"...it's not the training to be mean but the training to be kind that is used to keep us leashed best." ~ Black Dog Red

"In case you haven't recognized the trend: it proceeds action, dissent, speech." ~ davidly, on how wars get done

"...What sort of meager, unerotic existence must a man live to find himself moved to such ecstatic heights by the mundane sniping of a congressional budget fight. The fate of human existence does not hang in the balance. The gods are not arrayed on either side. Poseiden, earth-shaker, has regrettably set his sights on the poor fishermen of northern Japan and not on Washington, D.C. where his ire might do some good--I can think of no better spot for a little wetland reclamation project, if you know what I mean. The fight is neither revolution nor apocalypse; it is hardly even a fight. A lot of apparatchiks are moving a lot of phony numbers with more zeros than a century of soccer scores around, weaving a brittle chrysalis around a gross worm that, some time hence, will emerge, untransformed, still a worm." ~ IOZ

Jun 28, 2010

Das Totempwog

Wherein Diggly transforms Grayson into the New Kucinich:

"...And it's not surprising that the person speaking out for peace today is none other than the progressive congressman from Florida. I don't know about you, but I am convinced that it takes political fighters to keep us out of war, and there's no smarter or more effective fighter in the Democratic Party than Alan Grayson...."

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/graysons-peace-party.html

Grayson, alike to all Congress beasts, wants to raise money in order to get his seat at the capitalist-militarist imperial country club wicked awesome Congressional digs back, with the lifetime pension, the stupendous health benefits, and the not-too-shabby annual stipend.

Apparently, yon pwoggies have an operating principle: let us call it the Rule of Das Totempwog. The Totempwog serves a single purpose. He* represents everything pwoggies want others to believe about all yon pwoggies, whenever those pwoggies go about doing things which do not fit the pwoglander bill.

It goes back a bit, including such notables as Martin Luther King, Jr., that war hero guy who replaced Bobby K, Bobby Kennedy his damned self, and even ol' fighting Bob LaFollette.

But, for nearly twenty of the most recent years - the true blue Totempwog title had fallen to Ralphman Nader. For decades, yon pwoggies would turn to Nader whenever they needed someone to make a moral case they would later compromise, betray, abandon or criticize a month down the road, from the "realist" perspective.

Then, when Nader proved a wee bit of a real gadfly, and threatened (not really) to stymie the efforts of Algore, who never really had a chance to play the role, what with Daddy's money and all those oil stock portfolios, the pwogzone turned to wee Denny Kucinich.

And for a decade, the Gnome of Ohio had a good run.

He even got to raise money pretending he had a chance to sit in the Oval Office as the main occupant, and not as a subsidiary member of the fellatiating harem of power.

But, alas, Denny took a stand. Not a strong one, mind you. But, you know, he put his big left toe into the kiddie pool and managed to cough up a criticism of the Pwogfather himself, Imperial Barack.

Imp. Barack, of course, took wee Denny on a ride at twenty klicks high, and the rest of that history you already probably know.

Which sad fact has deprived the the latest crop of pwoglanders of Das Totempwog. Until spake Digby. And here we go again...


* - let's take a moment to thank the imaginary god and unreal fates, in the name of Cindy Sheehan. They almost inaugurated her into the role, until she had the godawful wicked gall to keep her focus on their hairy hypocritical issues.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Digby wrong?

About a political person?

About the importance of such a person?

About the way American federal power works?

About anything?

IMPOSSIBLE!

The top left corner image of Finch in Network is comical; Digby actually IS the voice of many pwogs, who visit Hullabaloo to serve as one of the hundreds of echoes in the reverb chamber.

The problem is, Digby's always wrong, which means that the reverberations are wrong too.

Jay Taber said...

Pwogfather? This meme has potential.

Jack Crow said...

Yeah,

Digby is a leading light of the liberal echo chamber, a low rent analog of the high rent Limbaugh.

So, when she hath spake and whatnot, I conclude that, no doubt Grayson shall become the new Totempwog, the perfect foil to the Pwogfather.

Whenever the Pwogfather violates some part of the liberal canon, look for liberals to turn to the Totempwog for succor.

mike flugennock said...

I think their problem with Nader was that Nader is an actual, real Progressive, with real, actual principles and values which he really, actually stands for -- which, of course, scares the living fertilizer out of Pwogwessives. They'll always love Dennis The Menace because they know he's really just a fake and a tool, just like them.

I've gotten to where I actually enjoy every opportunity to point out how and where Nader is right in terms of calling bullshit on Democwats and Libewals, because I love watching Democwats and Libewals shitting themselves.

Try it sometime, folks; tons of fun for young and old.

mike flugennock said...

Jack Crow writes:
So, when she hath spake and whatnot, I conclude that, no doubt Grayson shall become the new Totempwog, the perfect foil to the Pwogfather.

Yeah... still, even though I know at the end of the day that he's still just a Donkeycrat; I still get a huge kick out of him popping off in Congress and making the Teabaggers piss themselves in indignation -- even though Grayson's not doing anything more radical than what he's entitled to, which is publicly criticizing the GOP in open session. You know things are getting pretty goddamn' sad when somebody simply criticizing the opposition party in an open session of Congress makes peoples' nipples explode with delight.

Jack Crow said...

Mike, no doubt.

I think it stands that whatever totem the Dem base picks to represent their aspirations can have real opinions separate from what is projected upon him.

Especially in the case of Nader.

Nader was an object lesson, though. He really did mean it, which is why they've managed to inaugurate more obvious faux pwogs following him.