Friday, 28 March 2008

• Let's hear it for the homegrown crazies!

  I could fill an entire blog with nothing but ridiculous quote from Larry Sabato, our very own local darling of punditry. But I think I'll just post this gem of a quote because it's pretty much a microcasm of everything he's ever said about the American public and the US political system. This is a conversation with Fox New's Neil Cavuto:
  

  NEIL CAVUTO (host): To John McCain today -- he was talking about housing, but concerned more with all the pricey government programs aimed at fixing housing. Historian Larry Sabato says it is a decidedly different tact: Democrats proposing a government solution for people in pain; the presumptive Republican nominee risking no such solution for the vast majority who are not. So, Larry, how does this fall out? I mean, one of the things in that Hillary Clinton press conference a few moments ago was this notion that maybe John McCain was pulling a Herbert Hoover. Will that register?

  SABATO: Well, Neil, without insulting the American public, I'd have to say a fair proportion of the public doesn't know who Herbert Hoover was. So I don't think that will necessarily sell. Look, when you analyze parties, you need to think of them this way: The Democratic Party is the mommy party, and the Republican Party is the daddy party. Now, you and I both love both our mothers and fathers, right? But they play different roles in many families. The mother is loving and caring and takes us back in and provides the safety net. The father is the disciplinarian -- tough love. He makes us face up to hard realities, at least in many families. Well, the mommy party is the Democratic Party. The daddy party is the Republican Party. And I think if you look at the economy, you look at the housing, the mortgage crisis, a whole wide range of things, you'll find that the parties fulfill these images.

  Awesome! That's exactly what we need...more sexist bullshit affirming narrowly imagined gender roles in "normal families" and underhanded references to the "Bleeding Heart Liberal" stereotype of the Democratic Party. Also, Sabato, just for the record: Yes, I know who Herbert Hoover was. But thanks for assuming I don't!
  

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