"This is a government of the weirdos, by the weirdos and for the weirdos,” Sasse said Thursday night in California. “Politicians who spend their days shouting in Congress so they can spend their nights shouting on cable, are peddling crack — mostly to the already addicted, but also with glittery hopes of finding a new angry octogenarian out there."
Octogenarian! What kind of ageist bullshit is this? And isn't he exemplifying the problem he's attempting to state — which seems to be something like mindlessly emoting about politics.
Sasse, a former university president who was often chided through the Trump administration for failing to pick a clear side in the many battles surrounding the former president, said that while “jackwagon” politicians and “isolationists” increase the intensity of their stunts, the U.S. is falling behind as a global superpower....
I had to look up "jackwagon." It's not in the OED. It's some American slang, as I'm reading about in "If You Don’t Know Jack, You’re a Jackwagon" (Daily Writing Tips):
So, how did we get to the insult jackwagon, popularized in a television commercial featuring actor and former drill sergeant R. Lee Ermey? As a less offensive alternative to jackass as a derogatory label, it may derive from a nickname for the chuck wagon (chuck comes from a slang word for food), a vehicle carrying cooking implements and supplies for a cattle drive or a wagon train, or for any of one of several other types of wagons that might bring up the rear of a procession of other vehicles. The seemingly lowly status of the trailing wagon, literally left in the dust of what came before it, presumably came to be associated with a person of low character or intelligence.
Let's find that commercial. I don't watch commercials, so I'm slow getting up to speed on this slang. Ah! Here:
It seems that Ben Sasse wants to call politicians to a place of intelligence and moderation, but he's throwing out insults — weirdo, jackwagon. Who will listen to him?
It makes me think back to my own use of the word "weird" in relation to Trump. There's this from July 12, 2016:
Trump is tempted to appease those who think he's too weird, but whatever he chooses will be portrayed as a new dimension of weirdness. There's no getting to the illusion of normal. The trick, I think, is to be weird in the right way, the way that doesn't make us think: Why would we want a weird President?
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you know, Actually; a therapist like That, might be EXACTLY what the world needs now?
"I'm sad; because i don't have a penis, and i don't feel pretty"
"YOU DON'T HAVE A PENIS, 'CAUSE YOU'RE A GIRL; AND YOU DON'T FEEL PRETTY 'CAUSE YOU'RE FAT AND UGLY!"
1. Jackwagon is a Nebraska word.
2. If Governor Pete Ricketts runs against Sasse, Sasse loses.
If a Sasse screams in a field, will anyone hear it?
I don't think Sen. Sasse was calling out to other politicians. I don't know for sure, but I doubt that many politicians listen to him much. Other than maybe John Thune and Roy Blunt. Probably Mitt Romney.
I've never quite figure out Sasse. It seems like he's ruffled by anything outside of the old norm for a country club Republican. Not that he is one (though he may be), but he seems to like the days when all Republicans were like that. Like Mitt Romney. Polite. Smart. Losing regularly. Not striving to do much other than make sure no waves are cast by their words. For a guy like Sasse to use the word 'weird' is him stepping out, showing his stones.
As for Trump being portrayed, or working on his version of a weird President, I ask you- how weird is your current President? Vice President. Secy of Transportation. Secy of Energy. Secy of Homeland Security. I'd take a 'weird' Trump today, along with his cabinet, over any of these clowns.
I watched the clip at the link and to be fair (and I hate like hell to be fair to Ben Sasse) he uses a gesture and vocal inflection indicating he's saying "jackwagon" because somebody else, a previous speaker or a questioner, had just used the word at the event and had gotten a laugh or other reaction and he was deferring to their choice of descriptor.
As far as calling people weirdos, maybe Sasse thinks he needs to be more like Trump. Problem is he's trying to imitate his own flawed perception of Trump.
Sasse is everything wrong with the gop. He's a front row kid who checked all the correct blocks and wrote all the correct things that good "conservatives" are supposed to say, but at the end of the day he's never done anything of importance or built anything real. He's a bureaucrat.
Jackwagon is how a Senator gets away with calling someone a jackwad.
Sasse is doing his own Biden bit. "I'm a uniter. I am such a uniter. I'm decent and have gravitas. Listen for hours as I attack my opponents as loudmouthed traitorous idiots." That's because everybody talking politics today is part of the insult and soundbite culture.
People are really sick of Biden and his idiocrats, but Movement Conservatism or Establishment Conservatism is an irrelevancy. People don't like them either, and they don't have anything to offer but hypocritical piety and warmed-over Reaganism (or Bushism). Nobody wants them back.
Being weird in the right way versus being weird in your own way can be difficult to navigate. Somehow Boris Johnson gets away with it. Benny Drama, the Youtube influencer Team Biden recruited, doesn't -- at least not for a mass audience. Trump is never going to appeal to much more than half the population. His problem isn't being weird. It's being disciplined enough to control his impulses. Actually, I think he more or less managed the impulse control, keeping us further from nuclear war than Biden has. But he couldn't control his tongue and his tweets, and that's what hurt him. Boris, seen from a great distance, looks a little more in control of his verbal impulses than Trump.
