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December 3, 2006

McCAIN THE MAVERICK....Newsweek reports that John McCain's advisors think his proposal to send 20,000 more troops to Iraq could actually end up being a plus in the 2008 campaign:

Some members of McCain's inner circle are convinced the position could actually work to his advantage — reminding independents of the maverick they fell in love with in 2000. In a 2008 campaign, aides say, the senator would accentuate his differences with the Bush administration over management of the Iraq occupation, stressing his early criticism of ousted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the persistent call for more troops. The hope, the campaign adviser says, is that even antiwar voters will gradually come to accept the position as "a long-term stand based on principle."

McCain's people seem to be confusing "maverick" with "popular." When McCain broke with his party to support campaign finance reform or a patients' bill of rights, he was backing positions that were popular with the electorate. Ditto for fuel efficiency standards and an end to torture. In fact, nearly all of McCain's "maverick" positions have been carefully crafted to appeal to the broad middle of the country.

In other words, they weren't maverick positions at all. They only seemed that way when the comparison point was the right wing of the Republican Party. Conversely, doubling down in Iraq is a very different beast: it's unpopular, it exudes stubbornness rather than fresh thinking, and it looks opportunistic rather than independent.

McCain's straight-talk schtick has always been a twofer: the press eats it up because it loves politicians who break with their party occasionally, and the public loves it because McCain is taking positions most of them agree with. But Iraq is going to be different: this time McCain is taking a position more extreme than the rest of the Republican Party. He's going to lose the press because his position seems increasingly bull-headed instead of brave, and he's going to lose the public because he's taking a stand they don't agree with.

For once, McCain is being a genuine maverick. I think he's about to find out that that was never really what people admired about him in the first place.

Kevin Drum 1:10 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (62)
 
Comments

Well, dud. This is just McCain's way of distancing himself from the train wreck. He has adopted a positin that won't be tested by reality so thhat two years from now hhe can say. "We could have won if my advise had been taken."

He isnn't a maverick but he is possibly smarter than the other Republicans, because, instead of desperately tryng to blame the Iraqis, the public, or the Democrats, he has decided that the winning spin will be to blame all Republicans except himself.

Posted by: lily on December 3, 2006 at 1:29 PM | PERMALINK

McCain's people seem to be confusing "maverick" with "popular."

In fact, nearly all of McCain's "maverick" positions have been carefully crafted to appeal to the broad middle of the country.

Hah? Why would you think that? The problem with liberals is they think all centrists "craft" their positions to appeal to the American people. But how do you know McCain doesn't sincerely believe in his centrist positions? Just because you sincerely belong to the far left doesn't mean everyone else has to also.

I don't believe with all of John McCain's positions but I believe there's a place in American politics for sensible centrists like John McCain and Joe Lieberman. Both of these centrists believe we need to send 20,000 more troops to quell the violence in Iraq caused by the Democratic victories in the 2006 elections. Rather than dismiss their views just because they differ from your far-left cut and run strategy, we should have a serious debate about about the merits of their proposal. This is the serious and honest thing to do for those of us who place patriotism above partisanship.

Posted by: Al on December 3, 2006 at 1:32 PM | PERMALINK

Lily is spot on. Moreover, he won't lose the press for the simple reason he is their party's best hope for winning the WH in 2008, so they will do anything for him. They've been lying for him all along. They'll continue to do so.

Senator Straight Talk has never been a maverick or an honest person. He's never been anything other than amoral and ethically bankrupt. The reporters all know this, since they chuckle at his jokes at Sally Quinn's parties. They know what and who he is.

Still, they persist in fawning over this phony guy and will never say a bad word about him... for any reason.

Posted by: Rick on December 3, 2006 at 1:36 PM | PERMALINK

Yeah, I don't think that even McCain's call to double down should count as him being a "genuine maverick." After all, McCain says that if the US doesn't double down it would be immoral to continue the war. At the same time, the Bush administration probably isn't going to take his advice, so the advice will never be tested. But then, even though Bush isn't going to double down, McCain isn't willing to call for an end to a war he himself thinks is immoral.

