices%20unnatural%20acts%20taboo%20art%20karen%20finley&f=false

:evilgrin:

[JamesJ]

21. Nailed it!

I don't think I've read such a clear, reasoned, in your face statement since Royko died. Excellent analysis on where we are in this country today.

[RagAss]

24. Agreed. And it shows how warped and corrupt the TV media has become.

[SteppingRazor]

22. Love Charlie Pierce. His book Idiot America should be required reading for all voters. n/t

[givemebackmycountry]

23. Christine O' Donnell reminds me of....

Vote for me!!!

[DeSwiss]

25. K&R!!!

Very aptly put.