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Oogedy-Boogedy
OOGEDY-BOOGEDY....Kathleen Parker blames the demise of the Republican Party on its "evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch," and Jonah Goldberg is annoyed:
What aspects of the Christian Right amount to oogedy-boogedyism? I take oogedy-boogedy to be a perjorative reference to absurd superstition and irrational nonsense. So where has the GOP embraced to its detriment oogedy-boogedyism? With the possible exception of some variants of creationism (which is hardly a major issue at the national level in the GOP, as much as some on the left and a few on the right try to make it one),
I'm at a loss as to what Kathleen is referring to. Opposition to abortion? Opposition to gay marriage? Euthanasia? Support for prayer in school?
OK, maybe "oogedy-boogedy" wasn't the most felicitous phrase to use. Sway to the music all you want and no one will mind. But I think conservatives do themselves a disservice if they pretend not to know what Parker is talking about.
There will always be plenty of votes for a culturally conservative party. That's not the problem. The problem is the venomous, spittle-flecked, hardcore cultural conservatism that's become the public face of the evangelical wing of the GOP. It's the wing that doesn't just support more stringent immigration laws, but that turns the issue into a hate fest against La Raza, losing 3 million Latino votes in the process. It's the wing that isn't just a little skittish about gay marriage, but that turns homophobia into a virtual litmus test, losing 6 million young voters in the process. It's the wing that isn't just religious, but that treats belief as a precondition to righteousness, losing 2 million secular voters in the process. It's the wing that isn't just nostalgic for old traditions, but that fetishizes the heartland as the only real America, losing 7 million urban voters in the process. It's the wing that goes into a legislative frenzy over Terri Schiavo but six months later can barely rouse itself into more than a yawn over the destruction of New Orleans.
Now, the GOP didn't lose all those votes solely because of their embrace of cultural victimhood. It was a Democratic year, after all, and the economy worked against them too. Still, exit polls suggest they had already lost most of this ground by 2006, and the economy had nothing to do with it back then. Conservative gains after 9/11 may have masked the problem for a while, but fundamentally these are voters who saw the Republican Party turn into a party of rabid identity politics and turned away in disgust. It's probably cost them (so far) about 10 million votes, and in an era where 53-47 is considered a big victory, that's a helluva deficit to make up elsewhere.
A party that merely wants to move more slowly and more deliberately than liberals in the cultural sphere wouldn't have lost all those votes. But the real-life GOP, a party whose primary association in much of the public mind is with revulsion toward gays, immigrants, urban elites, and the non-churchgoing, did. That's oogedy-boogedy.
Dancer, I feel ya. It seems to be a old truism that those locked in a conflict tend to mirror the behavior of their opponets.
To the point of the behavior of the Republicans:
?it is the hyprocisy and the self-righteousness that far too many elected representatives on the right exhibited
Coincidently, this AM on NPR I heard the new #2 House Republican, Eric Cantor repeat the chant?.must return to the legacy of Reagan (whatever that was/is) and he said something about being the party of morality (my rough paraphrase as I was half asleep ? til then).
A problem for the non O-B (oogedy-boogedy) Republicans is that so many members of the House were elected to be O-Bs. While the smarmy John Boehner is not an O-B, an increasing number of the caucus leadership are.
So one can reasonably expect more self-righteousness from these guys. Golberg need not be worried.
Dancer, I feel ya. It seems to be a old truism that those locked in a conflict tend to mirror the behavior of their opponets.
To the point of the behavior of the Republicans:
?it is the hyprocisy and the self-righteousness that far too many elected representatives on the right exhibited
Coincidently, this AM on NPR I heard the new #2 House Republican, Eric Cantor repeat the chant?.must return to the legacy of Reagan (whatever that was/is) and he said something about being the party of morality (my rough paraphrase as I was half asleep ? til then).
A problem for the non O-B (oogedy-boogedy) Republicans is that so many members of the House were elected to be O-Bs. While the smarmy John Boehner is not an O-B, an increasing number of the caucus leadership are.
So one can reasonably expect more self-righteousness from these guys. Golberg need not be worried.
So are you saying that we liberals put the bomp in the bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp, the ram in the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong, the bop in the bop-she-bop-she-bop, and the dip in the dip-de-dip-de-dip?
Well, a wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom.
I agree with your analysis, and it's pretty fun to knock the opposition, but wouldn't it be more profitable to do some self criticism in the same vein: how many votes did we lose because of Jeremiah Wright? Because of Bill Ayres, a man who dedicated a book to political prisoner Sirhan Sirhan? I think we lost at least 2% of the popular vote, a filibuster-proof Senate and a couple of states due to our own blindness. Instead of focusing on the Republican mote why not deal with our beam? We could add blasphemy against Gaia in ANWR or anti-nuke sentiment as well.