There's nothing "genuine" about his Iraq ideas at all. He--along a lot of other "serious foreign policy thinkers"--is ensuring he'll be able to say down the line that something could have been salvaged out of the Iraq mess, if only his ideas had been taken seriously. It's nothing more than the worst kind of deeply unserious ass-covering.

Posted by: Scott E. on December 3, 2006 at 1:37 PM | PERMALINK

" . . . those of us who place patriotism above partisanship."

Funniest Al in awhile.

Posted by: Joel on December 3, 2006 at 1:53 PM | PERMALINK

Hah? Why would you think that? The problem with liberals...

Thanks to Al's liberal use of the word "liberal," I always know when it's him, and I need read no further.

Your shtick is getting tiresome. Please move on.

Posted by: Winda Warren Terra on December 3, 2006 at 1:56 PM | PERMALINK

It would be especially bad for St. John if Bush actually does send 20,000 more troops. Because then we would see the McCain Plan fail right before our eyes.

The only way to avoid getting sucked down by the failure of Iraq is to distance yourself from whatever Bush eventually decides to do. Then you can say, if only he had listened to me.

Posted by: grytpype on December 3, 2006 at 1:57 PM | PERMALINK

John McCain, what's he all about, anyway?


http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9538/therifleman10janmar1960ud3.jpg

Posted by: cld on December 3, 2006 at 2:09 PM | PERMALINK

Ditto Kevin.

McCain is going to run on the war in Iraq, stay the course and the miltiary draft is so IN now that it crystal clear that Bush lied the nation into war.

Ms. Dole said that Dems wanted to "lose" the war and nobody bought the cheap rhetoric, Bush already lost the war, everyone already knows that and Dems won.

Posted by: Cheryl on December 3, 2006 at 2:12 PM | PERMALINK

Stay the Course+

Posted by: klyde on December 3, 2006 at 2:37 PM | PERMALINK

Maybe McCain is trying to appeal to the Republican "base". I don't know what he's doing. I've always wondered how well he would do as a front-runner. We might have found out last time around except that GWB and Karl Rove went all nasty on him in Carolina.

Posted by: jackohearts on December 3, 2006 at 2:38 PM | PERMALINK

Both [McCain and Lieberman] believe we need to send 20,000 more troops to quell the violence in Iraq caused by the Democratic victories in the 2006 elections.

Best. Al. EVAR.

Posted by: twb on December 3, 2006 at 2:47 PM | PERMALINK

It doesn't matter. It just plain doesn't matter.

There are no good choices left re: Iraq; there are no bad choices left.

There are only really bad and off-the-chart terrible choices available.

Within the year, even McCain will look to most like a chump.

I am left to wonder if most political leaders (and pundits)are too afraid to, or too stupid to, face the reality of what Iraq is inevitably dissolving into (due to what we have done).

Posted by: Keith G on December 3, 2006 at 2:56 PM | PERMALINK

So adding more troops is now a political decision, not having anything to do with its effectiveness.

Posted by: Simp on December 3, 2006 at 3:02 PM | PERMALINK

The assumption is the pendulum is going to swing back by '08 and the Republicans will return. I think this is wishful thinking because while the Democrats are not going to fix much, the people in the center are not going to forget who drove the bus off the cliff in the first place. McCain is old and he is slipping and if he's the best the Repulicans can come up with in '08, even Hillary could beat him. I don't think she will get it though. I think someone who isn't on the radar screen will pull away in the stretch.

Posted by: brodix on December 3, 2006 at 3:02 PM | PERMALINK

McCain is right about one thing - it is stupid to continue to fight a war in a way that you cannot win it.

So, either fight to win, or leave. McCain's suggestion on increasing troop strength makes sense if a) you think the war is winnable, and b) if it is only winnable with more troops than are currently on the ground.

The problem I have with this idea - I am not sure the war *is* winnable. Democracies do pretty well combatting other countries on a large scale. But guerrilla warfare, insurgencies, etc....democracies have inherent limits into the tactics they are willing to use to win a guerilla war (not talking WW2 here folks so dont bring that up). Unpopular tactics like mass killing of innocents, assasinations, openly advocating torture, and using *extreme* force/overkill to intimidate the opposition are hard for an electorate to swallow. The most sucessful anti-terrorist/anti-insurgent regimes have been totalitarian regimes for a reason - they don't hesitate to kill a village in response to the killing of a government soldier. Sir Robert Thompson, one of the most influencial of all counter-insurgency experts in the past 50 years, has suggested guidelines for fighting insurgents, but his assumptions presume that the majority of the people agree with the current government, and that the insurgents form a tiny minority. That clearly is not the case in Iraq.

My point is: I don't think the US people can or should stomach the tactics necessary to actually win this war. Therefore, McCain's suggestion to increase troop strength is irrelevant.

Posted by: Spock on December 3, 2006 at 3:09 PM | PERMALINK

Go JM! Keep advocating sending more troops. It's the best thing you can do to guarantee a Den victory in 2008.

The war is lost. Most of the American people know it and want out. Keep up the good work, John!

aa

Posted by: aaron aardvarka on December 3, 2006 at 3:48 PM | PERMALINK

McCain is too old to be running for president. Note that he's now adopting the common old man strategy of walking fast for short distances in order to demonstrate vitality. Note also the amount of makeup its taking to get his face in shape for the kleig lights.

As far as McCain gaining points for advocating more troops in Iraq, note that he's been advocating that each year of the Iraq War. Can you imagine the negative campaign adds showing him advocating more troops each year, pretty much the same soundbite each time.

McCain, for some reason, is the darling of the
media, both left and right. I've never understood it. He's always provided a staunch Republican vote on the Senate floor.

I don't think voter want another old man in the White House, John McCain or anyone else. Many remember all too well that Ronald Reagan suffered from Altzheimer's at least the last two years of his second term, perhaps even earlier. His White House doctor explained later he had misdiagnosed it as dementia. Go figure.

It's Old Man McCain, folks; not John.

Posted by: Robert Dare on December 3, 2006 at 4:15 PM | PERMALINK

his position seems increasingly butt-headed

Posted by: wren on December 3, 2006 at 4:22 PM | PERMALINK

It's swell to know that 20,000 more troops, continued suffering and death and more war are truly important only as building blocks of what's really vital for the world's future, John McCain's political advantage in the next election. Priorities, priorities...

Posted by: jrw on December 3, 2006 at 4:22 PM | PERMALINK


If only the boys on the bus would come to see that Jim Webb is what they pretend McCain is--a principled straight shooter. However, they'll end up following George Will in wondering why he's so crabby and unsocial.

Posted by: john s. on December 3, 2006 at 4:45 PM | PERMALINK

We'll see, Kevin. Never underestimate the media' ability to forget what happened the week before. Right now, the important thing for McCain is to appeal to conservatives while avoiding the sinking ship of Bush's presidency. His actual positions are not important so much as whether (1) the hard right generally approves of the position and (2) the position distinguishes him from Bush.

Right now, candidates criticizing Bush's handling of the war are still making hay. McCain's criticism ("not enough troops") is clear and easy to understand, which makes it a whole lot more effective than most. His 20k troop proposal is just one more way for him to say, "I wanted to do things differently" later on. The hard right will like it and it certainly distinguishes from Bush.

It will be fascinating to see what happens if McCain wins a tough GOP primary going hard to the right. Every Republican presidential candidate of the last 30 years has been hand-selected and allowed to cruise through the GOP primary as a moderate. Just look at GW Bush in 2000 - the guy was practically speaking in code to the base during the primary, the pressure was so low to take hard right positions. He'd throw in a vague Biblical reference and theocons would have an orgasm on the spot. 2008 will totally different. The hard right will demand hard right positions of the candidates. Whoever wins will have created a lot of ammo for the Democrat.

Posted by: owenz on December 3, 2006 at 5:01 PM | PERMALINK

That's crazy, john s.

Jim Webb is the most reactionary right wing Democrat to win office since Jefferson Davis. And a sick fuck to boot.

Posted by: Pale Rider on December 3, 2006 at 5:09 PM | PERMALINK

Pale Rider, you forgot to shoot move and communicate on that post. You motherfucker.

Posted by: nok on December 3, 2006 at 5:35 PM | PERMALINK

But how do you know McCain doesn't sincerely believe in his centrist positions?

