It somehow seems appropriate amidst the stage-managed republican war on women that a zombie like ann coulter would pop out of the graveyard to call sarah palin a charlatan. Pot. Kettle. All that. This joke practically writes itself. But I am going to leave it alone because beyond chuckling at their internecine squabbling there is nothing there. What is interesting is when coulter says: "a weakness in the Republican Party as a whole — that certain individuals become celebrities and are allowed to profit off that status and yet still interfere in GOP politics." Pardon my naivate, but isn't this the part and parcel reason the conservative movement exists? Coulter put it more plainly in another story "the incentives seem to be set up to allow people, as long as you have a band of a few million fanatical followers, you can make money."
What a wonderful "revelation" from the former pin-up girl of the right. Just one of many episodes of sour grapes on the American wacko right. One comment from the huffpo story sums the utter hypocrisy up rather well.
"They rail on Dems for being tied to the Hollywood culture yet they all love celebrity. Coulter has some nerve considering she has made her fortune twisting the constitution with flaming rhetoric. Commentators like her have contributed to celebrity in politics with their continuing criticism of the 'elite' media as the excuse for ignorance.. She should pledge to be factual and end her personal attacks. Dems still for the most part believe in good government not destroying government for personal gain. They are not as selfish. It will be a cold day when free market Republicans believe the shouldn't make their fortunes off politics at any cost to the country."
The second part I am not so sure of, it is fealty to the corporate overlords Democrats must demonstrate to get elected and pledge privately at least not to rock the boat that allowed the teabag party to flourish in the first place. Though the belief in good government and public service is relatively intact on the Democratic side, and the commenter does qualify the remark well.
Thomas Frank's latest book Pity the Billionaire expands in grueling detail the cult of DIY celebrity on the right. The central thesis that free-market idealism in response to free-market catastrophe has energized the "latest" right in their pursuit of power has already been superceded by the return to culture war staples on steroids. But conservative celebrity worship and the pusuit of money through a moment in the spotlight that Frank detailed validates buying the book all by itself. Frank began his examination of political activism for profit in The Wrecking Crew and has really hit home with the theme of why such a destructive force as movement conservatism appeals to so many and endures disaster after disaster.
It started in the 1970s when Richard Viguerie entered the direct-mail business and redefined it as a money machine for the emerging movement by capitalizing on white backlash and fear. Jack Abramoff got into the shakedown business as president of the college republicans around this time as well, extorting money from business groups to act as political hitmen against campus good goverment groups. But the real celebrity-making money tree waited until rush limbaugh and his bigot clones reinvigorated AM radio by turning it into a forum for gathering audiences of angry white men that could then be sold to whatever snake-oil salesmen sensed the possibility of turning discontent into profit.
Frank noted in Pity with the kind of gloom-tinged glee that I really appreciate how local teabag nobodies "would attempt to parley a moment of Youtube glory into a lifetime revenue stream." And the entrepenuerial talent on display at teabag gatherings selling "Don't Tread on Me" snake flags, bumper stickers, and so on to the masses. Like misdirection, mystification, and mythologizing, making money was absolutely central to the conservative movement and it's latest incarnation as the "tea party."
I certainly don't want this post to sound like I am picking on girls, the two stooges at the beginning were simply coincidental. They just happened to be in the news and vampiratically sucking some celebrity from the dwindling energy left in their stars. No, this goes far further. Newt's attacks on Mitt Romney and Bain Capital was a pretty good example of another vampire attack. The best though, is Wisconsin's disgrace of a governor scott walker. After polarizing the state as no other could possibly do, ramming through vicious new laws to kill unions for no reason, cutting taxes for his buddies, and lying about everything under the sun, he now claims that if he is recalled it will be no big deal. He is so deluded that he really believes the relatively few "fanatical followers" he has accumulated during his membership in the wrecking crew will finance "real money" in the "private sector" of the right-wing echo chamber.
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