Oogedy boogedy equals holier-than-thou-ism. Ms. Parker has it spot on. Everyone else knows what she's talking about.
don't forget an outright attack on science and research, intelligent design, and Palin. John Cole has an extensive list that he put together off the top of his head.
Ronald Reagan conservatives indeed.
Two words: Terry Schiavo
You can't get much more oogedy-boogedy than the nutty Republican handling of the Terry Schiavo controversy. I think it hurt the public's view of Repub run congress more than even Iraq.
"and in an era where 53-47 is considered a big victory"
More like 53-46 now. :-)
See:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/19/105528/03/587/663524
Kevin: I think most people interpret oogedy-boogedy the way you do, and for sure Goldberg would have understood. It's pret'-dam' obvious, as even Southern Republicans likely would understand. Nevertheless, he retreats into high dudgeon. This suggests to me that faux-outrage --or at least faux-being-offended -- is the new order of the day among the Republooozers.
Loki, etc: what are you suggesting? That we invent a time-machine and go back in history and eliminate Jeremiah Wright? Or that we become so fearful of Republican mud-slinging that we nominate such complete unknowns or utter nonentities that they have nothing at all in their pasts? I don't get it...
I thought this was one of Kevin's better posts until I realized he's really just paraphrasing Taste of Honey:
"If you're thinkin' you're too cool to boogie
Boy oh boy have I got news for you
Everybody here tonight was boogin'
Let me tell you
You are no exception to the rule
Git on up on the floor
Cuz we're gonna boogie oogie oogie
till you just can't boogie no more
Boogie no more
You can't boogie no more (boogie)
Boogie no more
Listen to the music...
There's no time to waste, let's get this show on the road
Listen to the music and let your body float
The sooner we begin the longer we've got the groove
Listen to the music and let your body move
Now git on up on the floor
Cuz we're gonna boogie oogie oogie
till you just can't boogie no more
Boogie no more
You can't boogie no more (boogie)
Boogie no more
Listen to my bass here
[bass break]
Get down, boogie oogie oogie
Get down, boogie oogie oogie
Get down, boogie oogie oogie
Get down..."
Speaking of Terri Schiavo, the oogedy-boogedy wing didn't limit itself to dubious moral zealotry. They also brought in a quack doctor to rebut the diagnoses of dozens of qualified doctors, and refused to believe any of the medical evidence that pointed to Schiavo being in a persistent vegetative state. Even the autopsy was dismissed with contempt.
The right-wing embrace of creationism and its variants is thus merely a symptom of an anti-scientific worldview that bleeds into everything the Republican Party touches, whether its global warming, stem-cells, or Plan-B contraception. That's oogedy-boogedy.
Sure is fun watching Repugs now that the smugness has been knocked out of them.
Let's all us liberals (and moderates like Kev) make a pinkie promise not to become as destructively sure of ourselves as those on the Right.
Re: Loki,
I'm not sure how firmly tongue was in cheek, but c'mon! This is obviously a question for Mr. Not-quite-as-hot-as-Ezra-but-still-pretty-hot-according-to-Jezebel Silver, but I'd say that the % of voters affected by either Wright or Ayers who might have voted for Obama in any case is way in the noise. I'm not saying that those stories are not being used as ratification for choices already made, but they didn't affect the genuine fence-sitters. My $0.02.
three other pieces of oogedy-boogedy:
1) john ashcroft being appointed atty general, and being annointed by crisco oil. not normal.
2) jerry boykin claiming to see a 'demonic presence' made visible over mogadishu. great military recon, general.
3) bobby jindal thinking his girlfriend needs to be exorcised.
4) sarah palin receiving a laying on of hands from a witch-hunter.
these people are just fucking nuts. true believers of the most irrational kind. they are just one packet of koolaid short of a jonestown.
yeah, and people who can't count piss me off, too.
If "my" governor has a new kid, I think that would be the perfect name:
Oogedy-boogedy Palin.
(Thank gods I live in Anchorage, not Wasilla.)
Don't worry about it, kid. We know Satan made you miscount.
Wow, I keep reading all sorts of people on the Democratic side of things address this internecine warfare on the right and, as Mr. Drum has done, try to respond those like Goldberg who refuse to admit the Republican Party went off the deep end. Somehow, though, I feel like we should just let them wallow in their delusions-- it would be nice if the 2010 midterms went as well as the last two cycles, don't you agree? If the Palinite wing of the GOP prevails, 2010 will be a very good year.
I was saying that along with our enjoyment of the opposition's self-criticism maybe we should not get so full of ourselves we don't think we could use a little ourselves. I'm glad the Repubs were not able to turn Wright or Ayers into this year's Willie Horton, but that was no thanks to either of the nitwits involved.
I disagree with Parker, you (Drum), Sullivan.
The Republican's real problem is the Right Wing Noise Machine.