Because he abandoned them when the Bush Admin pushed hard enough.

Posted by: Jeffrey Davis on December 3, 2006 at 6:14 PM | PERMALINK

I hardly ever rise to McCain's defense any more (after caving on torture, does anything else really matter?), but my impression is that he's been pretty consistently opposed to ridiculous pork programs that many people love. The best case I can think of is ethanol subsidies and the Iowa caucus. McCain thought the subsidies were a joke, so he didn't bother campaigning in Iowa. Most politicians would have caved and started praising the subsidies. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if McCain had done this by now. In his way, he's even more a fan of big government conservatism than Bush is.

Also, was campaign finance reform really popular back when he and Feingold started pushing it? To me, the real storyline of McCain is not that he was a wolf in sheep's clothing, but that he wants to be president a little too much, and this has caused him to forget or ignore any principles he once had. The batshit-insane foreign policy is another matter - not necessarily pandering or unprincipled, just crazy stupid.

If we actually expected every congress(wo)man to hold fast to clearly stated principles, how many of the current Congress would qualify? I'm guessing no more than a handful, and most of them are pretty far right or left. I expect to see discarded principles littering the next two years of presidential campaigning. I think this is why Feingold isn't running; he'd never get elected without selling out.

Posted by: Nat Echols on December 3, 2006 at 6:28 PM | PERMALINK

Fuck McCain.

Posted by: Econo Buzz on December 3, 2006 at 7:15 PM | PERMALINK

Kevin is never much good on anything military. But here, the popularity of McCain's position depends almost entirely upon what things look like in 2008. In an election where national security is big, it might work very well for McCain.

In a sense, the popularity of McCain's position will be like the popularity of the anti war argument. When an argument is incapable of being tested, it has the potential for being more popular than it deserves -- the classic popularity of the second guess.

Posted by: brian on December 3, 2006 at 7:58 PM | PERMALINK

What Econo said. John McC blew all his indie credentials the moment his face ran into Falwell's backside. And people give Hilary crap for being a so called pandering politician? She's got nothing on the 'maverick'

Posted by: burning leaves on December 3, 2006 at 7:58 PM | PERMALINK

I think I need to stick up for age as I served in Vietnam and on several occasions was close to the Hanoi Hilton while John McCainwas being held there. There seem to be a lot of smart-ass disrespectful little punks like Econo Buzz who have no idea whatsoever what war is about.

You fools think McCain is crazy stupid because you consider yourselves crazy smart. I keep trying to educate you on simple things like yes, the Nazis killed six million people in outright genocide, Joe Stalin probably killed 12 million, the Maoist Red Guards no doubt beat and kicked 12 million people to death, and the Khmer Rouge leaders learned in Marxists universities in Paris in the 1920's that class warfare means you get to have the great fun of killing everyone who wouldn't talk to you in high school. The Cambodian reds would have killed a million people but they ran out of victims in the cities and country people ran like hell once they realized what was up. But you crazy smart people all seem to think that McCarthyism and the Cold War were useless right-wing diversions from all the good that communism could have done if it weren't for reactionary opposition. Yeah, crazy smart is the term for you.

I also try to wise some people up on the concept that genocide starts with scapegoating, which is a lot like what affirmative action class designation is about because not only are there officially entitled "victims" who deserve special consideration, there must of needs be a historical villain class who must forego promotion, pay, opportunity, and all such because of their unceasingly evil ancestors. I even had it explained to me in another thread that my Irish ancestors were privileged in their own poor way because some Irish got to be police officers and firemen.

That was none of my ancestors, because they shunned big cities, especially after four of them were swept up in the draft and died fighting to free the slaves. One died in camp outside Washington, D.C. of camp fever, one died at Second Bull Run, one died in a skirmish in Maryland, and one died on a steamer headed north a week after being freed from Andersonville prison.

The only male of my family who fought and survived the Civil War battled for the South in the Arkansas militia and immigrated to Texas after the war.

But I guess the reasoning is that poor white trash working class Americans are to blame for all the alleged sins of European ancestors (and deconstructionist historians have twisted history to squeeze out a lot of these) so we get to be the designated scapegoat class.

