Jules Crittenden takes Christopher Hitchens to task for his recent endorsement of Barack Obama. Writes Crittenden:
Christopher Hitchens, the socialist who recognized the threat to our way of life and knew who was unwilling to defend it, has capitulated […]:
I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that “issue†I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity. Obama is greatly overrated in my opinion, but the Obama-Biden ticket is not a capitulationist one, even if it does accept the support of the surrender faction, and it does show some signs of being able and willing to profit from experience. With McCain, the “experience†is subject to sharply diminishing returns, as is the rest of him, and with Palin the very word itself is a sick joke. One only wishes that the election could be over now and a proper and dignified verdict rendered, so as to spare democracy and civility the degradation to which they look like being subjected in the remaining days of a low, dishonest campaign.
Not clear what reservoir of character, experience and ability he sees in Obama-Biden, let alone truthfulness, as Hitchens fails to expound with his usual precision in this diatribe. I always respected him for loving western civilization and favoring fundamental logic over ideology, but now he’s capitulated not on ideological terms, but on mere false superficialities. What a disappointment.
Personally, I’m not very surprised about this — Hitchens knows that Obama won’t do much to hurt the Iraq campaign, and he’s evidently betting that the Senator’s foreign policy pragmatism will include leaving military matters to those with military experience and a full grasp of the international landscape — though I can’t deny I’m a bit disappointed, if only because he of late has shown himself somewhat willing to lay into the dissembling, timid media elite whose blatant dishonesty has at times obviously rankled the outspoken Hitchens.
But in the end, Hitchens — seeing the writing on the wall — moved back into the good graces of many of those elites by assuming his best Bill Maher pose and, with a practiced ease, pinning his disgust over the GOP on the godloving snowbilly who he feels is so very beneath him.
There’s always been to Hitchens’ socialism a strong Fabianist flavor — the wannabe revolutionary trapped by his own sense of superiority such that the “people,” whom he champions but whom he’d never be caught dead with, are always rather abstract and separated from the rush of the ideology.
I see nothing different happening here. Given the opportunity to walk himself back into the good graces of many of his fellows, Hitchens found the perfect scapegoat and foil in Sarah Palin — who would likely find his armchair activism and chain smoking drunkenness as affected as he finds her Jacksonian frontierism and parochial beliefs in God and self-sufficiency hopelessly kitschy and imbecilic.
I blame the MacCallan.
He probably got uncomfortable being at odds with his former fellow travelers. Now he can go along to get along, as he obviously prefers, forays into rebelliousness notwithstanding.
He must be very tired. He should work out.
Hitchens hates bitches, man. Oh, and also the whole soft socialism stuff. I’m not surprised at all, either.
Way OT, but Jeff have you tried a new, to the US market anyway, single Malt called the Singleton of Glindullan? It’s a 12 year old expression. Just checking to see if you had any thoughts on it.
Life is like high school. Barack’s going to be the football captain, so Hitchens wants the rest of the team to know he always liked him. Better than being stuffed in a locker. Besides, it looks like it worked for Buckley.
or maybe he simply doesnt like the ticket.
a lot of people in the center-right dont, you know.
Palin’s “im all about a core set of values” (read: fuck DC experience or even a clear track record in AK. as gov.) reminds a lot of people of Bush.
that’s not a real strong selling point right now.
im voting that ticket for my own reasons, but the fact that the GOP is becoming an afterthought politically in most of America shows that we are a decided minority.
Which is a shame: In January 2001, the GOP was the majority party.
very good post, jeff.
Get that Hitch neocon ass, bitch-slap him
Whether it be accepting it gracefully, clinically or going down spiting, straining and fighting; Hitchen’s folded. To him, I give this quote by Winston Churchill:
“A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.”
Hopefully, for Hitchens, the liberal media allows Red Cross packages.
And in 1992, Democrats controlled arguably every branch of the Government.
Shock, so there are elections every two years and that this isn’t the last one evar!!11!??
Thor proposes a new Ammendment to the Constitution, requiring all POTUS and VEEP canidates to have been born in or educated in the State of Massachusetts.
That’ll teach that slack-jawed snowbilly to rise abover her appointed place.
“a lot of people in the center-right dont, you know.”
mcgruder, I very much agree with this statement. However, Hitchens ain’t the center right.
“transcend social condition, class, or education”
translation: She’s not an elitist black man.
Hitchens has never been “-right”. He was definitely stunned by 9/11, thought to this day I don’t know wiether or not it was because he found a new set of God-bothers that were activelly trying to kill him and his ilk, as opposed to the Southern Baptist Convention.
finally Techie the statement I completely agree.
Hitch never was right, when he was frigging Trotskiite-socialist and when he decided to become neoconservative douche bag
shorter thor: she can you fuck bet’cha off
I haven’t had money for Scotch in weeks.
I’ll be running a fundraiser soon, though, based on the work leading up to the election. So maybe then.
Down 757, and were not talking aircraft.
Doesn’t explain the venom saved for Palin.