In my Dirty Dancing blog, I have a video category called "Weirdos Wasting Our Time".
Here is a sample.
=====
The spelling of the word weird confuses me, because in the German language (which I know) the vowel combinations ....
* EI is pronounced to rhyme with our word "eye"
* IE is pronounced to rhyme with our word "beer".
Based on that rule, I want to spell the word as "wierd" or else pronounce it is "wired".
=====
Anyway, I agree with you that Sasse's rhetoric here is weird.
Ben Sasse = A wussier Mitt Romney and Sasse seeks to move up to McCain status someday.
But gee, thanks Ben, for finally deciding its time to attack someone other than your base voters. You're a real "Johnny on the spot" there. I suppose you (Sasse) could be helpful by handing out orange slices to the people actually fighting the democraticals during a metaphorical political arena halftime intermission.
...glittery hopes of finding a new angry octogenarian out there.
The vacuum of middle-aged Ben Sasse's leadership is palpable.
Did he mean bandwagon politician? The ones that jump on the latest cause celebre?
Is Joe even an octogenarian, yet?
weird·o
/ˈwirdō/
Learn to pronounce
nounINFORMAL
a person whose dress or behavior seems strange or eccentric.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2lUG97UQmcY
Educated people: Aiding and abetting …
Considering the old (insult): those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.
Adding on: those who can’t teach, become politicians.
"Who will listen to him?"
You.
Mr. GOPe goes deplorable, and sure enough, Althouse is offended.
So, Althouse, what have Dems done recently that you consider not-weird?
Seems that weird is like pornography…..in the eye of the beholder. One man’s weird is another man’s art.
We’ve all applied that standard before with on off handed “Gee, that was weird.”
“It seems that Ben Sasse wants to call politicians to a place of intelligence and moderation, but he's throwing out insults — weirdo, jackwagon. Who will listen to him?”
Civility bullshit? Ben Sasse comes from Nebraska, the quintessential state to cross by wagon train, so he may come by the use of the word jackwagon naturally. Or he may have come to it through the Geico commercial, which would make him a bit of a jackwagon.
I wonder if there's a connection to "jerkweed" and "jerkwater."
Big Media like to promote the Sasses of Congress and claim he and weasels like Cheney are “standing up to their Party,” implying they should be steering it not the People who actually make up the Party. Which means the very Establishment Sasse and the Party “leaders” are actually in agreement: they fear Trump and the vigor he brings to the mass of the party, the voters. They fear actual solutions that would permanently remove “issues” like fixing the border to regulate immigration, brokering peace deals that has Arab and Jew cooperating, defusing North Korea by diplomacy instead of Diplocrat Theatre. So if Sasse and the McConnell Mainstream and the DNC-Media cheerleaders are all in agreement then I am absolutely diametrically opposed to him/them/it.
"Why would we want a weird President?"
We don't want a weird president. And yet, the voters picked Joe "Sniffer" Biden, the king of self-adulatory lies and phony empathy and a serial groper of little girls and young women. Every time I hear the guy, he creeps me out, particularly when he does that phony "whisper" routine. You wouldn't want Biden and his plastic EdD wife over for dinner. Are we sure he doesn't drink? He sure acts like he drinks---a lot.
Biden is weird, and he always has been weird. He makes Trump look normal--or if not normal, at least weird in a relatively harmless way compared to Biden.
Sasse is a loser who is going to find out how many (few) agree with him at next election.
Octogenarian! What kind of ageist bullshit is this?
Ageism is residual ideological creep from the liberal era of social progress, diversity [dogma], and planned Choices.
Sassy!
Sasse can go fuck himself. Milquetoast conservatives like him have conserved nothing, and are partially responsible for what is happening. We don't need Sasse- we need someone who will fight to save the country from its government's decay and decadence.
I'm writing this, still not knowing what the reference is.
How about those who need a biologist to determine their own gender?
At first I assumed he was speaking of the terminally woke.
But when he got to old folks I think he is referring to politicians forever pandering to gain votes/money/book deals/spots on 'Hannity,' etc.
Weird to call someone giving a speech to the Reagan Foundation childish.
What’s the point? We have a weird President now.
defusing North Korea by diplomacy instead of Diplocrat Theatre.
It amuses me to no end that you keep trotting out Trump's dealings with North Korea as an example of Trump's brilliance. What makes you think this has even the slightest connection with reality.
Weird, huh? Like, the Weird Sisters? The etymology is interesting but I won't recap it. You could look it up on the internet.
Donald Trump has personally changed the meaning of “RINO,” now using the name to denigrate those of us who are Reagan conservatives. By Reaganite standards, Trump and his acolytes are the RINOs. They’ve abandoned Republican principles, but they’ve captured the party.