History tells me that it is unwise to let anyone EVER designate your group of folks as a scapegoat class. That means they are working themselves up to a genocidal frame of mind, which they will revert to when all their other schemes to prosper and be safe in the world don't work out because of their own inadequacies.

Personally, I don't blame minorities, women, the handicapped, or even gays for using the affirmative action gimmick to get ahead, or to win bullshit lawsuits and get rich overnight, usually off of taxpayers or unwitting small shareholders who never got warning of legal trouble in the works.

I do blame snotty white liberal males, however, who are all in favor of affirmative action perhaps a little bit out of self hatred, but mostly out of the calculation that somebody else will have to pay for the guilt they feel. Somebody like me, for instance. So, when guys like me need a scapegoat class, you can guess who we will nominate.

But you snots don't have to worry much because most of us are getting pretty old and the younger working class males of our ilk are spiraling into methamphetamine addiction working themselves to death in an America where their upward ladders have no rungs. Youngsters in my family would be lucky to get to go to Iraq.

Yep, John McCain and I are just hopeless old farts with quaint notions about things like honor, duty, service, fairness, patriotism, and true equality that don't fit the modern times.
Actually, McCain probably has taken some type of lefty stance on affirmative action because he was an Admiral's son born standing on third base, but those of us who weren't even born in the ball park still can respect him for the things he is right about.

Posted by: mike cook on December 3, 2006 at 8:11 PM | PERMALINK

Al thinks we need to "quell the violence in Iraq caused by the Democratic victories in the 2006 elections."

Yeah, they were doing so great until they stopped to watch CNN. Afraid Isimply must repeat my earlier question: ARE YOU THE BIGGEST FRIGGIN' IDIOT ON THE PLANET?

Unless you produce one shred of evidence to the contrary, we will all take that as an outright admission of friggin' idiocy and speak with you no more. Alternatively (look it up), we'll have to conclude that Kevin really did make you up, mostly to prove he has a dark side after all.

Posted by: Kenji on December 3, 2006 at 8:14 PM | PERMALINK

Afraid I simply must repeat my earlier question: ARE YOU THE BIGGEST FRIGGIN' IDIOT ON THE PLANET?

I dunno, Mike Cook is presenting a strong case here....

Posted by: Thlayli on December 3, 2006 at 8:22 PM | PERMALINK

People who watched the U.S. increase the troop level to over 500,000 in Viet Nam will hardly agree that adding 20,000 troops in Iraq will change anything. We're busy training and equiping Shia death squads as we stay the course.

Posted by: darby1936 on December 3, 2006 at 8:36 PM | PERMALINK

Yep, John McCain and I are just hopeless old farts with quaint notions about things like honor, duty, service, fairness, patriotism, and true equality that don't fit the modern times.
Actually, McCain probably has taken some type of lefty stance on affirmative action because he was an Admiral's son born standing on third base, but those of us who weren't even born in the ball park still can respect him for the things he is right about.

You and John McCain?

I think I need to stick up for age as I served in Vietnam and on several occasions was close to the Hanoi Hilton while John McCainwas being held there

Flying over North Vietnam in a B-52 makes you some sort of hero now?

Well, thank you for your service, mike cook. Too bad you've decided to trade on what little you actually did to link yourself to John McCain just because a few liberals have some ideas about how this country ought to be led in wartime.

And you have no beef whatsoever with the Bush twins acting like whores-on-the-town in a foreign country while we're at war, do you?

Can't even smell the hypocrisy on your own people anymore, can ya?

Posted by: Pale Rider on December 3, 2006 at 8:43 PM | PERMALINK

How can John McCain have any self-respect after letting Bush & Rove slime him in SC?

How could the American public ever vote for such a person?

Next...

Posted by: MarkH on December 3, 2006 at 8:43 PM | PERMALINK

McCain seems to have limited his maverick stances to issues where he wouldn't have to pay too high a political price with the hardcore right. So, he's a little bit moderate on a few issues. He never stood up to the neocoms on starting a war, tax policies, or right wing judges. He has a solid right wing voting record. People often refer to him as a war hero--is he in any way more heroic than the other POWs or the other aircrews that risked joining them each time they flew into North Vietnam. Exactly what is his claim to fame anyway; other than possibly holding the record for most appearances on Meet the Press. OK, second most appearances behind Joe Biden.

