William J. Bennett, the boob of virtues

I had to scan--sorry, that's the most I can devote to one of William Bennett's ravings--his column twice to make sure I hadn't missed something really, really important, like cogency. I hadn't.

President Obama won the 2012 presidential election by accumulating some of the most one-sided electoral constituencies in modern political history.

Bennett's definition of accumulated, electoral one-sidedness is the young, women, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, the poor and the working class, as against Mitt Romney's multifaceted base of middle-aged white guys with comfortable incomes. I'm not making this up. I couldn't. It's too fat-headed.

Then, sure enough, came the pompously inevitable:

If the national dialogue stays on [liberals'] terms--gender, race, ethnicity, class--Republicans will continue to lose.

We must counter the discourse and speak and educate in terms of family, faith, freedom, principle, values, work, country, community, improvement, growth, and equality of opportunity.

For reasons I may never fully comprehend, the William J. Bennetts of the Republican Party are convinced that talk of gender, race, ethnicity and class somehow stands in opposition to heartfelt considerations of everything from family to equality of opportunity. They're the same damn thing. And it all includes white guys, too. Only now the operative word is includes. And that, I suppose, is as close as I can get to fully comprehending the immense indignation of the Republican Party's William J. Bennetts.

Comments

[chris]

Op eds from people like him are fantastic, because they illustrate that the old white guys with comfortable incomes 100% do not get it.

And that is great for democrats, because the old white guys running the GOP will continue to make terrible political decisions.

[Jimiskin]

Another dinosaur roars, meaninglessly.

[Turgidson]

Bennett's quote with my additions in parens: "We must counter the discourse and speak and educate in terms of family (get back in the kitchen, ladies), faith (gays are gross!!), freedom (to have guns, but that's about it), principle (for thee, not for me), values (gays are gross!), work (for as low a wage as possible and crappy benefits), country (America fuck yeah!), community (preferably surrounded by a big gate and security guards), improvement (in the strength of the gate and the size of the security force), growth (in the rich's bank accounts and the country's debt), and equality of opportunity (as long as rich white people remain more equal)"

So basically, keep bullshitting us about stuff they either know nothing about, are wrong about, or don't actually believe in themselves. In other words, don't change a thing, just sound like less of a knuckledragging dolt when speaking in public.

[Bulworth]

Wonder what William J. thought of the four gay-marriage wins last week. Wait, let me guess...

[sueme]

I have wondered for years what Bill Bennent has to offer...exactly nothing....he along with C. Krauthammer, R. Limbaugh, L. Graham, J. McCain and various others are so out of touch that I ask why do we care what their opinions are? I will answer for me at least...go away..you have nothing to offer in the real world.

[majii]

Bennett is an example of exactly why republicans lost so badly last week. He refuses to acknowledge that the country is changing, and that the majority of us aren't as fixated on hating LGBTQ Americans and/or on banning abortion.

[AnneJ]

Yes it seems to be the conservative strategy these days, don't change policy positions to attract a larger number of voters, just find a nicer way of expressing the same ones that scared them away in the first place.