Friday, February 22, 2008

Straight Talk Express

It's a funny aspect of the Clinton/Bush era Republican party that the very things they highlight most about themselves frequently turn out to be the most false. Republicans obsessed with family values turn out to be the most sexually deviant ones, while the warhawks tend overwhelmingly to be the same guys who were ducking the draft 40 years ago. Ronald Reagan, dubbed by modern conservatives the "Great Communicator," would freely tell the most comically absurd and demonstrable lies as long as he thought they would have a powerful effect and that no one would dare call him on it, such as that the Russian language has no word for "freedom," or that he personally liberated Nazi death camps, and that's not even counting the big (read: Iran-Contra) whoppers.

So it's strangely fitting that John McCain, to whom Atrios refers as "the Patron Saint of Maverick Straight Talk," turns out to be a positively Reaganesque liar.

No comments: