The Republicans Are Like Frat Boys in 'Animal House'

[kentuck]

http://www.alternet.org/news/146417/the_republicans_are_like_frat_boys_in_%27animal_house%27

<snip>
April 13, 2010 In the classic teen movie Animal House there comes a moment when the ne'er-do-well students of the Delta fraternity finally realise their pranks have gone too far. Faced with expulsion from university, the most violent, antisocial drunkard of the group, Bluto Blutarsky (John Belushi), gives one last rousing, rambling speech to his crestfallen comrades. "Nothing is over until we decide it is," he yells. "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!"

The other students look on confused. Bluto leads a charge but nobody follows. However, they soon fall in line after the fraternity's leader, the far more respectable, presentable, all-round-cad, Otter (Tim Matheson), backs Bluto's call to arms against the university authorities. "Bluto's right," he says. "Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards … I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part."

The Republican party, in particular, and American conservatism in general, have taken to operating in a similar manner to the Delta fraternity – increasingly reckless, anarchic and strident. Faced with defeat they respond with desperation. Only where the Deltas were motivated by ribaldry, conservatives are driven by rage.

<snip>
So much for the Blutos. Far from reining them in, the Republican leadership increasingly reflects their excesses. Absent any legislative agenda or coherent ideological approach, they have spent the last two years crafting "a really futile and stupid gesture … on somebody's part" that Otter would be proud of. Small government is a legitimate philosophical and political position. But in the hands of people who voted to bloat the deficit and unleash a huge state-grab of civil liberties, it is shorn of credibility. It isn't government they don't like; it's Democrats in government.

<snip>
And how would the Republican party explain to most of its supporters that while their living standards stagnated or declined under George Bush they are set to improve under Obama? As Otter explained to one of the fraternity after trashing his brother's car: "You fucked up ... you trusted us!"

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[hobbit709]

1. unfortunately, most of the Republicans/Teabaggers act more like Niedermeyer.

[Fumesucker]

2. My thoughts exactly..

Rigid authoritarian assholes, that's not how I thought of the Deltas..

[ejpoeta]

3. i'd have to say the republicans are the other guys. the ones that act like good upstanding

citizens but are real assholes.

[The2ndWheel]

4. And Democrats are more like Kevin Bacon