Posted by: sparky on December 3, 2006 at 9:55 PM | PERMALINK

mommee, I make poopee again.

Posted by: Kenji on December 3, 2006 at 11:52 PM | PERMALINK

Just to reiterate: piloting bomber or fighter planes and otherwise fighting in wars does NOT make you a hero.

Heroes are people like me and Kenji here who are true individualists, you know? Who, like, challenge the authority and break the existing paradigms, mmmm-kay?

Posted by: Pale Rider on December 3, 2006 at 11:55 PM | PERMALINK

Ok, heading off to my lair now. Note that there's been a lot of spoofing today. Anyone posts with my handle after this is just a troll.

Don't forget to shoot, move, communciate. Lock and load, let's get weady to lock and loll.

Posted by: Pale Rider on December 4, 2006 at 12:14 AM | PERMALINK

Fake "Pale Rider"

At least be funny, mmmm-kay?

And you should go to hell for doing a South Park line. You are so not funny.

Posted by: Give Blood Play Rugby on December 4, 2006 at 12:15 AM | PERMALINK

Hey Pale Rider (posting as long-boring-handle): have you no shame? You have to enlist sock puppets this lame? And then have them run around to every single open thread here and post in your defence?

Why not just post as sprezzatura?

Posted by: Kenji on December 4, 2006 at 12:40 AM | PERMALINK

Hey, that wasn't an obvious fake post there, was it?

I mean, if it's transparent as hell and if everyone can see that it's transparent, how effective could it possibly be?

Posted by: Pale Rider on December 4, 2006 at 8:01 AM | PERMALINK

The "rugby" guy IS one of my sock puppets, though, I have to admit that. Just trying to give some of these trolls back a bit of their own medicine, you know?

Posted by: Pale Rider on December 4, 2006 at 9:31 AM | PERMALINK

Pathetic. Can't even 'spoof' me with any semblance of originality...

Posted by: Pale Rider on December 4, 2006 at 9:49 AM | PERMALINK

Bush's War is now very much the McCain Lieberman War.
America is dying for so called Centrism's sins.

Posted by: Nemesis on December 4, 2006 at 10:27 AM | PERMALINK

Actually, I wasn't flying over, but inside the harbor in a ship called the U.S.S. Rowan. We did running gunnery attacks in order to get the defenders to light up their radars.

I am serious about the "don't let your group be scapegoated even a little bit" idea, for the reason that while vile ideas seem harmless enough when times are normal, when times become extreme then humans can be found who will willingly put into action those vile ideas. German soldiers thought it reasonable to have Jewish women stand and hold their babies just so, that they could be conveniently killed with one bullet. Israelis have some cause to be worried about how the Arab world has demonized them for decades.

The kicker though still has to be the bloody purge that Stalin did on Leningrad AFTER World War Two was over. This was basically Old Joe getting rid of all pesky liberals, free-thinkers, and West-leaners. As Solzhenitsyn so artfully documented, the survival rate of those sent to Siberia was 1-5 years at the best.

There was no internal outrage in Russia over any of the purges and pogroms, even the deliberate famine of 1931-32 that starved ten million to death in one winter. Newsreel exists which shows a skeleton woman in tattered clothes dragging her children door to door in the streets of Kiev, denied entry because of fear of the KGB, then huddling and dying in a nook of a huge stone apartment building.

Many Ukrainians, of course, were entirely in favor of Hitler's "kill the commissars" order and helpfully pointed them out. Many Ukrainians joined the German military forces, but the Nazis stupidly treated the Ukraine as a sub-human fiefdom, which lost the war for them right there. Many of those right-wing Ukrainians eventually ended up north of Seattle in Vancouver, B.C. where they had good lives and lots of stout and nutritious Canadian beer to drink. If you survive the hard parts, life can be OK.

