Here in North Carolina over the past election cycle, we had a despicable human being named Vernon Robinson who challenged Brad Miller, one of our most progressive Congressmen. Somewhere along the way, I took to calling Mr. Robinson, “Vermin” in honor of his sleazy ways. In the wake of the election, several people – including my wife – questioned the wisdom of my stooping to being a name caller. I decided they all deserve an answer:
Why I’m a mean old name-caller.
Name-calling hasn’t always been my style – I used to be profoundly reasonable. But then the neocon cabal came into power. It started with the Hunting of the President (Clinton) and culminated in the Swiftboating of John Kerry. And got even worse from there.
And all the while, the reasonable people on the left steered clear of hitting back hard. They zipped their lips and tried to make logical arguments that would persuade the muddled middle to think things through. It didn’t work. The muddled middle slid farther and farther to the right, while a natural tendency toward political correctness emasculated the left. Without the neocon “killer instinct,” the left languished, the right flourished. And the mainstream media ignored the intellectual progressives.
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When I started blogging in earnest earlier this year, it became clear that even the mainsteram media were part of the problem, firmly under the spell of the free-market fundamentalists. Here in North Carolina, that gave free rein to a conservative think tank called the John Locke Foundation. Ted Vaden at the Raleigh N&O described the John Locke Foundation as a “multi-million-dollar opinion manufacturer” – and he was right. All that money was buying a lot of influence, wiht no one calling bullshit.
I decided to join the fight and found I was armed with a pea shooter in the middle of heavy artillery. Nobody paid attention to my rational criticism and I got pissed.
My first naming opportunity emerged spontaneously. Following the trail of JLF money in the run up to the primaries, it became clear that a man named Art Pope was pulling lots of strings. And thus “the Puppetmaster” was born. His executive director, John Hood, soon became the “Stagemanager,” and all the little flunkies generating opinions for JLF became known as “Puppets.” The nicknames came in handy as I dissected their organization, and they soon caught on among my friends at BlueNC. Why? Because they were accurate descriptors of the individuals and organizations involved.
From there, the trend toward accuracy in naming continued. Up Chuck Taylor. Flipper Hayes. Vermin Robinson. AWOL George. Names chosen to evoke negative reactions to individuals who shill for the Party of Greed.
Some have called this practice childish, others say it just alienates independents. Neither of those criticisms bothers me one bit. I don’t pretend to represent the mainstream anymore. My job is to attack and ridicule people who are destroying democracy, to stir up the base, to make thoughtful people on the left seem all the more reasonable by comparison.
I hope I don’t have to keep this up forever, because I don’t much like it. But keep it up I will until balance has been restored. I am not prepared to “play nice” with criminals and profiteers who have quite nearly destroyed this country. My practice of name-calling is nothing compared to the obscenity of their beliefs and actions.
