Patrick Ruffini Carpet Bombs Joe Teh Plumber

That's Gonna Leave A Mark

The bizarre fetishization of JTP has gone on for too damn long amongst conservative outfits like Pajamas Media. Joe recently met with The Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institue and referred to them as "bi-partisan" showing a complete lack of knowledge on political matters, and a recent interview about Obama's speech last night further lauded his embarrassing imbecile credentials. Yet, he's currently being trumpeted around CPAC like he's the hot-chick version of Sully and is going to lead the GOP out of the wilderness. Influential conservative Patrick Ruffini says what we're all thinking and states the man needs to quietly go away. From The Next Right:

This culture of identity politics means we get especially defensive about the Liberal Majority's main lines of attack, because we think of our position as inherently fragile. The one that spawned the Cult of Joe the Plumber was the meme that Republicans want tax cuts only for the rich and that we don't stand for working Americans. When find a highly visible figure who contradicts this notion, we swing into action. And we go on to press the argument to the point to absurdity, replete with plungers and custom "Joe" yard signs to prove our working class chops. These are the not the marks of a movement that assumes it operates (or should operate) from a position of political and cultural supremacy.

Maybe the GOP has some self-hatred they are trying to eradicate, because progressives frequently portray them as some sort of Mr. Burns admiring their own monocle collection. Any trip through middle America (or the military for that matter) would easily dispel this stereotype. But, the GOP tries too damn hard to be the "anti-elite" party by parading around guys who work for a living as a sign that they aren't a bunch of country club yahoos. This was evident in Jindal's lousy speech last night, where he laid on the extra-thick Southern accent as if he just got back from wrestling a gator at a Lynryd Skynyrd show. His attempt at folksyism was bizarre, considering the dude is a Rhodes scholar.

Lest anyone question my non-elite bona fides, I'm sitting on an air mattress right now drinking a 16oz MGD can, but I understand that people in positions of leadership and policymaking should be up to speed and know what the fuck is going on. The American Revolution was won by a bunch of pissed-off farmers who wanted the King of England out of their face, but the leadership was all well-educated Masons. Seems to have worked out pretty well, so why can't conservatives understand that?