Posted by: mike cook on December 4, 2006 at 10:44 AM | PERMALINK

Kevin,

McCain's position is clever. There is no chance of his position being adopted, and it is quite likely that the situation in Iraq will deteriorate further before the troops begin coming home. The troops are likely to start coming home next year, and the situation in Iraq is likely to deteriorate even further. In 2008 McCain will be able to say that his proposal was the right one at the time he made it, but he will never have to put it into action.

Posted by: Yancey Ward on December 4, 2006 at 10:56 AM | PERMALINK

Mike Cook:

Deconstructionism is a theory of literary criticism.

"Deconstructionist historians" is an absurdity that you pulled out of your butt. "PoMo historians" would've at least been somewhat cogent.

If you'd like to critique historicism and/or historiography, fine -- but those for the most part German approaches to historical interpretation date back before Hegel ...

Bob

Posted by: rmck1 on December 4, 2006 at 12:55 PM | PERMALINK

Sorry, Mike.

I checked up on it and it turns out that deconstructionism is actually applied to a wide range of philosophy and social sciences. I mean, it goes back to Nietzsche, fer crying out lout! So I know it goes wider than literary criticism. Sometimes I just talk through my ass like that, without checking facts first. The regulars here are all used to it.

Bob

Posted by: rmck1 on December 4, 2006 at 8:07 PM | PERMALINK

Hey asshole -- why don't you google "deconstructionist historians" and see how many hits you get -- and of the ones that you do get, how many of them are academic references and how many are idiot blog comments like Mike's?

The general term is postmodernism. Though it originated with Frederic Jameson and archetecture criticism, it could apply to virtually any discipline in the humanities.

Deconstruction as put forth by Jacques Derrida is a method of textual criticism, and its roots are generally acknowledged as being in the structuralist linguistics and anthropology of Levi-Strauss and Saussere, the semiotics of Roland Barthes and the neofreudian psychology/psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan.

Since anything that's written is a "text," you could perform a deconstructionist analysis on the back of a Count Chocula box. Deconstructionism is rather grandiose that way.

In fact, this is precisely the reason it's no longer a reigning paradigm in college English and Comparative Lit departments -- because it attempted to usurp for itself sociological and political theories in the name of what David Foster Wallace called "a few hardassed positions on epistemology." At the end of the day, it's a method of literary criticism and not, as many of its boosters started to believe, an ersatz branch of the social sciences.

Bob

Posted by: rmck1 -- the real one on December 4, 2006 at 8:43 PM | PERMALINK

"Since anything that's written is a "text," you could perform a deconstructionist analysis on the back of a Count Chocula box. Deconstructionism is rather grandiose that way."

No shit, punk-ass. So your original contention that it was just literature history is pretty much in ashes isn't it? And yet you come back for more instead of slinking away. Unbelievable.

Posted by: Pale Rider - the real one on December 4, 2006 at 8:47 PM | PERMALINK

Next time you want to criticize Mike for some petty little point of yours, just at least get the facts straight, mmmm-kay? It's really not too much to ask, is it?

Posted by: Pale Rider on December 4, 2006 at 8:50 PM | PERMALINK

"Pale Rider" (obviously not the real one in either post):

"Literature history?"

You can't fucking read.

Bob

Posted by: rmck1 on December 4, 2006 at 8:53 PM | PERMALINK

At the end of the day, Derridian deconstructionism is a form of literary criticism. It's not a branch of history or sociology, nor is it part of an emancapatory political program.

All those grandiose Foucaudian ambitions for it are what got it run out of American English departments on a rail.

Bob

Posted by: rmck1 on December 4, 2006 at 8:58 PM | PERMALINK

Whatever. Nothing of this, including your original post above, has anything to do with Mike's post.

The only thing you accomplished here is to prove, once again, that you are the #1 blowhard hereabouts. Good job.

Posted by: Pale Rider on December 4, 2006 at 9:27 PM | PERMALINK

"Pale Rider":

My initial post didn't *need* to have anything to do with the main point of Mike Cook's.

It was a shot at his shoddy terminology. Obviously what Mike Cook knows about deconstructionism and postmodern theory in general he got third hand from right-wing blogs.

Nobody who actually *knows anything* about deconstruction would talk about "deconstructionist historians." Revisionist historians, historicists, historiographers -- sure.

