Unassigned

Ace shreds New Republic's 'manpologetics for authoritarianism'; Author addresses 'haters'

Remember when Bill Maher first expressed his disappointment with President Obama? To deal with BP executives over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Maher wanted a “real black president” who would lift up his shirt “so you can see the gun in his pants” — that would speed along negotiations.

Advertisement

Today, on the first day of the government shutdown, The New Republic published a history lesson telling of the time Boris Yeltsin had the Russian army surround and shell the Russian White House to bring an intransigent parliament into line. Is The New Republic seriously suggesting that President Obama consider trading in that pretend gun in his pants for, say, a line of tanks around Capitol Hill?

Ace decided to look into the new militarization of a magazine that only two years ago published pieces like, “The Problem With the Militarization of Rhetoric” in the wake of the Gabby Giffords shooting.

Advertisement

Is this the new, non-ideological magazine that strives for thoughtfulness and subtlety?

Advertisement

That’s probably coming. After all, Russian-American Julia Ioffe never explicitly says in her piece that Obama should shell the Capitol building to bring Congress into line. She merely asks, “What is a president in a presidential constitutional republic to do when faced with an intransigent, bull-headed faction among his people’s representatives?” Like, say, the Tea Party? And then she links to this:

Advertisement

Finally, the author of the piece addresses the “haters” and clarifies that the Tea Party is kind of asking for it, you guys.

https://twitter.com/mtranquilnight/status/385151187265134592

https://twitter.com/Gabby_Hoffman/status/385159185303740417

https://twitter.com/Gabby_Hoffman/status/385159517136113664

https://twitter.com/Mr_Sterling/status/385158352126234625