Michele Bachmann says Gore Vidal turned her into the (right wing idiot) person she is today

[marmar]

Michele Bachmann Blames Her Republicanism on Gore Vidal, But Gets It All Wrong


This diary is indebted the Talking Points Memo story Bachmann: 'Snotty' Gore Vidal Novel Turned Me Republican!. I'm cannibalizing their coverage with abandon. (But even though they got there first, I have the better story title.)

Here's the gist: Michele Bachmann told CPAC today that she used to be a Democrat, even worked for Jimmy Carter and attended his inauguration. Then, while a college junior, she was reading Gore Vidal's Burr, a revisionist history of our Founding Fathers told from the perspective of the least celebrated one, our third Vice-President. She thought it snotty, and realized that if Gore Vidal was a Democrat, she must be a Republican -- and she's stayed one ever since.

This is a good time for three initial points:

(1) Gore Vidal is not a Democrat

(2) Anyone who'd change their political party so capriciously is an idiot

(3) As a tribute, you should add Burr to your reading list. It's a great novel!

The third point is actually the most important. I'm truly thankful to Bachmann for bringing the 1973 novel Burr back to public consciousness, because it's something to revel in reading and to argue about endlessly. Fun and good for you!

Updates: (1) Some edits for typos etc. have been made and will not be acknowledged. (2) bluesteel suggests you read this entertaining story about the Minnesota Goofer. (3) some people seem perhaps unfamiliar with the colorful American expression "burr up his/her/the ass" (which I ratcheted down a notch for the title because I was "please thinking of the children"). It refers to something being irritating and motivating. It does not refer to any real body part of La Bachmann's, nor to a real Republican Senator. so please get your mind out of the grifter. (4) Fun comment section you made, for which I thank you.

I want to start by cannibalizing some fine comments from TPM. Here's one by "TapirBoy," who I'm guessing is a relative of our "blue aardvark":

Burr is a great novel, and Bachmann's inability to cope with the fact that the "Founding Fathers" were very fallible human beings shows a lot about the broader Republican mindset. It also reminds me of something poignant another Minnesotan, now-Senator Al Franken, once wrote about the differences between a liberal's love of country and a conservative's love of country.

As Franken noted, liberals love America like adults love their parents, while conservatives love America like a four year-old loves his parents. Liberals love America, but can emotionally and intellectually recognize that America sometimes takes an errant path and try to get back on course. This is the same way an adult child loves a parent. Conservatives, on the other hand, think everything America does is right, just as a young child thinks everything Mommy does is right even if Mommy is acting unwisely. And a four year-old will punch you in the nose if you ever say anything bad about Mommy.

Oh, YES, yes, YES! Thank you, Sen. Al Franken, for the definitive stompification of your state-mate and those like her. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/419311/michele_bachmann_blames_her_republicanism_on_gore_vidal%2C_but_gets_it_all_wrong/

[RandomThoughts]

1. her reason was label trap.

by that explanation. As soon as people spend all the meaning in a label, they will flip it and spend the meaning in another label.

It is entropy in a label about some meaning attached to images or words. Also why Grammaton Cleric, or Grammer was used in a movie, since it is about labels used without meaning.

If everyone likes the label 'patriot' you attach that to anything you do, to spend what people called 'patriots' did, even against what they actually did. That is much of marketing.

from "The Gun Catra training"

That is how Orwellian labeling works, and should be explained to people.

[Cleita]

2. I doubt that she has ever read any Gore Vidal.

Also, when it is a work of fiction you are reading, you have to remember that it is fiction and nothing more something that Ayn Rand fans should remember too.

[awoke_in_2003]

3. Well, Christine O'Donnell turned me into a newt. nt

[HelenWheels]

4. Love Al Franken

He is one smart dude.

[Liberal Veteran]

5. And it was a sad end to Gore Vidal's attempt to become a brain surgeon.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Strange, Vidal's writing never had that effect on me.

[DCKit]

7. Eating carrots and peas together made me a librul. nt

[niyad]

8. wouldn't one actually have to be able to read, in order to have read vidal's novel?

[felix_numinous]

9. Al Franken

really nailed it, epically.