Trump now aims to complete the MAGA transformation of the GOP into a party that worships dictators, ignores Russian aggression, tramples the Constitution, scorns the rule of law, and substitutes presidential favoritism for free markets.
So now we read ugly comments herein about real conservatism in the personages of Liz Cheney and Ben Sasse whose honesty is beyond reproach. Instead, we get Trump Republicans favoring corruption by defending TFG in his January 6 putsch and his many other violations of the rule of law. Our infamous Manhattan money-launderer and Putin yes-man succeeded in draining the swamp to make room for his ratfuckers.
Sasse is saying bad things about people other than Trump supporters?
He must have a re-election coming up.
Biden is a weird conformist; Trump is uniquely weird.
Ben Sasse said "This is a government of the weirdos, by the weirdos and for the weirdos."
No, it is government of the people, by the jackwagons, and for the weirdos. Sasse can't even get that right.
David Begley said...
1. Jackwagon is a Nebraska word.
************
I like "chunkfloater", an Ohio word for a severe thunderstorm.
You know who the weirdos are.
If you don't know, you're the weirdo.
“Trump now aims to complete the MAGA transformation of the GOP into a party that worships dictators, ignores Russian aggression, tramples the Constitution, scorns the rule of law, and substitutes presidential favoritism for free markets.
So now we read ugly comments herein about real conservatism in the personages of Liz Cheney and Ben Sasse whose honesty is beyond reproach. Instead, we get Trump Republicans favoring corruption by defending TFG in his January 6 putsch and his many other violations of the rule of law.”
——————————————————————
Yes. But why? Are these Trump followers weirder than even Trump is? Sasse recognizes what we non Trump followers have known since day one of Trump running for president.
Sasse isn't up for re-election, so we can't explain this speech that way. Sasse thinks he is presidential material, so this is why he gave that speech.
Sasse the Asse. I don't think he's a "mystery". The real "mystery" is why Right-wing/Populist voters keep supporting him. Imagine the D Base voters supporting a D Senator who spent all his time attacking Joe biden. Or spporting a D Senator who attacked the D base voters as "Kooks" and "Weirdos". It impossible to imagine. Even Fake Moderate Joe Manchin supports Biden almost all the time.
But R base voters. Whats in their heads? Imagine your average leftwing/liberal Democrat voter's reaction in 2020, if biden had selected Paul Ryan as his VP? It would've resulted in an INSTANT Loss. In fact, it would NEVER happened, the D's would've replaced Biden or FORCED Biden to pick a liberal.
Yet, McCain could toy with giving us Lieberman as his VP, and all the R's were like "Oh, gosh, I dunno, maybe".
What's the point of voting for Trump if you're going to turn around and vote for Sasse or Romney who want to impeach him? what's the point of voting for Trump - and voting for Pelosi to be Speaker?
Are all the Republicans morons, or do they just think Politics is a game?
Yeah, hippies were weird. Artists are weird. Non-conformists are weird. Abolutionists were weird. People who wanted to help the working class in the 20s were weird.
Weird is just " i don't like it but can't say why, cause emotion"
Its emo girl language. Applying it to politics means you're unserious. A clown.
At this point, don't we expect that straight arrow, straight-edge politicians have a secret kink somewhere?
When somebody describes a politician as honest or decent or compassionate aren't we expecting the other shoe to drop?
I like weird, personally.
And some wierdos. Not all.
My husband and i watched 2videos together, Mike Sylwester. The kid in the garage was hilarious. He had moves, choreography and a smashing finale. Lmao.
Also, the ocean(ography). I thought the lifeguard had a person hiding upside down in his swimsuit.
All in all: aptly named.
ps. I don’t know much about Sasse.
What are you defending, Freder? The utter failure of the Clinton-Bush-Obama policies that kept rewarding NK for their continual belligerence or the return to that state after four full years of zero missile testing and effective detente?
JACKHOLE is a good insult. A twofer, really, without being overly vulgar.
Trump now aims to complete the MAGA transformation of the GOP into a party that worships dictators, ignores Russian aggression, tramples the Constitution, scorns the rule of law, and substitutes presidential favoritism for free markets.
gadfly and Inga are in agreement about Republicans. That says more about them than it does Republicans. We have spent years voting for people who lied to get elected. John McCain, I was a volunteer for him in 2000. I though Bush was not smart enough. McCain ran for re-election in Arizona on a platform of "repeal Obamacare" and "Build the damned Wall!" Both lies. His advisor on immigration was a Mexican national.
Trump did one thing that resonated with voters. He did what he promised. That was a novelty. How much of a novelty one can see with Biden as an example.
gadly (the "true conservative"...wink wink...): "So now we read ugly comments herein about real conservatism in the personages of Liz Cheney and Ben Sasse whose honesty is beyond reproach."
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Thanks gadfly. Its nice to end a Saturday with a hilariously moronic lefty "hot take" like that.
Well, "jerkwater." applies to towns, not people. A jerkwater town is one so small that the engineer needs to pull a rope to fill his locomotive water tank, rather than having it filled for him.
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