The Return of George Wallace

[barfo]

The history of the modern Republican Party in one sentence: Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller got into an argument and George Wallace won.

I thought this was an interesting article, as I hadn't given a thought to George Wallace for the last few decades.

I find the Palin/teabagger parallels fairly compelling, and the author also touches on some of the spending cut issues we've been debating here recently.

The above quote is the opening paragraph; here's the closing:

Conservatism is wary of extremism and rage and anti-intellectualism, of demagoguery and incoherent revolutionary rhetoric. Wallace was a right-wing populist, not a conservative. The rise of his brand of pseudo-conservatism in Republican circles should alarm anyone who cares about the genuine article.

barfo

 

[jlprk]

The author makes a complete list of the talking points in Wallace's speeches (though he never mentions States' Rights--how'd he forget that). But to understand Wallace you have to watch his speeches on TV. You have to hear the cadence, the vitriol, the emotion, the sarcasm. In the 60s, 1930s-style radio preachers could still be heard only in the South, and radio pundits yelling at us all night were yet to come. Sarah Palin is closer to the tradition now.

It's like Bush's press conferences. You can see an excerpt on the nightly news, but if you haven't watched the whole thing, hidden at noon on CNN so no one will see it, you will assume there was some dignity in his bombastic oratory.