The conservative freak show known as CPAC, starring Rush ‘n Joe The Alleged Plumber, has demonstrated how bankrupt what passes for conservative intellect is nowadays. (Don’t gloat, liberals, this can happen after 20-plus years of unbridled power, and it can happen to YOU, too.)
Still, the carny sideshow nature of what the GOP has become inspires this astute observer to ask whether the Rethugs have descended to kitschy status.
From Jonathan Taplin’s TPM Cafe think-piece (highly-recommended):
“When the best selling intellectual tract at the CPAC show is written by Joe the Plumber, one can posit that the intellectual movement called conservatism has evolved into “Kitsch”–“a creative gesture that merely imitates the superficial appearances of thought (via repeated conventions and formula), thus, it is uncreative and unoriginal.” The great Milan Kundera described Kitsch this way.
Kitsch functions by excluding from view everything that humans find difficult with which to come to terms, offering instead a sanitized view of the world, in which “all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions”.
In its desire to paper over the complexities and contradictions of real life, kitsch, Kundera suggested, is intimately linked with totalitarianism. In a healthy democracy, diverse interest groups compete and negotiate with one another to produce a generally acceptable consensus; by contrast, “everything that infringes on kitsch,” including individualism, doubt, and irony, “must be banished for life” in order for kitsch to survive.”
“All answers are given in advance and preclude any questions.” Sounds like the origin of the Dittoheads to the Beast Who Slumbers.
Which brings El Somnambulo to the title of this piece. While ‘conservative intellect’ may or may not be an oxymoron, the unchallenged lead ‘intellect’ is an oxycontin-addled moron.
Close enough for ‘Bulo.
Oh, and if you’re the type that prefers your sideshow in slideshow form, click away. Just come back and tell ‘Bulo which slides you liked the best.