Redstate

Or, Randi Rhodes finally does something useful with her life.

By Moe Lane Posted in Liberals — Comments (20) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

No, really. Her taking a header at least got a pretty good American Spectator article written [UPDATE: Whoops! H/T: Protein Wisdom]

Mugged by Unreality
By Shawn Macomber

MANHATTAN -- So perhaps Jon Elliott wasn't exactly cool as a cucumber when he took to the airwaves early Tuesday to announce fellow Air America host Randi Rhodes had lost several teeth in an cold-blooded assault while walking her dog on the streets of New York City. Maybe Elliott, who prides himself on being "The Most Dangerous Liberal in America," sounded a little bug-eyed crazy. Fair enough. But with the proverbial Reichstag in flames and the fascist takeover of the United States clearly under way, neither calm nor restraint were buzzwords of the day.

I would like to note for the record that, like (I suspect) most other members of the Right-blogosphere I find it difficult to remember that her name is not spelled "Randy Rhoads" - who was, of course, a brilliant heavy metal guitarist (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne) whose promise was cut tragically short in a senseless accident. Hopefully this gives you a baseline for just how seriously we care about the woman.

Read on.

There's a lot of good stuff in there, but I'd like to riff on this:

There is, however, something bigger going on here, encapsulated in the determination of Rhodes' fans, against all facts to the contrary, to hold-tight to the pipe dream of right-wing fanatics hiring Blackwater agents to beat her as she walked her dog: They so wish it were true. As with global warming alarmism, these sorts of messianic martyr fantasies about neo-Nazi conspirators aligned against liberals' salvation program for the masses are delusions designed to assure people clearly desperate for meaning in their lives that they are historically significant figures living in historically significant times. History, sadly, is not made within the virtual walls of online echo chambers.

We seldom say it so baldly: but, yeah, pretty much. In 2002 - Hold on a second, let me do a disclaimer.

The following is the subjective opinion of Moe Lane, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Red State, the Republican Party or the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.

Anyway, in late 2002 the left-blogosphere went, not to put too fine a point on it, nuts. They were expecting that Congress would swing their way in the midterms... and when it didn't the first signs of their collective neurosis about their essential impotence that we've all come to know and love appeared. It didn't of course help that we didn't give them a fight over Trent Lott: or that Bush finessed them six ways from Sunday in the course of liberating Iraq; or that their people in Congress weren't cooperating. 2004 was worse: not only did we win - again - but the left 'sphere's first choice got beaten out in the primaries by the single most uninteresting candidate in the Democratic stable. They had to endure two Supreme Court nomination "fights" that were scripted out like a Shakespearean stage fight, then forced to endure a midterm election where their Party strenuously avoided even commenting on the War. All to get a shot back at power. To matter. To be something besides a commodity.

2006 should have been an empowering moment for them, of course. Congress got taken back, we lost some governorships - the farm teams for Presidential candidates, as any Bobby Jindal supporter will happily tell you - and for roughly six weeks it looked like all us evil neocons were finally going to get our comeuppance. And then 2007 dawned, and with it came the realization that Congress had no intention whatsoever of getting in the President's way over foreign policy. So we got the surge, and the funding, and the FISA bill, and Nancy Pelosi's talking about that genocide resolution being put to a vote "this year" (read: when people have forgotten about it), and Harry Reid does whatever the voices in Mitch McConnell's office tell him to do, and the response of the Democrats to all of this? "Give us more money." Because there's an election coming up, and with 60 Democratic votes in the Senate things can finally get done.

So, I'm not surprised that they want to believe that we're collectively lying in wait for them. The perceived powerless often take some sort of odd comfort in the thought that groups are out there, ready to pounce; it certainly beats being ignored, or scorned. I'm not surprised, but I'm kind of tired of it. None of us did anything to these people; they did it to themselves, enthusiastically. We're not paid to be their psychiatrists, counselors, and/or BDSM Masters/Mistresses, so we have no reason and less inclination to be involved in their internal dramas. The entire scenario is sordid, and more than a little unseemly.

In short, they need to learn to solve their own damn problems and leave us to ours - which are quite complex enough, thank you very much.