Hitch was most likely in his cups when he wrote the piece.
That venom looks to boil down to a simple anti-religious prejudice. The rest is ornament to bedazzle.
Hitchen’s support for the War had to be read throught the lens of Kurdish autonomy. He was there when Saddam massacred the Kurds in 1992. I think that motivated him more than anything else. GW and the Republicans were just a convenient vessel (as a committed atheist, strike that, anti-religionist, he tolerated the born-again Bush as the lesser of 2 evils) for his quest to save the Kurds from the forces of sectarian evil.
All his other “support” was derived more from his absolute disgust with organized religion in the form of Islamo-fascism manifest in Europe, like the Danish Cartoons, Theo Van Gogh, Hirsch-Ali, etc. These all happened to coincide with the positions adopted by the right-wing of the American political spectrum at that time. And to be fair, perhaps a little bit of it was some genuine sympathy for GWB enduring the vicious attacks of the rabid left, even if GWB was one of those born-again god-botherers. That he would harbor the same revulsion to Palin’s who wears her religion proudly is standard fare. She hasn’t earned grudging respect by taking down Turkey or some other anti-kurdish faction.
Now that Bush is riding out of town, the Iraq situation seems to be “almost” irreversible in the sense that the Kurds have the capability to detonate the drawbridges and disconnect from the grid with ease, he can move on.
I’d like to explore the fundamentals of perception that a Hitchens can so reduce himself to such abbreviation and lameness. It’s like a corollary to any particular thor hereabouts, making the most inane, convoluted, and dishonest appeals to something, anything, that ignores and disguises whatever bigger picture and more mature, honest perspective there may be about where we’re all going during these times.
Yeah, let’s deflect into talking phantom snow bunnies and elect flesh and blood Marxists thereby.
Surely there’s something in the water, because obviously none of this is sound reasoning — this is an affliction, a condition, a plague against thought and therefore against a previous way of life. As the man said, he’s capitulated on mere superficialities, as has roughly half the country, apparently.
Maybe it’s just severely impacted political correctness; a Hollywood Syndrome worming its way into the common voter intellect during a rather severe swing of the political pendulum aided by a fundamentally dishonest leftist press (who suffer the same affliction, whatever it is).
O! is indeed the most liberal member of the Senate and he’s already hounded by as much or more baggage, both personal and political, than Bill Clinton left office with. So let’s elect him.
Short take: Sdferr
Shorter take: Mercernary Neocon
It might come as a bit of a surprise to Hitchens to discover he’s…Jewish. You’re a one-trick pony in a two-bit carnival, sash. Don’t you have red flag to wrap around your new Stalin, O?
Hitchens being Jewish(?) has anything to do with what exactly?
i’d have a [couple of]
drinks with him
just for the fck of it…
plus /i like to drink and hear big words
You’re a bigger idiot than I thought, sashay. Despite all your world weary colloquy no one has informed you of the etymology of the word “neocon.”
Marxists could fill your gills and you’d still take the bait.
27 kelly, thanks for confirming the fact-most repubs( not on this blog) you included are clueless.
Is Cheney Jewish? Was Kirkpatrick Jewish. How about Z.Khalilzad.
You have no ideological and philosophical clue about what you’re talking about.
True that many Jews are neocons, but not all neocons are Jews.
That idea is to label one using this term as anti-semite.
I hate neocons- the dumbest the cowardest sub humans on the planet.
But I am a zionist, and always supported and will support Jews and Israel.
Appears entirely possible, insouciant lad.
Yes, so goes the imminent voting majority. Finally they’ve sunk almost as low as your self esteem.
Very sad, Hitchens. Very sad. You had some credibility by clinging to real liberalism but you just abandoned all of that because you think Senator Obama is going to win and you want to avoid being on the losing side.
One thing about most of the intellectual class is that they are viscerally terrified of being thought foolish or unsophisticated by their peers.
They can stand in opposition to their peers when they believe they have an equally sophisticated PoV to defend, but let someone like Sarah Palin carry the banner and they fall all to pieces because they cannot counter the accusation that Sarah Palin is TACKY.
Part of this is eight years of trying to defend W. against the sneers of “rube” and “moron.” At least W. had Ivy degrees to his name, lending some degree of credibility.
But the prospect of eight more years of defending someone who IS a commoner  instead of someone who merely sounds like one  is obviously too much for them.
So when it came time to choose between one’s ideals and one’s self-image, it is not surprising to me that Hitchens chose the latter. But I’m discouraged by the others who have succumbed to their vanity.
dicentra, you are intelligent and very smart educated person.
Will you be comfortable with Palin as president, really,truly ? Vapid , ignorant, petty liar.
C’mon , be honest…
“Will you be comfortable with Palin as president, really,truly ?”
I would just to piss off all my “betters”.
News Flash: Hitchens and Sullivan spooning together.
dicentra, you are intelligent and very smart educated person [sic].
Damn straight, but let’s unpack the assumptions in your comment.
