The Malfoy Syndrome

Glenn Greenwald shares with us a manly chat between Tucker Carlson and Jonah Goldberg about Dick Cheney:

In just two minutes of chatty, giggly Cheney worship, the following tough-guy cliches flew from their mouths:

* Cheney "doesn't bother talking the talk, he just walks the walk";

* he's "a politician who doesn't look at the polls. . . another Harry Truman";

* "love to have a beer with the guy";

* "a smart, serious man in American life";

* "Have you ever seen Dick Cheney give a speech? I mean, the contempt for the audience is palpable" -- "I know, I -- see, I love that. He looks like he should be eating a sandwich while he's doing it, eating lunch over the sink . . I love that";

* "I can just see him yelling, hey you kids, get off my lawn. I love it."

As always, the pulsating need among the strain of individual represented by Tucker Carlson and Johan Goldberg to search endlessly for strong, powerful, masculine figures so that they can feel those attributes and pose as one who exudes them (Jonah Goldberg: "love to have a beer with the guy") is its own stomach-turning though vitally important topic. The same is true of the fact that the movement of which they are a part virtually always venerates as Icons of Courageous Sandwich-Eating Masculinity precisely those figures who so transparently play-act at the role but whose lives never exhibit any such attributes in reality. That, too, is its own rich and abundant topic.

This sort of man-crush is typical toady behavior. Every bully has his toadies; vide Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter who has Crabbe and Goyle to serve as enforcers and lickspittles; Carlson and Goldberg fill those roles nicely for Cheney.



The reason they're such sycophants is because they have too little talent or self-respect to stand on their own, or they're too much the coward to do anything but go along with the bully, afraid to stand up for themselves. So they overcompensate for their own short-comings (and all the Freudian implications that go along with them) by acting all butch and tough themselves when you know that they're completely incapable of playing the part themselves.