the Jethro Bodine-ism of the GOP

[Enrique]

http://squarestate.net/diary/259/republican-bodineism-redux

(...)

The real problem here is not the fact that she spouted this nonsense, it is her instance that it has any place in trying to reduce the cost of health care. It all goes back to the creeping Jethro Bodine-ism of Republican Party. You don't actually have to be really smart to be a Senator or a Representative. You just have to be comfortable saying the same thing over and over and over and asking for money over and over and over. It is the dirty little secret that we should always keep in mind when we talk about policy.

Bodine-ism in Republicans is a complicated thing, they are often clueless, but they also have this culture they have developed where the conservative idea is always right. This is probably why Ms. Lowden and her campaign are defending her statements instead of walking them back and talking about things that don't make her sound out of touch and more than a little insane.

Republicans are often enamored of the mythical past. This seems to be one of those times. Sure doctors in rural areas used to take barter from their patients, but in cities that time has been long, long past. It plays into the mind set of the conservatives who feel like they are losing control of their white-middle-class-Protestant nation.

(...)

It seems to me that Majority Leader Reid has caught a real break with Ms. Lowden's barter statement. It is going viral on the internet. This is because she has played into an accepted stereotype of modern Republicans, that they are out of touch with the realities of health care in this nation, that their ideas are all about taking us back not forward and that they are pathologically unable to admit to a mistake and make it right.

In five months or so we might be looking back as this moment as the one where Harry Reid went from being an almost certain loser in the fall to being able to keep his seat, even though he shepparded a insurance reform bill that was very unpopular in his state through the Senate. It will also be another example of Republican Bodine-im in action.

[Romulox]

1. Another writer who doesn't get the Hillbillies. Jethro was goodhearted and pure on the show

the evil city folk (e.g. the Dreisdales) were manipulative and morally bankrupt. The purity of the Clampets contrasted against the debauchery of the big city was the prevailing theme of the show.

In short, this analogy is inept.

[Enrique]

3. good point

the Cletus-ism of the GOP might work better.

[YOY]

4. Far more apt.

Jethro was a good soul. Cletus is a slack jawed yokel.

[Swede]

2. In the real world,this should end her politicl career.

But,right now,it's really strange out there.