Michael Ledeen is Deeply Moved

Michael Ledeen -- lead counter-tenor in the Iran-Contra operetta, resident scholar at the Old-Age Home for Old and Young Neoconservatives (the American Enterprise Institute), nostalgist for the "movement" (not, note, the "regime") of Italian fascism, the man who lamented that Mussolini "never had enough confidence in the Italian people to permit them a genuine participation in fascism," and the man who wrote this:

I think Chirac will oppose us before, during, and after the war [in Iraq], because he has cast his lot with radical Islam and with the Arab extremists. He isn't doing it just for the money -- although I have no doubt that France is being richly rewarded for defending Saddam against the civilized countries of the world -- but for higher stakes. He's fighting to end the feared American domination before it takes stable shape.

If this is correct, we will have to pursue the war against terror far beyond the boundaries of the Middle East, into the heart of Western Europe. (National Review Online, 3-10-03)

--has been swimming like a fish among the People:

Barbara and I went to Indianapolis for a Toby Keith concert, where we partied with something like 25,000 happy rednecks, most of them young, most of them wearing boots and cowboy hats (and cheering Keith's great song "I Should Have Been a Cowboy"). It's a great show, and he's a wonderful performer, not least because of his deeply moving patriotic songs like "American Soldier," "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," and "The Taliban," etc. (The Corner, 9-17-07).

I'd pay decent money for a photo of the 66-year old, grizzle-bearded neocon and his wife "partying" with 25,000 young, happy rednecks in cowboy hats and boots. Where is Google Street View when we need it?

But here's the best part:

It's great to get out of the Washington culture of narcissism and spend some time with the rednecks, a.k.a. real Americans. And it's simply great, as the encores end, and a downpour of red, white and blue confetti covers the crowd, to see Toby say "don't ever apologize for your patriotism," and then lift the middle finger of his right hand to the skies and say, "F*** 'Em!"

Which, after a week of disgusting anti-Americanism in Washington, nicely summed up our feelings.

For extra credit, write an essay of at least ten words on one of the following:

1. Who has ever asked or told Toby Keith or his audience to apologize for their patriotism?

2. The lyrics of "Should've Been a Cowboy" start off by praising Marshall Dillon for never asking Miss Kitty to marry him. (NB: Miss Kitty runs the saloon in the Gunsmoke TV series, but in reality she'd be a madame, like Belle Watling.) Meanwhile, in the chorus, the singer fantasizes about "Stealin' young girls' hearts." The song then invokes "Roy," a reference to Roy ("King of the Cowboys") Rogers, whose cowboy identity is inseparable from that of Dale Evans--his wife. Discuss.

3. The singer fantasizes that he might have "ended up on the brink of danger/Riding shotgun with the Texas Rangers." Yet "riding shotgun" takes place on a stage coach (a public means of conveyance, not a law enforcement vehicle), while the Texas Rangers rode horses. Since this is like saying, "I might have been a cop/Flying co-pilot in the cockpit," then what the heck?

4. To whom in "the skies" is "F*** 'Em!" addressed?

5. To whom does the "'Em!" in "F*** 'Em!" refer?

6. If escaping a "culture of narcissism" is so great, why does Ledeen remain in Washington?

7. To what does "a week of disgusting anti-Americanism" refer?

8. Since Keith's "F*** 'Em!" nicely summed up Ledeen's and Barbara's feelings, to whom did they wish to express that sentiment?

9. If "red necks" are "real Americans," what kind of Americans are Ledeen and Barbara?

10. If Ledeen claims that the posturing of a country pop star and the cheers of cowboy-hat wearing mid-western young people sum up his and Barbara's feelings, isn't it possible that he's a narcissist?

Yes, as always, mocking the patronizing, inherently dishonest pensees of the thinkers of the right is good for a laff. But here's the interesting thing:

We are familiar with the sense of victimization of the Christian right. These are people who in one breath can say, "This is a Christian nation," and in the next nod with righteous indignation when any Bible-wielding charlatan or demagogue reminds them of how they're "oppressed" or "marginalized" or that their right to "freedom of religion" is being violated. To such a Christian, a day without feeling persecuted is a day without sunshine.

Where does it start? Who victimizes these innocent, loving people of faith? Their answer would be: The whole world. Modernity, tv, kids-these-days, science, "Hollywood," that-rap-music, feminism, pre- and post- and un-marital sex and gay sex and gay marital marriage.

But if they said that, they'd be wrong. What really oppresses them is the fact that God seems to be letting these libertines and atheists and sinners get away with it. The Christian right's sense of persecution begins in the child's complaint to the parent, "It's not fair."

