In which hell freezes over and I praise Meghan McCain
My descent into post-football depression has been momentarily waylaid: Far be it from me to praise the Huffington Post, which I despise for its muckraking and sensationalism and the way it commits every logical fallacy it accuses Fox News of perpetrating, but I was perusing it this morning (as I do most mornings for my cynicism fix — nearly as important as my caffeine fix) and came across this story with Meghan McCain’s comments on the Tea Party. Apparently she is guest hosting on The View, which I enjoy about as much as Huffington Post. Well, most clouds have a silver lining, and this was theirs:
In a scripted segue that requires Ms. McCain to refer to her notes (thankfully, they were not written on her hand — the horror! [/sarcasm]), she says:
McCain: Congressman Tancredo went on TV and he was the first opening speaker and he said, ‘People who could not even spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House whose name is Barack Hussein Obama.’ And then he went on to say that people at the convention should have to pass literacy tests in order to be able to vote in this country, which is the same thing that happened in the 50’s to prevent African Americans from voting. It’s innate racism and I think it’s why young people are turned off by this movement. And I’m sorry, but revolutions start with young people, not with 65-year-old people talking about literacy tests and people who can’t say the word ‘vote’ in English.
Granted, in his speech, Tancredo took some potshots at John McCain, so Meghan was probably pissed off about that. Still, I’m glad to finally see someone within the conservative ranks calling out the Tea Party for what it is: a seclusionist, isolationist, xenophobic, racist, nationalistic movement motivated by fear — not pride or patriotism — and the desire for status quo. Frankly, I hope the producers of The View hire her and jettison that other blond host whose only contributions are talking points from O’Reilly’s show that aired the night before.
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(I fear that my post-football depression is going to manifest itself in more political rants. Great.)