Conservative macho chic is in. We've seen it in Bush, how he tries to swagger when he walks. (We try to ignore how his manner of walking looks like he has something rammed up his backside.) We saw it in the debates, where his smirking Beavis-and-Butthead-like nervous chuckles tried to mask his belligerence, and where he shook Kerry's hand in a way that said, "I can take you!" (Wingnuts, if physical prowess is what people want in a President, then why not nominate Mike Tyson?)

We saw it in Russia, when Bush made Putin the "bitch" by making him sit in the passenger seat of his own car. Message: Bush is the daddy.

We heard it in Karl Rove's pean to ignorance:

"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Mr. Rove, the senior political adviser to President Bush, said at a fund-raiser in Midtown for the Conservative Party of New York State.

Never mind the stupidity of his worldview -- praise of ignorant reaction is hardly a path to victory -- let's look at the macho sexist message the conservatives are sending.

Michelle Malkin (you know, "somewhere between meshugga and mendacious") says:

The Dems are having a hissyfit over the comments, as if stating the obvious is on par with slandering American troops and invoking hysterical analogies.

You know the word: U-n-h-i-n-g-e-d.

Yes, hissyfit and unhinged. They try to position the Democrats as uppity women. How ironic, such language used by a woman. How telling of her own self-image. Poor girl.

Then we have the White House getting all upset that Democrats are "in a huff":

On the morning talk shows, White House spokesman Dan Bartlett found the Democrats' demands "puzzling," and notes Rove apparently struck a chord. He says Rove was "very specific, very accurate" in who he was pointing out for criticism, specifically the liberal group MoveOn.org.

Bartlett says he doesn't understand why Democrats "are throwing up such a huff."

What these hacks are doing is appealing to their base where "moral values" means "macho values." They want their supporters all stirred up and upset over how they're oppressed by liberals. If Rove can keep people reacting emotionally, then they won't actually think about what they're doing, what we as a nation are doing. They want everyone to be hot and bothered and stupid, because then the conservative gang can remain in control. They don't want anyone asking questions. They don't want anyone sniffing around. No, better to keep everyone worked up over irrelevance. They advocate stupidity even when it costs American lives. Even when it diminishes American security.

They also love violence -- especially against fellow Americans. For example, we have our lovely fellow citizens who want to go shooting Americans for having the audacity to have their own opinions, for daring to believe they are free, for not marching to the jack-boot drum cadence of these conservatives. They seem to have taken a page or two from the Communists: they want a country with only one party, where dissenters are shot and imprisoned, where having the wrong thoughts can be a crime. They also seem to take a page or two from the Fascists: private property is only for the in-crowd; torture means strength; capitalism means corporate and political rulers are the same people.

And they claim to hold American values? These wingnuts are all hot and bothered because of American values! These paranoid conservatives are out to destroy American values!

On the command deck of HMSS Wingnuttia, Captain Ed bellows his complaint:

That the party of Harry Truman has descended to this jaw-dropping level of political cowardice and sheer crybaby status boggles the mind.

--as if the Republicans haven't been running the government on a platform of cowardice and crying victim. To listen to them, you'd think the Democrats were running the show. It's especially ironic that the good captain cites Harry Truman, the man who made is name in the Senate by going after the very kind of war profiteering currently being perpetrated by Cheney's Halliburton. Maybe the esteemed officer should harken back to the president who held office when Republicans at least stood for virtue:

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." --Theodore Roosevelt, 1918

How ironic that these paranoid radicals see liberal boogie men everywhere and start yapping like Pomeranians, yet demonstrate time and again their skill at preventing reality from penetrating their skulls. Could it be that they fear what we say because there's truth to it? Could it be that deep down they know they're wrong? That would be an affront to their machismo! Perhaps that's why they keep returning to thumping on their chests, stroking their decisiveness and demanding that the rest of us bend over.

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