“Seriously, you’d get a much better feel for Washington politics today by reading ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ than the Federalist Papers.”
Like the time he filibustered to try to shut down the Ottoman system of governance before raiding a village on camelback. (Had to say “Seriously” just to emphasize how similar these things are. Exactly the same, pretty much, except the sandstorms.)
“Let me start by recalling a column I recently wrote from Kansas that noted the parallel between monocultures and polycultures in nature and politics.”
Recycling is good, I guess.
[Then he blabs on for about five paragraphs about horticulture in Kansas {where he was, btw, in person, even though people usually don’t go there, except maybe Kansans, and he has also been to the Middle East to see lotuses and Lexuses, on multiple occasions more than once and met real Arab Muslim people}.]
“It’s striking how much the Tea Party wing of the G.O.P. has adopted the tactics of the P.O.G. – ‘Party of God’ – better known as Hezbollah.”
For instance, playing pogs around the campfire after a good jihad. Also, the higher education wing of the U.K. has adopted the strategy of K.U. – better known as Kuwait University. Let that sink in and then consider the implications.
[Blah, blah, Tea Party is just like Hezbollah, blowing things up and getting blown up by Israel, except not exactly like Hezbollah because they’re not technically terrorists, but let’s throw in Ted Cruz’s name now so no one notices how dumb the analogy is. Two minute hate.]
These people are employed, as writers, right now.
Yes, the writing is atrocious. But what's really problematic is the way these liberal opinionistas brand any viewpoint outside their own narrow imagination as radical and terroristic. By accusing their opponents of being nihilistic or Islamist, they are using crude metaphors to do the work that should be done by actual arguments.
These metaphors rely upon social signals, namely the notion that "those people" of the Tea Party have nothing in common with us wealthy, enlightened Manhattanites. Despite his conversations with CEOs on golf courses all around the world, Friedman has to get out more. Maybe next time he's in Kansas he can talk to more people than plants.
These metaphors rely upon social signals, namely the notion that "those people" of the Tea Party have nothing in common with us wealthy, enlightened Manhattanites. Despite his conversations with CEOs on golf courses all around the world, Friedman has to get out more. Maybe next time he's in Kansas he can talk to more people than plants.
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