(I know the Possum Seal has been retired after its “one-time use” — har! — but once was enough. B.O. will always be Opossum to me.)
The other day a commenter asked, “Do his women supporters even know what this guy is about? The more I talk to them to try to understand the more clueless and uninformed they seem. They just project hopeful views onto him that have no basis in what he’s said or claims to do.”
Short answer: no, and ain’t that the fricking truth, and bingo.
I discovered this for myself several months ago, when I realized that: a) most young women were supporting Opossum, and b) they were doing it for the same reason as almost everybody else, which was that they’d dreamed up in their heads some fantasy of what this guy was about.
Now, right up front here let me insert the caveat that there are some Opossum supporters who are not at all deluded about the man and whose support for him is carefully considered. I know those folks exist, and I’m even related to some of them. But this post isn’t about them.
This post is about all those young women (mostly young) who think Opossum is Cream of Jesus on toast.
Let me give you an example: sometime in the spring I read a post by a young feminist blogger in which she excitedly interpreted a statement from Opossum as a dogwhistle to his supporters about his pacifist intentions. “What pacifist intentions?” you’re wondering, but hang on. In this feminist blogger’s mind, Opossum is a pacifist who is completely opposed to war, and, once in office, will purge the State and Defense departments of anyone who’s ever been involved in making war. I don’t know who he’s supposed to replace them with — Kermit the Frog? Big Bird? — but no matter, because clearly we’re in the realm of serious delusion. There was no dogwhistle, no secret message to his supporters. The blogger had just dreamed it up. Besides, Opossum is not a pacifist.
Here’s what we know about Opossum, based on his own statements: he favors a “strong” military (whatever that means), wants to expand our forces by almost 100,000 troops, argues for the use of war as a legitimate tool of international relations, and has made a point of pouring scorn on the peace-and-love hippies of the 60s and 70s. His plans for Iraq aren’t much different from anybody else’s, despite his lies (now exposed) to the contrary. Although he did make one speech opposing the Iraq war several years ago, since then he’s argued that it would be a mistake to set a deadline for withdrawing the troops. Certainly his record in the Senate has been one of consistent support for the war. As for his plans once he’s President, last I heard he was throwing around a lot of macho talk about going after targets in Pakistan whether our ally was on board or not.
None of this is a secret. The information is readily available. The feminist blogger in question doesn’t live under a rock, and in fact characterizes herself as politically astute and involved. Yet somehow she reads Opossum’s own words, reviews his actual actions, and her brain hallucinates something entirely different.
This isn’t just a question of being misinformed or misled. We’re talking about thought-blocking to a profound degree. Opossum has never claimed to be a pacifist. He has explicitly disavowed pacifism. To fantasize otherwise is to mentally overwrite the evidence in front of your face. It’s like reading your Toyota car owner’s manual and thinking it’s Finnegans Wake.
The feminist blogger isn’t alone, of course; her malady is one that’s common in Opossum land. Anybody who’s tried to talk sense into these people is well aware of the problem. You try to feed them information from the reality-based world and they react like you’re offering to inject them with smallpox: Noooooooo! Get away! Germs!
That’s why things like the Roberts confirmation story have zero effect on the hardcore fans, feminist or otherwise. Their brains just refuse to process the information. There is abundant evidence that Opossum is personally rather sexist and as a politician is unreliable on women’s rights, but evidence means nothing to his fans. Absolutely nothing.
Don’t you find that scary? I do.
Posted by Violet in Election 2008
