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August 30, 2007

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Foley didn't cost the Republicans the election in the larger sense, but it did cost them one seat, a seat they would have held onto rather easily if Foley hadn't self-destructed. I think the metaphor is a good one, seeing as the closet is a symbol of the same self-loathing Sutpen saw reflected in Charles Bon. (I need to reread that, seeing as I work with a Faulkner scholar now.)

There are parallels, I think, that you can tie in with the Republican party's odd relationship with Hispanics as well.

The GOP, from Nixon's "Southern Strategy" on, benefitted politically by embracing the South - which meant embracing not only its racism, but perhaps more crucially, the South's still-vigorous resentment dating back to the Civil War. That resentment encompasses everything that is "Northern," from social mores to economic structure.

The GOP has ended up by internalizing the Old South mindset, right down to its pseudo-aristocratic, racially-charged parochialism. Thus the GOP can pursue the economics of plutocracy while encouraging its non-plutocrats to feel perpetually victimized by convenient target groups (people of color, gays, immigrants, atheists, etc.) The tension between private acceptance and public excoriation mirrors the pseudo-artistocratic ethos: one morality for the haut and another one for the bas.

The GOP spent 35 years remaking itself in the image of the ante-bellum South. Like the South, it's put itself into a position where it can't adapt, can't bend, without undermining its essential foundations. A society that can't change can't survive.

Hey, who knows if Craig is gay. It's none of our business either way, frankly. It's between him and his family.

And, you know, whether he's gay or not, the whole business is kind of weird. The idea of sending cops out to troll for consensual sexual advances in order to make a collar is a little bit too close to entrapment for my taste.

All of that said -- there's something even more weird about people allying themselves with folks who hate and despise them, who would at best prefer to see them go away and at worst like to see them in jail, and who find the tale of a callow punk like preppy bow-tie-wearing Tucker Carlson beating their heads against the wall the height of entertainment.

Not that it matters what I do or do not understand, but I do not understand gay people who align themselves with current-day conservatives. Nobody has to justify their position to me, in any way, but I just don't get it.

In my world, it just doesn't make sense to hang out with folks who'd prefer that I didn't exist.

Thanks -

Funny, I was thinking of Faulkner as well, but Light in August and the character of Joe Christmas. I'm also surprised that with all the discussion about compulsive behavior, no one has mentioned the case of Claude Allen, whose compulsiveness, though not sexual, seems to mirror the self destructive urges that Craig could be said to exhibit.

_LiA_ also passed through my mind reading this excellent post, but I'm a Graham Greene fan.

One of the posters filling in for Sullivan made a wonderful point. My first instinct was pity and sorrow for Craig, but then I discovered his voting record and now he is simply one of the most shallow hurtful and contemptible people in the Senate.

He has been bending over backwards to make certain that gay men and women do not have the same rights as heterosexuals. Craig, through his bizarre pathology has tried to make certain that other gays and lesbians are just as miserable as he is.

He voted against gay marriage. Because if a gay couple was at an airport taking a trip together, that`s two men who are happy together, and not looking for a shallow, fleeting experience in a public restroom.

If gays are allowed to serve openly in the military, then they can look for positive relationships, not strange affairs with seriously damaged older men.

Craig has acted selfishly. He has acted wrongly. He has acted cowardly.

As a Mormon, I believe strongly in my faith, and am generally pretty moderate in my political views. But at this point in time, I want to have absolutely nothing at all to do with the Republican party. It is in such shambles and so shameful. I mean, don't Republicans even see how bad their party has become? I don't see how it can be saved from its plunge into the abyss right now.

shock comes when you read the arrest report, being arrested for tapping your foot by an officer who encourages you tapping your foot, sounds like a bad parody of very dark times...

russell: Hey, who knows if Craig is gay. It's none of our business either way, frankly. It's between him and his family.

It's also between him and every other family that Craig has demanded suffer legal discrimination: and between him and every other gay or bisexual man who has grown up being taught that open and unashamed relationships between men are worse than surreptitious sexual encountters in public restrooms.

I'm reminded of the church that offered to host a funeral for a gay man, the brother of one of the church's employees - until it became clear that the gay man's family did not regard his sexual orientation as a shameful secret amd would not keep the funeral service for him in the closet.

No way is AILD better than A,A! The former is a pretty good read, but Absalom, Absalom! is a freakin' masterpiece.

I have this crazy desire to film it, just so I can roll those end credits over that huge, evil mansion in the woods, burning down in the dark.

A most excellent post!

Heard a joke last night: What's the GOP's secret weapon going to be in 2008?

A straight Republican!

Anderson,
I agree, but I think Craig (and the Republicans) has a lot more in common with Joe Christmas' self loathing than Thomas Sutpen's haughty superiority and, like Christmas, I think that Craig and the Republicans are going to set the stage for a bloodlust that is going to have them castrated. I can see the desire for a notion of the Republicans presiding over a great mansion that is no longer kept up, but to me, the Republicans seem more like a modern amalgam that draws on the worst tendencies of modern propaganda to give themselves power.