Take for example, RWNM's bellowing about immigration reform, and minorities in general. Their immigration stance cost the Republicans New Mexico. The other notable example is Iraq. RWNM built and repeated a narrative that put the Republican's in a box from which they couldn't escape.
The religious people on the Republican's side are problematic in some ways, but many hispanics and black folks probably agree more with white christians than white liberals.
So the next time you hear Rush bragging about all his listeners, smile baby, smile.
"I take oogedy-boogedy to be a perjorative reference to absurd superstition and irrational nonsense."
Like racism, and anti-rationalism. Yeah, I can't imagine why anyone would associate those with the Republican party.
Parker represents the tax-fanatic business wing of the Republican Party -- the people who really controlled things ever since the business/religion coalition came together in 1980.
They are discovering that they are losing control of the people they took advantage of to build a majority.
The low-tax business crowd also knows perfectly well that if the crazies take control they can never build a majority.
Thus the sudden effort by the Parkers of the world to shove the crazies back into their corner.
The thing is, with Palin as a potential nominee, I don't know the crazies will go back into their corner. I think the GOP's next serious shot at an electoral victory is in 2014.
I'm with those hoping the GOP doesn't get the message until sometime in 2014, by which point we will need a change to sweep out the corrupt machine that the Dems have once again become.
And you expect better from the author of Liberal Fascism? Oogedy-boogedy may be his mother tongue, but Jonah is utterly incapable of self-recognition.
It's funny when you remember the talk was how Dems could reach out to these folk. Now it's how the Republicans can quarantine them.
Rev. John Charles Hagee.
I think it is great that the social conservatives have taken over the Republican Party. The country club set gleefully exploited their activism and votes to pass all the tax cuts and corporate friendly policies while paying lip service to them for 20 years. They never dreamed the yokels might actually out maneuver the money guys. The only downside is the influx of fiscal conservative/social moderates may dilute the Democrats commitment to progressive economic policies especially since so many downscale Americans are the social conservative types.
Ted Nugent is not going to be very happy with Kathleen Parker.
Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Dr. Dobson. How can you lose with a starting lineup like that, Kathleen?
kid bitzer: "4) sarah palin receiving a laying on of hands from a witch-hunter."
More consequential is Palin's belief that when God opens a door for you a crack, you plow right through. Whether God has prepared you for the task (or whether you've prepared yourself) is irrelevant. If God asks, you say yes -- even if God is asking through John McCain.
oogedy boogedy is perfect.
It's one thing to believe in a personal relationship with your god.
It's quite another thing to believe that your god allows you to dictate to others what they do with their bodies, orifices, penises, and wombs. Oh, and then tells you that certain types of folks are inferior (blacks, gays, women, liberals, whatever), and when "life" begins, and which drugs are okay to use (prescriptions are OK!!), and anything else their weak minds will accept.
Fuck the oogedy boogedy crowd. Let them go find their own country and try to defend it.
"...these are voters who saw the Republican Party turn into a party of rabid identity politics..."
Wasn't this the perception of the Democratic party which sent us into the wilderness for 20 years? The problem the Republicans face is that the base for their brand of identity politics is a lot smaller than the base for the identity politics which the Democratic party fell into during the 80's, 90's and early 00's. Thankfully Democrats stood strong for equal rights for all. Standing strong for stomping of the rights of people who are not white, evangelical, fundamentalist and Christian seems like a losing proposition to me (not that this is what Ms. Parker is arguing for...).
And as far as what oogily-boogily is (I prefer the simpler spelling), take a guess. I would guess that it refers to that branch of the party which views the bible as inerrant and the absolute last word on how to govern the country. God bless (!?) that branch of the Republicans, they will kill the party.
It's the wing that doesn't just support more stringent immigration laws, but that turns the issue into a hate fest against La Raza, losing 3 million Latino votes in the process.
Are you counting the tens of millions of Jackpot voters ( grown-up jackpot babies) also known as Anchor voters? Washington has been so corrupt so long on illegal infiltration, the Jackpot voter population is now a very large second and third generation of La Raza (the race) supporters who aren't about to let madre y padre get deported, or lose sight of Hispanic control of the US.
You have to give Evangelicals credit for morality, compared to the PC libs who support corruption and illegality for the sake of the Democrats' Anchor Voter Breeding Program (AVBP por sus siglas en inglés).
As a Buddhist, this is kind of strange. Of all the candidates I've faced in my life, only two of the thousands have been Buddhist. I voted for one and against one. And that's not really surprising because I've almost always voted for people who don't share my religion. I really don't have a choice, do I? It's time Christians had to face my situation. But the problem with them is that they want to impose an interpretation that isn't even accepted within the Christian community. It's one thing to push your religion on me, but if it's dogma you want, you need to get your dogma in order. My dog behaves better than your dogma.
Luther demonstrates why the GOP will lose the Latino vote for decades to come.
