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The wingnutosphere and its devotees are amusing themselves today with the fool’s errand of trying to turn Clint Eastwood’s bizarre appearance at the Republican National Convention into a positive moment in the campaign. Their device: declaring it a “National Empty Chair Day” where patriotic Americans will display empty chairs in their yards or business fronts and so forth to dramatize Eastwood’s incoherent claim that Barack Obama isn’t doing his job.
The irony of this effort, aside from the obvious folly of drawing still more attention to the low moment of the Republican Convention, is that when you think about it, the conservative model of presidential leadership in a bad economy is to do nothing. Fiscal stimulus? Of course not! More effective regulation of big banking institutions? Never! Kill all the regulations! And what conservatives have asked—nay, demanded—of Mitt Romney is that he sign the Ryan Budget as rapidly as possible and then, well, do nothing, unless he chooses to spend his time trying to outlaw abortion or start a nice little war with Iran.
So aside from their successful obstruction (certainly during 2011 and 2012) of most of Obama’s attempts to create jobs or otherwise address the country’s economic problems, today’s Republicans don’t believe in anything that would involve active presidential leadership anyway. (Recall that the very term “laissez-faire” comes from the alleged response of seventeenth century French business owners to an eager request from a mercantilist public official for action items to help them). Lord knows that in Tampa Romney and Ryan did not outline a practical agenda for what they’d do in power. So maybe those empty chairs represent not an indictment of Obama, but of those who want to take over the presidential chair and keep it permanently empty.
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SadOldVet on September 03, 2012 2:15 PM:
If we are going to use an empty chair to represent Mittens, it would need to be an empty suit in an empty chair.
c u n d gulag on September 03, 2012 2:17 PM:
National Empty Chair Day?
Boy, are they ever running out of material!
And here it is, not even mid-September of the last year of Obama's first term.
Maybe one of the Democratic speakers should bring out an empty suit, and talk to that?
howard on September 03, 2012 2:18 PM:
mostly, the empty chair represents that right-wingers are idiots.
schtick on September 03, 2012 2:23 PM:
Why would they celebrate the chair winning?
crapcha....ecurmsu elected....by whom?
bleh on September 03, 2012 2:26 PM:
...to dramatize Eastwood’s incoherent claim that Barack Obama isn’t doing his job.
No. It's simply to say "neener neener, yer guy's a poopy-head, ha-ha ha-ha-ha!"
Politics in America is conducted at somewhere around a third- or fourth-grade level. It's a mistake to read too much into it, or to take seriously the blovations of self-appointed "pundits."
Mudge on September 03, 2012 2:30 PM:
The right always seems to get consumed by these childish displays. I always think of that smiling woman with the purple heart on her cheek to mock John Kerry.
And it's always interesting to see that Republican talking points need never be true nor consistent. They thrive on the display, the reflection on their candidate is ignored. My favorite lately (noted by Krugman) was Romney's assertion that cutting the military and medical budgets will cause the loss of jobs ..and his lack of recognition (purposeful or not) that by this logic, a stimulus would add jobs.
The intellectual (and moral) shallowness of Republicans is displayed daily. We should not be surprised.
mr.peabody on September 03, 2012 2:35 PM:
Why, next thing you know, they'll be telling us that the war in Iraq was a smashing success!
What idiots. They only care about trying to win the next news cycle, regardless of facts or the consequences.
Anonymous on September 03, 2012 2:58 PM:
Re Mr Peabody's comment on Iraq: I imagine that, if challenged, many of them would indeed assert that Iraq was a smashing success. They're indulging in exactly the same vacuous rhetoric about America goodness, strength, exceptionalism, etc., etc. There was not even a pretence at an examination of where we are and how we got there. Did Condi Rice admit any mistakes? And the same folks who were waiting behind the scenes in 2000 to shove Bush into a war over Iraq are still there beating the drum for war against Iran.
AndThenThere'sThat on September 03, 2012 3:04 PM:
Empty chairs on lawns?
I think that only works if there's a life-size cardboard cutout of Clint Eastwood propped up next to it.
God, wingers are stupid.
g on September 03, 2012 3:05 PM:
This reminds me of another TeaParty inspired demonstration of their presence - the Sarah Palin call to pull over your car on the side of the road to prove some forgotten pointless point.
bluestatedon on September 03, 2012 5:40 PM:
I eagerly await the photo from East Dogsquat, Arkansas showing an empty chair festooned with teabags and a sign saying "Get a brain morans!"
bluestatedon on September 03, 2012 5:48 PM:
That wingnuts actually think progressives and Dems are sitting around gnashing their teefs in anger and anxiety over Eastwood is indicative of their complete and total isolation from external reality. It's what you'd expect from people who think Adam and Eve had vegetarian dinosaurs for neighbors in the Garden of Eden 5,000 years ago and that women's ladyparts magically repel legitimate rapist sperm. Functionally, they're no different from people in the 11th century.
Jim0 on September 03, 2012 7:29 PM:
What could be a better representation for today's nutbaggery than an angry old white man denouncing an black man that no one else can see for what no one else can hear?
Renai on September 03, 2012 11:02 PM:
Oh, what fun, Empty Chair Day. Sitting furniture all across the nation will have a day free from the task of holding up obese Americans. Well past time decor finally gained equality.
Why not give Republicans their own holiday. We can call it, Empty Head Day.
Peter C on September 04, 2012 9:28 AM:
This is what comes of a large organization where dissent is treated as disloyalty; you get a gaggle of powerful people at the top AND NO ONE TELLS THEM THEY ARE MAKING BAD DECISIONS. They've kicked out their thoughtful critics and they think they are witty. When everyone knows that 'if you're not with them, your against them', no one is willing to say 'that's a bad idea'. So, you get no regulation of banks, torture, two unfunded wars, opposition to stimulus in a depression, tax cuts to raise revenue, and on and on and on. No one catches the disaster before it happens, and the senile guy brings his empty chair on stage and at best you have to watch and pretend that his incoherent 11 minute rant during the most important hour of your convention was the greatest political coup since Herny V's speech at Agincourt.
People say that the Democratic Party is too disjointed, too internally contentious, too ideologically diverse, and that this is no way to run a party. This may be true. But, a situation where no ideas are challenged, no orders are disobeyed, and no statements are questioned, that's no way to run a country.