All I did was call Mike out on the use of a buzzword he doesn't fully understand.

Oh -- and your asshole spoof under my handle gave me the opportunity to concretely define Derridian deconstruction -- which I notice even you didn't manage to disupte.

But thanks for playing -- dipshit :)

Bob

Posted by: rmck1 on December 4, 2006 at 10:02 PM | PERMALINK

Well, perhaps deconstructionist history is not the best phrase. I do like a moderately heroic national history and even ascribing economic determinism to it is OK as long as it isn't a simplistic class war analysis.

My favorite phrase for talking history is "Social Darwinism." This is a much more flexible way of looking at things than dialectical materialism, which postulated certain well-defined stages that societies would progress through almost like a constrained chemical reaction.

But, at any rate, I consider myself a kind of low-level student of all things Russian in nature and one of the reasons for that is that their culture is such an intriguing contrast to America's. The U.S.A.'s expansionary frontier experience was toward the West and it was an eruption of natural resource exploitation by peoples who were drawn to the frontier by the dream of personal riches hindered only by token resistance from Native Americans. Russia's frontier was even bigger, even richer, even riskier, and even more opposed by established powers already in the region, including the homeland of ancient Russia's greatest boogeymen, the Mongols.

Somehow European Russia extended itself all the way to the Pacific and even past that to California. The Russian frontier thrust eastward was magnificent in its reach, but pretty shallow
in leaving permanent, prosperous, developing states in its wake. Rape and run seemed to be the dominant Russian frontier paradigm. America is criticized for that as well, but it really doesn't hold water. Almost everywhere in our old frontier the resource exploitation economies have given way to sustainable agriculture or even knowledge-based local economies.

One postmodern historical criticism of America that has always irked me is the "stupid pioneer" genre of historian who paints the typical European looking for a better life as a plundering dolt who made his wife do most of the work, made her wear black so that she would be unattractive to other men, and who succeeded only by sheer numbers because he was idiotic in every endeavor.

One version of this accusatory history concerns the "iron stoves" that allegedly littered the prairies because hopeful pioneers overloaded their wagons with iron stoves then had to abandon them along the Oregon Trail as their draft animals weakened.

I've lived in many a cabin. Believe me, there is nothing like an iron stove. A fireplace isn't even close. Native Americans knew that and immediately scooped up any iron stoves that pioneers abandoned. That's kind of the way progress works. People haul the big burdens as far as they can, then if they have to abandon them someone else picks up the worthy items and either puts them immediately to use, or moves them a little further down the trail.

I started all of this as a way of getting to the subject of Mr. Putin, who rather troubles me. I happen to think that the social and historical dynamics of Russia are extremely important right now in the way everything is going to play out. We can say this or that about the Middle East, but the Middle East is basically rather viciously simple. But Russia. . .what did Churchill say--something about a riddle wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in a mystery, and so on.

Posted by: mike cook on December 4, 2006 at 10:36 PM | PERMALINK

All you did, Bob, was prove again that you're a blowhard lameass dimwit with a fixation on 5-dollar words you don't really understand all that well. And - and I want to make this absolutely clear - this was a reminder we did not need so much, having had a few very very recently.

Now, go back to writing your fabulous essay on Shiite and Sunni terrorism and how Rousseauian grammatology can help us understand it better.

Tool.

Posted by: Pale Rider on December 4, 2006 at 10:38 PM | PERMALINK

"Pale Rider":

You'll notice that Mike Cook himself agreed with my point and didn't take offense. You wanna know why? Because we both have essentially the same critique about deconstructionism.

Now *your* problem is that you're intellectually insecure. And so you make these retarded attacks on my arguments, which you resent for being articulate and containing concepts you don't understand.

Do you say a goddamned thing about the issue under discussion? Of course not. You want through all this strenuous unnecessary bloviation about my "attack" on Mike Cook (which wasn't an attack) -- but at the end of the day conclude with "Whatever."

Yeah, "whatever" is right.

You can't fucking read :)

And I know how much it must bug you that this is nobody's problem but your own.

Bob

Posted by: rmck1 on December 4, 2006 at 11:08 PM | PERMALINK

 

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