{"id":5794,"date":"2017-02-08T05:06:36","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T05:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/02\/08\/trump-against-the-pussycons\/"},"modified":"2017-02-08T05:06:36","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T05:06:36","slug":"trump-against-the-pussycons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/02\/08\/trump-against-the-pussycons\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Against the Pussycons"},"content":{"rendered":"

'Pussycon' is a crude moniker for those I have variously described as milquetoast conservatives, yap-and-scribble do-nothings, and bow-tie boys. Esther Goldberg<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The hanky-clutching, cluck-clucking, tsk-tsking faction of the Conservative movement is in for a rough and bumpy ride over the next four to eight years.<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019re the ones who wanted a Republican president who looked like the male manikin on top of the wedding cake. You know, like Mitt Romney. And who were shocked when they got one who wore a baseball cap and spoke with a Queens accent. Like Al Capp\u2019s S.W.I.N.E. (Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything), they are perpetually offended by everything Donald Trump says and does. By the fact that he simply exists.<\/span><\/p>\n

I call them the Pussycons. They\u2019re demanding a prissiness from Republican politicians, a refined politesse<\/em> that distinguishes them from the swinish multitude. For George Will<\/a>, you had to be able to imagine him \u201cin an Iowa living room, with a macaroon in one hand and cup of hot chocolate balanced on a knee.\u201d A George H.W. Bush, dangling a tea cup. Or a Mitt Romney, so much more elevated than his 47 percent of \u201ctakers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/span><\/p>\n

Politesse<\/em> involves adhering to an accepted code of social behavior. It\u2019s a quality without depth. It describes the surface of a person. The oh-so-refined George Will\u2019s favorite descriptor for Donald Trump, \u201cinvertebrate,\u201d which Will uses to denote something low and slithery. Will is always attired in well-tailored suits, carefully accessorized with appropriate ties or bow ties, professorial round wire rimmed glasses and a nicely coifed toupee. You can easily picture him \u201cwith a macaroon in one hand and cup of hot chocolate balanced on a knee,\u201d though you wouldn\u2019t bet on him ridding a town of its bad guys as John Wayne did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pussycons are excruciatingly sensitive to language. So Peggy [Noonan] wants the Senate to ban the word \u201cnuclear\u201d as in \u201cgo nuclear\u201d and \u201cthe nuclear option.\u201d It\u2019s too masculine, a \u201chideous, he-man, drama queen of a phrase.\u201d But aren\u2019t \u201che-man\u201d and \u201cdrama queen\u201d contradictories? Apparently, Pussycons don\u2019t need to be logically consistent.<\/span><\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/span><\/p>\n

Pussycons are \u201cembarrassed\u201d by \u201cbigotry\u201d and \u201cprejudice.\u201d Yet they engage in it all the time. They worry that voter ID laws will keep African Americans from the polls, but isn\u2019t it bigoted to assume that they are incapable of acquiring identification cards? Hey, there are voter ID cards in Nigeria. This is called the tyranny of low expectations, and it\u2019s embarrassingly similar to anti-black racism.<\/span><\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPrudence is not weakness, and carefulness is a virtue, not a vice,\u201d intones Peggy. Yet too much prudence often results in paralysis. It was Hamlet\u2019s downfall. Wait long enough for the time to be right and things may get rotten. And too much carefulness can prevent us from making even minor decisions, as when J. Alfred Prufrock wonders if he dares to eat a peach. A leader must lead with confidence, else he loses the respect of those who would do harm to his country. That\u2019s how wars happen. Khrushchev backed down during the missile crisis only when he came to believe that America\u2019s young president had the balls to act.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pussycons fret that Trump shoots from the hip. But the shameless dithering of the last eight years has created a dangerous situation. We live in a time of serious and constant crises. This is a time for action, for John Waynes rather than Jimmy Stewarts. And the Pussycons need to wrap their minds around this.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

'Pussycon' is a crude moniker for those I have variously described as milquetoast conservatives, yap-and-scribble do-nothings, and bow-tie boys. Esther Goldberg: The hanky-clutching, cluck-clucking, tsk-tsking faction of the Conservative movement is in for a rough and bumpy ride over the next four to eight years. They\u2019re the ones who wanted a Republican president who looked … Continue reading “Trump Against the Pussycons”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,64,221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civility","category-conservatism","category-psychology-and-personality-typology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}