Now look at Michael Ledeen's "real Americans." When Toby Keith urges them not ever to apologize for their patriotism (and, presumably, they respond with cheers--our man in Indiana didn't say), what are they responding to? Whom do they refuse to apologize to? Who's oppressing them?

The answer is the same, adjusted for the secular context. Their sense of oppression and their need to defy it originates in themselves, in their own authoritarian mindset.

If you're going to declare that "supporting the troops" is no different from supporting the President; if your idea of patriotism begins and ends with the tough-guy/fabric designer motto "These colors don't run;" if you're going to denounce "tyranny" and then cheer for the folks who bring you the "unitary executive;" if you're going to stand up for "freedom" and then boycott (and issue death threats to) the Dixie Chicks for expressing an opinion--why, then, you've internalized, you've made part of yourself, the reassuring/scary voice and the protective/threatening presence of the Authority.

He can be God or he can be Daddy, but the extent to which you derive strength from Him is precisely the extent to which you suffer from His scrutiny and fear His wrath. Spend your day on your knees in worship of an authority, and sooner or later it's got to dawn on you that your knees hurt.

That's who these Keith fans are defying: their inner Daddy. Nobody--not Natalie Maines, not "liberals," not even Michael Moore--is judging their patriotism. It just (once Keith mentions it) feels that way. They walk around feeling judged and evaluated and called-to-task, not by the invisible "they" to whom Keith gives the finger, but by the very institutions (family, church, country) and their figurehead embodiments (Dad; God; the President) from whom they derive a part of their identity and a sense of their own adequacy in the world.

These are Michael Ledeen's peeps. Except, of course, not really. For Ledeen (and, presumably, Barbara) the Keith concert was an exercise in cultural slumming, a bracing dip in the pool of idealized "real American" primitivism. It's classic--which is to say, it's self-parodic--Republican punditry. "You ought to try it," Ledeen writes. "Does wonders for the spirit."

Just what the uptown Jazz-Age swells used to report after an evening's diversion in Harlem.

---------------------------------

Go here for the lyrics to "Should've Been a Cowboy"

Gene is Gene Autry, who was a cowboy in exactly the same way that Elijah Wood was a hobbit. Roy and Dale, meanwhile, used to sing "How Do I Know? The Bible Tells Me So." (Yee-haah!) It's all here, the whole Wild-West-Day-at-summer-camp extravaganza: six-guns, campfire songs, Jesse James, whisky, women, and gold. Someone--Lyle Lovett, say, or Big and Rich--should write a song called "Oh, Fuck, I'm a Cowboy," with lyrics like these:

Oh Fuck, I'm a Cowboy

Well my ass, it takes a poundin'
In the saddle ev'ry day
And the trail boss, he's a-bitchin'
'Bout our schedule and our pay
Gotta chase them goddamn mav'ricks
Ev'ry time one runs away
It's enough to make a feller up and say:

(Chorus)

Oh Fuck
I'm a cowboy
Ev'ry day I pull a muscle in my arm
Breathin' dust along the trail
Sleep in rain and ride in hail
Shoulda listened to my pa and worked a farm

Well I'm scared of ev'ry gal I meet
And they all think I'm strange
So I sleep out with the cattle
And the bugs 'n' mites 'n' mange
I take comfort with the cowpokes
But I think that's gotta change
I don't want to be no homo on the range

(Chorus)

Oh Fuck
I'm a cowboy
And I'm tired of ev'ry boy and ev'ry cow
Take a drink from my canteen
Tastes like moss and Mr. Clean
Shoulda listened to my ma and pushed a plow

Now the grub that Cookie cooks us
I don't wanna know its source
And the coffee, when you smell it
You feel hatred and remorse
On the trail my eyes get itchy
And I sneeze with fearsome force
'Cause I think I'm now allergic to my horse

So you young un's pay attention
And think twice 'fore you decide
Got no git-tarr, got no six-gun
Got no sidekick to deride
I ain't free to roam the prairie
I'm just free to work outside
I don't ramble, I don't gamble, I just ride

(Chorus)

Yeah, Fuck
I'm a cowboy
So you sing your songs about me while you can
Me, I'm lookin' for a life
Lets me find myself a wife
And a job that lets me call myself a man.

(Cross-posted at http://barbel.wordpress.com/

Comments

[EndAllWars]

I'd like to see a movie on Ledeen's life. It would be appropriately named: "From Ex-Con to Neo-Con".

[whiteroses]

Ledeen considers himself a liberal-self defined. And in the John Kennedy-Lyndon Johnson-Richard Nixon-Robery McNamara scheme of things, he is. Less an intellectual than an academic poseur, Ledeen services the state as one of the stable of whores kept on call at the American Enterprise Prostitutes. Their work tends to be a bit skanky, but if you don't mind the smell it'll do in a pinch. He is one of the cookie-cutter conservatives that schools like Madison and Harvard produçed as a waste product of the 60s: Cheney and Kristol types; credentialed but marginal scholars, idolatrous of authority, petrified of military service.
Pansies, really. Yellowcake.