Though this analysis may simply be trying to make something even more overstated than the original post ;^)

My vote for best Faulkner novel goes to The Sound and the Fury. Excellent post, though.

publius: this is a really good post.

And In Other News,
Hillary Promises to Vet Future Contributions.

Rumor has it that Hillary will take a college course in vetting, having learned nothing from eight years of screaming and tossing lamps in the White House, plus six years in the Senate, stuck and miserable with her inferiors. Did I almost forget Arkansas, added all together that's a long time in which not to learn "vetting". But I suppose you learn slowest what you like least.

Sorry, but three pieces on Craig? A change of pace will be good for you all so regard this as a favor.

Happy Feet Craig is pathetic enough but I doubt if he had come out of that crowded and always busy closet he would have been greeted with much warmth or sympathy. A Republican you know.

So much for him and on to broader horizons, if not much cleaner. One must broaden one's perspective if one is to grasp and appreciate the wonderful world of politics.

And by the way, you may yet rue the day when and if this misshapen gargoyle squeezes her bulk into the White House.
Excepting those who are committed masochists.

After years of padding and dealing in Arkansas

OT: Tony Snow officially out. (Not the closet, resigned I mean.)

My vote for best Faulkner novel goes to The Sound and the Fury.

Me too. Benjy is W, and Jason is Tom DeLay, but I'm not sure which Republican Quentin is.

johnt - I feel the good within you, let go of your hate.

Thanks for this post -- it's great. It's been too many years since I read any Faulkner. (My fave has always been The Hamlet, but Absalom, Absalom! is indeed great. Maybe after I get off my Pamuk kick...

Snow is one of the best books i've read in a while (speaking of pamuk, not Tony)

johnt, if you're a Hemingway fan instead, there's no shame in saying so.

I think it's instructive, too, to realize that the Republican Party, due to it's "southern strategy" has absorbed the old line Dixiecrats and become them. Most of it's leaders are southerners whose family history is steeped in the old Southern Democratic Party, racism and that "old time religion".

Publius: I thought the same of Snow and am having similar thoughts about My Name is Red. You can read my reflections on those books here and here if you are interested. Not reviews, just thoughts jotted down as I was/am reading.

My Name is Red is sitting on my shelf, but I haven't read it yet

"The big, open secret in Republican politics is that everyone knows someone gay these days and very few people – excepting some committed anti-gay activists – really care. . "

Nuts, their base, the Evangelicals and authoritarian Catholics are deeply committed to hating gays. Lose the gay hate, they lose their power.

"The big, open secret in Republican politics is that everyone knows someone gay these days and very few people – excepting some committed anti-gay activists – really care. . "

Nuts, their base, the Evangelicals and authoritarian Catholics are deeply committed to hating gays. Lose the gay hate, they lose their power.

"The big, open secret in Republican politics is that everyone knows someone gay these days and very few people – excepting some committed anti-gay activists – really care. . "

Nuts, their base, the Evangelicals and authoritarian Catholics are deeply committed to hating gays. Lose the gay hate, they lose their power.

There was a short story from the Harlem Renaissance (by Hughes?) similar to A,A. A son of a plantation owner by a black maid receives a college education and comes back to receive his father's approval. Wackiness ensues. He is sadly disappointed and things go rapidly from bad to worse from there.

My name is Red is awesome.

It's also between him and every other family that Craig has demanded suffer legal discrimination

Quite right, and thanks for the correction.

Ugh, How in just one sentence do you manage to be incoherent ? I know, you're trying to be witty, but relying on the only thing you know personally must be wearing you out. I don't mean "goodness".

JakeB I don't read fiction, and unlike Ugh I don't read comic books either. Look up Derek Parfit or Nancy Cartwright and you'll get the idea of my current fare.

Good night all.

How are you making out with "Mary Had a Little Lamb"?


Hilzoy -- have you read Snow? It is really boggling my mind that one author could have written two consecutive novels so completely unlike one another, and both at the very highest level of literary quality. I think the only things the two books have in common are being set in Turkey (not even in the same part of Turkey tho) and dealing extensively with embarrassment and shame.

Look up Derek Parfit or Nancy Cartwright and you'll get the idea of my current fare.

Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson?

John Cole has the speech Larry Craig should give.

The GOP, from Nixon's "Southern Strategy" on, benefitted politically by embracing the South - which meant embracing not only its racism, but perhaps more crucially, the South's still-vigorous resentment dating back to the Civil War. That resentment encompasses everything that is "Northern," from social mores to economic structure.

This makes a lot of sense. Take anything said or written on the right, strike "liberal" and insert "Yankee" and it makes perfect sense.

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