Sunday, June 26, 2011

Taibbi's Article on Bachmann

Matt Taibbi's article almost makes me scared. Originally, I did not think the contemptuous laughter of the cultural elite (if that is what I am, or more than likely taken to be) is full of itself. That laughter discredits her, makes Bachmann a source of irritation that one handles like the awkward cousin nobody likes. You laugh at the things she says, and "move on." However, Taibbi might be right to end the article on the nightmarish prospect of Bachmann's rise to the American Presidency:

It could happen. Michele Bachmann has found the flaw in the American Death Star. She is a television camera's dream, a threat to do or say something insane at any time, the ultimate reality-show protagonist. She has brilliantly piloted a media system that is incapable of averting its eyes from a story, riding that attention to an easy conquest of an overeducated cultural elite from both parties that is far too full of itself to understand the price of its contemptuous laughter. All of those people out there aren't voting for Michele Bachmann. They're voting against us. And to them, it turns out, we suck enough to make anyone a contender.

Obviously, I owe Taibbi a beer sometime and must apologize for my laughter.

1 comment:

Jesse M said...

Jonathan Chait has an even more frightening, if less alarmist, account of why Bachmann could ascend to the presidency. An acute, frightening observation.

Chait on Bachmann's announcement