Will you be comfortable with Palin as president, really, truly?
Assumption 1: Intelligent people couldn’t possibly be “comfortable” with Palin as president, because she just doesn’t measure up to those standards that all intellectuals prize.
Assumption 2: I am being dishonest when I defend her, because deep down inside, I’m just as elitist as my presumptive peers.
Assumption 3: Palin couldn’t possibly be different from how the media has portrayed her. It’s not possible that she really does put corrupt politicians on trial and in jail, that she broke up the good-old-boys network between the GOP establishment and Big Oil, or that she could possibly be extraordinarily competent and still have THAT INSUFFERABLE COIFFURE!
Vapid, ignorant, petty liar.
Is that meant for me or for her?
Those adjectives don’t describe her by any fair standards, but they certainly say a lot about you.
C’mon , be honest…
Way to impugn my character, sash. But let me tell you something about me: I get in trouble on work sites all the time for saying what I think, and I was even frog-marched off one after I got too frank. I am dispositionally incapable of pretending to be something I’m not.
You try to flatter me by calling me intelligent and well educated, then try to appeal to my vanity while implying that I’m not being honest with myself or with the PW readership.
Admirable, sash. You’re a prince among men. No, really.
Comment by sashal on 10/15 @ 3:34 pm #
dicentra, you are intelligent and very smart educated person.
Will you be comfortable with Palin as president, really,truly ? Vapid , ignorant, petty liar.
C’mon , be honest…
You just described most of our Senate.
Don’t forget, dicentra, sash’s implicit premise is how smart he is for aspersing Palin.
Senate? Damn near all of the legisltive branch with precious few exceptions, bb.
#22 JHoward:
I’d like to explore the fundamentals of perception that a Hitchens can so reduce himself to such abbreviation and lameness.
I think it is easy. He does not like religion, and Sarah Palin is religious without apology. Barack Obama used religion for political advancement and when it became a drag he cut away from it. That, Sen. Obama’s left credentials, and the success of the surge in Iraq give him the cover to revert to form.
With O!bambi being the worst of the lot.
A word of advice for Comrade Sashal; leave now, before you embarass yourself any more than you already have. If I were you, after having been so thoroughly bitch-slapped by dicentra, I’d be wearing a paper bag over my head for a month out of sheer shame.
I was going to write something long and profound about Hitchens. But realized I don’t care enough about him to bother. Whatever. Gotta start dinner, anyway.
Potential presidentPalin
Make sure to click on the items in the office.
Funny
#34 kelly:
As I noted on a thread last Sunday, Sarah Palin is a Jacksonian. That thread of American ideology receives little respect except when there is a direct threat to the nation. She is too ‘NASCAR’ for the self-annointed – both left and right – to respect. She scares them – she doesn’t scare me. I saw too many skilled workers without college degrees: a heavy equipment operator who could make delicate moves with a front-end loader, a carpenter who could rough frame a building and do cabinet level work, a mechanic who could bring the most abused piece of machinery back to life. Their common-sense I would have backed against anyone. They got results.
She does not fit in their salons, and they don’t want to have to give respect to an office-holder who is not part of their tribe. “Does it work?” is not a consideration for the chattering class – whether it meets the purity of their world views is the only consideration.
Quite a rejoinder, sashal. Does letting the side down so often and so convincingly ever have you questioning your premises?
You know, you’re not the only one with insufficient understanding why you “think” the way you do.
#43 sashal:
You are a snob. Sorry, but we don’t need that. And that is the point.
Hitchens sees the tide flowing toward Obama, and wants to get on the last boat out. Bye Chris, been nice to know you.
I think President Palin would do a heck of a job and she’d be all the more effective for how easily she’d be underestimated.
Oh, the irony of sashal calling anyone stupid is amazing. He’s a full throated O! supporter yet he “minds” lying? Just fucking stupid, sashal. You’re an idiot.
dicentra put on a bravura performance in this thread. Props!
dicentra channeled her personal Jesus, but damnit if Jesus lost the crusade of assumptions.
Hell yeah, you lie to yourself, God-lady. Sarah Palin is a fuckin’ rubbery-spined, corrupt, blubber-suckin’ idiot. And.You.Know.It
thor is a fuckin’ rubbery-spined, corrupt, blubber-suckin’ idiot. And.You.Know.It
Fixed.
#29
Sashal says.”But I am a zionist, and always supported and will support Jews and Israel.”
Liar. Why are you voting for Obama if you’re such a fan of israel and jews?
Jeff, I understand completely on the Scotch thing. No purchases here, lately, either. But this one looks interesting and more importantly to the present, inexpensive.
Yes, Pelligri, thor may indeed be those things, but thor’s biggest problem right now is his internal struggle with “who” he is. And wtf? Palin is corrupt now?
#44 – “She does not fit in their salons, and they don’t want to have to give respect to an office-holder who is not part of their tribe.”
What’s even worse, our Barbarian Queen doesn’t give a good goddam about their salon, tribe, or respect.