Romney 2012: Just the beginning

[SirNitram]

I'm sad. The deranged loonies that address Bill Frist's political mailers only saw fit to send me some bizarre crowing about how Conservatism is WINNING!

Cause they won in Tennessee.

[The Guid]

Tennessee? With all due to respect to Tennessee if Conservatism wasn't winning there it wouldn't be winning anywhere. That's like saying that we're beating anti-semitism because you don't see it in Israel.

[Medic]

I love people who quote the Dark Knight in political emails...

Allow me to enlighten you then. As you know, Rush Limbaugh's the most-listened to talking-head on radio. Ah, modern times. Better yet, Sean Hannity is #2 and Glenn Beck, #3. Your post and mine relate to #3.

Now I'm serious. And so was (is) Glenn Beck. What I'm talking about of course is the Dark Knight. What we're getting at is fundamentally what people mean when they say "Echo Chamber." Now you mock, rightly, quoting a popular summertime movie in a political email. That's because you're ignorant of what goes on in the Echo Chamber and what bounces around in it.

Basically, when the movie came out, Glenn Beck interpreted it in completely Global-War-on-Terror / political terms. Basically, Batman going to China to get that guy in the Joker's little ring of terror was the equivalent of Extraordinary Rendition or somethingorother. I forget the details. The basic crux of the argument however was that Beck viewed the Dark Knight, an extraordinarily popular movie at the time, as a justification and support, in the minds of Americans, for the American practices of Extraordinary Rendition, 'enhanced interrogation' techniques and other examples of being "tough" and, on principle, pissing on international law.

So you see, quoting the Dark Knight is like code-speak for being tough-on-terror and a regression to what I can now almost describe as "Bush-era practices." That feels good though doesn't it? "Bush-era?" As in, "back-in-the-day?" There's a reason I listen to Right-Wing radio and watch Fox News. It's equal parts opportunity (as a driver in a headquarters unit, there's often little else to listen to on the radio in this, rural Kansas, in the middle of the day) and wanting to keep a pulse on what the opposition's saying. Knowledge is, if not power, insight and that gives one a better-informed opinion. Like the fact that many in the Conservative movement are sufficiently insecure as to look for justifications of their worldview in ANYTHING. Also, the fact that they start with conclusions and find evidence to match. Things we've all claimed and seen about the Right, but what's overkill? Victory.