[DICKERSON3870]

LET 'DEM EATS YELLERCAKE!!!!!!!!

[GenericBlogger]

Michael Ledeen,

An introduction to your article and all the people you write about would improve its essence. By the time I read "Barbara and I went to Indianapolis for a Toby Keith concert" I wondered, who is Barbara?

It's sad to see good journalistic practices go by the way side.

[Madampotential]

Wow, the next Bob Dylan right there! LOL

[shotput8]

Is this the same Michael Ledeen who was suspected in the Yellowcake forgeries?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ledeen

[MajorKong]

Just thought I'd point out that Michael Ledeen is, you know, evil.

[faust2001]

If rednecks are real Americans, why do so many of them fly the flag of the Confederacy?

[DasBoot]

On question 4: Who is "'em"? It's the Other, that without which my own tribe can't exist. It works much better if it is only vaguely defined, like "the Jews." Just remind people that there is something "out there" that threatens them.

Thanks for calling out Mr. Ledeen. Among the prominent neo-cons he is the furthest out. LOVES Machiavelli, about whom he wrote two books, says every ten years America should take some crappy little country and throw it against the wall, so that the world is reminded we mean business (I am paraphrasing here).

Needless to say, he is itching to send all these Tobey Keith fans he professes to admire so much over to die in Iran.

[libmatters]

It might shock Ledeen to know that Toby Keith is not a neoconservative. He knows how to tap redneck nativism with his lyrics but he's not a Republican. He's a good ole boy businessman rakin' in the cash.

[runswithscissors]

1. "Who has ever asked or told Toby Keith or his audience to apologize for their patriotism?"

I will ask them to right now; though only because what Keith calls patriotism I call jingoism. This is the type of behavior that ruthless dictators and imperialists have exploited for centuries, and I hold him and his followers partially responsible for the actions of the current administration.

"7. To what does "a week of disgusting anti-Americanism" refer?"

Presumaby it refers to anything or anyone who criticizes Bush or his quest to rid the world of "evil-doers." Seriously, am I the only one who feels like he bases his foreign policy off of his favorite editions of Spiderman?

[YellerDawg]

Toby Keith is a self-described Democrat. Talk among yourselves.

[ManhattanMC]

Uh huh-

And I'm a pixie.

[wldnswmmr]

This is correct, according to published interviews. Further, Keith told Newsday earlier this year that he never supported the invasion or occupation of Iraq. It's also of note that maybe Keith shoulda been a cowboy, but his use of military iconography (such as the hangar at Edwards Air Force Base in "American Soldier") suggests also that he shoulda been a soldier, but he never was, despite plenty of chances, since he didn't go to college and worked in oil fields straight out of high school. But posturing is good for business, esp. in the country music/NASCAR world, where the easiest and simplest expressions of emotion (like patriotism of a knee-jerk kind) are best received. So maybe Toby is simply in it for the money, which would not knock anyone over, really, who's paid attention to country music over the last 30 years or so. It's built on phony images of an America that doesn't exist except in Michael Ledeen's slumming imagination.

[dragbunt]

Taking a stab at essay question #1; If you are "patriotic" then anyone who disagrees with you must be unpatriotic. Consequently anyone who thinks Bush is doing a lousy job is unpatriotic and by the simple act of disagreeing with patriots you are challenging their patriotism.

When Toby says "F***em" I think he's specifically referring to me and as M. Python would say "It's a fair cop" I feel exactly the same way towards him. That Toby and I have differing views of what actually constitutes patriotism is of course the real problem.

I have a sneaking suspicion that like Merle Haggard, in 30 years, Toby will come to his senses and recant. Till then there will sadly be a lot of finger pointing.

At cocktail parties when my friends get liquored up on Cosmopolitans, invariably one will ask me "Rich, why does Toby Keith hate you so much?" I always answer that "he hates my freedom." But truly I think he is envious over how good my butt looks in Jeans. Like I said in 30 years when my ass no longer threatens him, he will come around.

[superba]

Yee-haw, Mr. Weiner. Hilarious.

I wish I had a Norman Rockwell poster of Mr. and Mrs. Ledeen enjoying the hoe-down. Were they able to do-si-do right along with the crowd, or were the cowboy-hatted patriots staring at the evil city folk in undisguised revulsion?

I like to think they wore cowboy hats of their own, in order to 'blend in.'

[bethinCary]

I would like Michael Ledeen to deeply move his ass to another planet and quit trying to destroy this one.