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Mark Levin’s Full-Throated Tribal Yell

Somebody will do a Ph.D thesis in political science one day on the psychology of this stuff. Follow the link to hear the full clip. It’s delightful. Summary here, from that link: Mark Levin went after NRO writer Patrick Brennan for taking cheap shots at Sarah Palin over her NRA speech this weekend. “Here’s what you don’t […]

Somebody will do a Ph.D thesis in political science one day on the psychology of this stuff. Follow the link to hear the full clip. It’s delightful. Summary here, from that link:

Mark Levin went after NRO writer Patrick Brennan for taking cheap shots at Sarah Palin over her NRA speech this weekend.

“Here’s what you don’t understand pal,” Levin said to Brennan, who referred to Palin as “no longer a serious political contender.”

“She’s the most sought after endorsement around, period, in Republican circles…and she’s fighting like hell to save the country.”

Levin went on, “you may not agree with her — you may not agree with how she speaks or what she says but SCREW YOU! You do nothing.”

Levin then slammed Brennan by saying “you sit there on your ass and you type away at your keyboard and then you go to your little social circles and you’re proud of yourself, probably sending the link all over the place. Who have you helped? Who have you supported? What have you done?”

Next Levin took aim at Rod Dreher at The American Conservative, calling him a “nasty creep” for basically writing that Palin’s ‘baptism’ remark was blasphemy and suggesting she was comparing torture to a “holy sacrament of the Christian faith.”

“Everybody knows what she meant,” Levin said, “everybody knows it was a laugh line.” Levin continues, “But Sarah Palin is easy pickins so they pile on. Tough guy, huh?”

Levin points out that Sarah Palin is out there “breaking her neck trying to get conservatives elected and trying to keep the base strong” and she’s dismissed by people on “our side.”

“This is how “our side” treats “our side,”” Levin adds. “You’ll never seen the left or Democrats do that to a woman on their side ever!”

Imagine the kind of conservative bubble in which the thought of Sarah Palin as a “serious political contender” is considered incontestable. Imagine the kind of conservative bubble in which holding a female who once ran for vice president of the United States responsible for something she said in a public speech is considered an act of sexism and disloyalty.

To be clear, I’m not offended by this freakshow vulgarian in the least. But as an inveterate rubbernecker, I am amazed by the undying power of the Georgetown Cocktail Party meme on the populist right. They plainly believe that the only reason any conservative would question their dogmas is because of immoral reasons (disloyalty, cowardice, snobbery, a desire to suck up to the Enemy, etc.). This is not how you endure as a political movement, and not how you build up a party. Everybody on the outside of the bubble just looks in and marvels at the strange habits and exotic customs on display.

Note to Conservatism, Inc.: Mark Levin isn’t the future.

UPDATE: This just in my mailbox:

I’m a born-again Christian, Conservative, Tea Partier. I was not offended by Gov. Palin’s speech. I wish she would run for president! And, I wish that the Republican Party was lead by people who were like Mark Levin, Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, etc. Maybe you should get your head out of the “Beltway” and listen to more of us in the middle part of America.

[Name edited to protect the guilty.]

Madam, if only I lived inside the Beltway and not in a town of 1,700 in the rural South, I wouldn’t have to commute so far to join the Georgetown cocktail party circuit.

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