Redstate

By streetwise Posted in Republicans — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Some conservatives are simply - Fawlty

We need a simple rule of thumb to analyze dysfunction on RS and other like-minded sites. IMO, when the conversation turns to a dissection of the various strands of conservatism, in enough detail to put a Russian novel to shame, dysfunction is at hand. When advocates of certain strands insist on their way or the highway in a critical national election, we have moved from dysfunction to lunacy.

Now I am a devotee of the Fawlty Towers television series and its myriad lessons on life. In politics, the people who can benefit from this are the Fawlty Cons. One type apes Basil Fawlty's obsession with other people's sexual peccadilloes. But it is Fawlty who invariably is the one that winds up compromised from a respectability point of view. Like the episode where he is convinced that a guest is having sex with an unregistered guest in his room, tries to spy on them, and winds up with his own greasy handprint on the breast of a third guest, the Australian girl.

The second type of Fawlty Con is the anti-McCainiac, and is based on the famous German episode shown above. Here Fawlty tries to be oh-so-correct in suppressing his prejudices towards German guests, and urges "don't mention the war". But his own ineptness at running a fire drill (read election) in his hotel gives him a concussion, and he zones out and does all sorts of ridiculous things. Including full scale rants that involve, you guessed it, the war, mortifying the guests.

There are Fawlty Cons who are like that with McCain. They concede that he is sound on the war, but rant and rave at him on everything else. Then they insist that we do not talk about the war but about the everything else. Then the war invariably intrudes (how could it not) as they run amok belittling people who are visiting the hotel (read conservative and Republican sites).

No analogy is perfect, but I think of the Fawlty Con analogy a LOT these days. The Fawlty series is hugely funny and the German episode is one of the best. I wish I could say that about the Fawlty Cons.

End of rant.