RDF, over at Corrente, has a good post up today on the tendency of Bush supporters to cite his muleheaded stubborness as a positive trait that they call consistency. "You might not like what he stands for," they say, approvingly, "but at least you know where he stands." We should admire his indifference to real-life change, and because we know where he stands, vote for him. Bah.
Anyone who has paid attention to politics for any period of time is familiar with this crowd and this character. I think of old Tom Fink in Alaska (yes, that's really his name. He replaced Tony Knowles as mayor of Anchorage when Tony was term-limited out). My feeling about the Fink was that, while it was nice to know where he stood, he stood against everything I cared about. If I stood where he did, I'd have the sense to move a few steps over and scrape that stuff off my shoe.
The author Eugene Weber, author of Varieties of Fascism, wrote in that book:
Sincerity has no intristic value. A sincere fool is still a fool, a sincere Inquisitor still a torturer.
As RDF says, muleheadedness isn't a virtue, it's a character flaw.
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