Cocksure

The trouble with the world, Bertrand Russell once observed, is the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt.

Who wins the crown for king of cocksure? Rush Limbaugh, no doubt.

He has stiff competition form Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and from Newt and Rick Santorum and, of course, Mitt Romney, but Rush is king.

The Bible thumper is always cocksure. After all, God speaks to him. It's part of the package, knowing for sure.

Cocksure is what the Republican Party has parlayed into success. Confidence, being sure of what you say.

It's the stock and trade of marketing. Nuance, acknowledging the opposing point of view are not part of cocksure.

It's not that Republican marketers are thoughtless--they are the Madmen of the 21st century, sitting around an office, a bar or a boardroom, thoughtfully creating something which will appeal. Mitt Romney is the real life Don Draper.

So he's thought about the thrust of the Democratic opposition, who have seized upon the sheer audacity of the skewed distribution of wealth which has occurred, at least in part, in large part, because of Republican laws, rules, deals and ownership of the government. And the Republicans have to answer the Democrats' punches over cutting taxes on millionaires and billionaires.

So what he says is: 1/ You are not poor because somebody else got rich. And there may be some truth to that, if you look at proximate causes. If you look at the inter connectedness of our system, well then, the fact the guy who won the game now has millions to spend means you cannot buy that house you wanted because he's already bought it, knocked it down and built a McMansion. 2/ The whole notion of the underclass identifying themselves as the 99 percenters and the rich as the one percenters is dangerous. You have to say, hey, identify with us one percenters. Republicans have been able to sell Joe Sixpack the fantasy that one day he'll be a one percenter, but the 99 % crowd have been in frontal assault on that dream. So now, what can we rich guys say? We can say greed is good. Just read Ayn Rand. No, Joe Sixpack doesn't read. But he did go to Sunday school once and he he knows envy is a sin, or a bad thing anyway. And he's been told ambition is good.

So, how's this?

Ambition is what makes capitalism work. Envy is what you have in the hearts and minds of the person who wants socialism. When Zhivago arrives at his palatial townhouse in Moscow, home from the war, he finds a woman at the front door who says, "Twelve families live in this house now, where before just one." And Zhivago, seeing his position, says, "Yes, this is much more equitable."

So that's where envy gets you. Someone moves into your house because socialism says everyone should have equal stuff.

Don Draper strikes again. Brilliant.

Mitch McConnell is good at marketing, in the same way. He eats Harry Reid alive, daily.

But there are those who are intelligent, dangerous and effective: Phil Sheridan was cocksure and intelligent.

Of course, he said, "The only good Indians I saw were dead." And that got made into, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

And he did slaughter all the buffalo herds to crush the Plains Indians. And he burned and sacked the Shenandoah Valley. But he was intelligent and effective.

Maybe Obama ought to read a little Sheridan.

A little marketing might help the cause.