Question: Considering that about 11 million Latinos voted in the election, how many tens of millions of "Jackpot" voters were there?
Awwwww, did Luther's candidate get beat like a rented mule on November 4th and now Luther needs to find someone to blame?
Luther, I'm afraid I don't speak racist wingnut. Could you explain who these "tens of millions of Jackpot voters" are, and please be sure to use references beside the voices in your head. Am I an "Anchor" voter since my ancestors immigrated from England in the 18th century? Sucks to be on the wrong end of the Constitution. Huh, Luther?
I live in Washington State where the Republican Party essentially committed suicide the last 25 years. The Christian Right took over the party and slowly strangled it so that now Republicans are a tiny minority in the legislature and haven't held the governorship in decades. The National Republican Party has been going through the same process the last ten years or so and will end up in the same state as Washington state Republicans. Democrats will be pleased but in the long run it's not good for the country.
Mr. Drum-
The only times I comment are for praise. You remain my favorite blogger due to your clear thinking on these issues.
Now for the ranting: Jesus H. Christ the wingers are in a feeding frenzy of Parker's column. Malkin's dank internet hole is awash in fundie nonsense over this. Persuasion is a word I think they should investigate. As a moderate liberal I am easily drawn to alternative points of view but this Godway or the Highway shit is repulsive.
Of course the joke is that Goldberg himself is the ultimate big city cosmopolitan secular kind of guy. He wouldn't have lasted 3 days in a rural high school with his conservative peers. He has no idea what life is really like for a working evangelical family in Postville, IA or Crossville, TN But he's quite happy to cater to their fears and prejudices so that he can continue to afford his lattes and netflix subscription and keep his kids in the right private schools.
Forgetting about religious beliefs. The irrational economics of the lase 40 years (28 years R punctuated by 12 of D) has brought us to ruin.
there is nothing in the gop ideology to recommend itself.
"a party of rabid identity politics"
o god. Did the faithful Dem Kevin just describe his *opponents* that way?
I'm starting to think that it is safest to regard Kevin as an online humorist.
I hope she had the Armageddon/Rapture/Apocalypse nutcakes in mind too.
how many votes did we lose because of jeremiah wright? because of bill ayres, a man who dedicated a book to political prisoner sirhan sirhan?
what you mean "we," white man?
OK, maybe "oogedy-boogedy" wasn't the most felicitous phrase to use.
Oh, you think? What a magnanimous concession.
The key word here is "rabid." Moderate voters recoiled from a GOP that not only espouses extreme positions, but demonizes those who don't go along with that lurch to the extreme.
As for "oogedy boogedy," I refer Mr. Goldberg and other enquiring minds [sic] to the laying on of hands to shield Sarah Palin from witchcraft:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwkb9_zB2Pg
Skippy
How much time, money or effort did you contribute to Obama's victory. I was working for Obama when Drum was still trying to spike his candidacy to promote Hillary. We do have our own oogedy-boogedy chorus, and if we want to avoid the fate of the Repubs we aught to confront them now from strength than wait for the apocalypse that Parker is dealing with on their side of the spectrum.
My husband, the apolitical, yet always-votes-Democratic pragmatist engineer, has observed that the Republican Party will have to move away from the fringe if it wants to survive.
I don't think he believes me when I tell him that Sarah Palin is the current 2012 frontrunner.
It might not be surprising that someone with the lack of respect that Mr. Goldberg seems to have for facts and evidence fails to comprehend the seriousness of the problem exemplified by tolerating such an extreme know-nothingism as ID, but this is, in fact, a perfect example of why it is a problem. I mean, of all the bone headed things said by Gov. Palin, the one that really got my goat was that no one seemed to care that she claimed to believe that there were extant fossilized human footprints inside of dinosaur ones, which in her reality constituted support of a young Earth . In our reality, claims that pigs can fly, or that elvis is still alive, are many orders of magnitude more believable. Hell, even claims that she'd been abducted by aliens is more likely to be true than this nonsense.
loki,
Gosh golly. I hadn't realized that Ayers and Wright represented vocal factions within the machinery of the Democratic party. Thanks for the heads-up, I'll make a point of working myself into a hysterical frenzy after a good night's sleep this evening.
loki, the trickster, the mischief maker among the Norse gods. Apt choice of handle.
The right wing noise machine is destroying the Republican party. Any fool can see the damage done by the likes of Rush and Lou Dobbs to Republicans. People are tired of their rants. The haters for God don't have any answers. Keep on screaming hate, keep on screaming. Every time you make a dittohead afraid someone stops being a dittohead.
Not so long ago John Engler, GOP/CoC/NAM gov of Michigan, was backing a staff member for a post in the state party. Some capital-C Christian was running around at the convention, protesting that "He's a Jew!".
THAT oogeby-boogedy wing of the GOP, Mr. Goldberg.