Lookin' for a Leader

Listening to Neil Young's Living with War just now - it really holds up more than I thought it would at first listen. There's some great cuts here, including "Lookin' for a Leader" (which I haven't gotten to yet). But we Democrats/Liberals aren't the only one's looking for a leader. Conservatoids are looking for one too, and Ken Conner has a handy dandy guide to what Conservatives should want in a leader.

I should point out that Conner explains the 2006 Republican Losses without referring to the deeply unpopular war in Iraq, so he loses some points there.

He says that the Republicans should look for someone who's got leadership (really brilliant analysis there, Conner), who has a vision for America, and who has authenticity.

Or can fake it, apparently. Thompson probably wins the Authenticity Primary, but I'm reminded of a post from Glen Greenwald from last week.

But the illusion of manliness cliches, tough guy poses, and empty gestures of "cultural conservatism" are what the Republican base seeks, and media simpletons like Fineman, Halperin and Matthews eat it all up just as hungrily. That's how twice-and-thrice-divorced and draft-avoiding individuals like Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh become media symbols of the Christian "values voters" and "tough guy," "tough-on-defense" stalwarts.

And it's how a life-long Beltway lobbyist and lawyer who avoided Vietnam, standing next to his twenty-five-years-younger second wife, is held up by our media stars as a Regular-Guy-Baptist symbol of piety and a no-nonsense, tough-guy, super-masculine warrior who will protect us all.

Is this the sort of authenticity Conner wants? A best guess is that, yep, that's what he's talking about.

The truth is that Conner's lack of understanding of the role the Iraq war played in 2006 is indicative of his insight in general; this is really quite a banal article. When you boil it down, his point is "When we go to select a presidential candidate, we should select a good one." Well, duh.