08.09.10

Krugman Indirectly Explains Nugent — The Soul Man

Posted in Extremism, Ted Nugent at 7:32 am by George Smith

UPDATED

Krugman today:

And what about the economy’s future? Everything we know about economic growth says that a well-educated population and high-quality infrastructure are crucial. Emerging nations are making huge efforts to upgrade their roads, their ports and their schools. Yet in America we’re going backward.

How did we get to this point? It’s the logical consequence of three decades of antigovernment rhetoric, rhetoric that has convinced many voters that a dollar collected in taxes is always a dollar wasted, that the public sector can’t do anything right.

The antigovernment campaign has always been phrased in terms of opposition to waste and fraud — to checks sent to welfare queens driving Cadillacs, to vast armies of bureaucrats uselessly pushing paper around. But those were myths, of course; there was never remotely as much waste and fraud as the right claimed. And now that the campaign has reached fruition, we’re seeing what was actually in the firing line: services that everyone except the very rich need, services that government must provide or nobody will, like lighted streets, drivable roads and decent schooling for the public as a whole.

Bleak and depressing.

From here a week or so ago:

Once again, it’s worth emphasizing that Ted’s extremist politics are aimed at wiping out his old audience. He wants to live in a country where there’s no taxation, no government except for the military and absolutely no paying for a social contract or anything associated with a civilized western nation that has a middle class.

We’re heading toward Krugman’s vision. One to also include the pleasure of watching Ted Nugent on a summer tour of casinos, cursing out the bloodsucker and entitlement class enemies from a stage in Iowa, then going back to the hotel to submit an opinion piece on how all taxes for the rich need to be eliminated. And that Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King are his inspirations.

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Photo gallery of the Nuge’s show at the House of Blues — Chicago.

His obviously spreading middle on display, look close — around pic 2 — for a knee brace. Aging not optional, even for Ted.

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And this home video from his tour is just baffling: Nugent doing his very average version of “Soul Man” — sort of like the Blues Brothers, only not quite as fair — at one of the House of Blues franchises.

Part of Ted’s shtick this tour is emphasizing how much the soul man he is. And how all his heroes are black. Before he jumps into a tired blues not nearly as good as the rest of the material in his set. If it were done before any other audience than the one here, 100 percent all-male percent bottom-out-of-sighters in baseball caps, it would be uncomfortably awkward.

However, “Unlike the President, I’m black enough,” Ted informs. There can be no doubt, he’s the antic card of the party.

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In an abject example of how music journalism is the home of cream puffs, a recent interview for Goldmine magazine has the reporter asking Nugent what he thinks of all the “rancor.” Without pointing out those Ted columns showing him to be among the most rancorous.

And so one reads this, with Ted immediately doing his thing:

Goldmine: Let’s talk politics a bit. You’ve never been afraid to express your political views. What do you think of the rancor and division in our nation today?

Nugent: It is heartbreaking and totally unnecessary, really. The line drawn in the sand is a direct result of the curse of apathy and the cluelessness that results from intentional, lazy disconnect. Those who are not interested in doing anything for their country, but rather demand a shopping list of bloodsucking demands from America have the perfect president and gang of czars for their sheep-like, self-imposed dependency. It’s embarrassingly soulless, really. On my side of the line drawn in the sand are ass-kicking, hard-working American families who don’t want the government to do anything besides protecting our borders and enforcing our laws, and to basically get the hell out of our way to be the best that we can be. The criminality of the Mao Tse-Tung fan club in the White House will go down as one of the most bufoonish, ignorant crimes in the history of the world. Damn shame. Sadly, we get what we ask for. I fight it every day of my life. And I shall win.

And Ted really likes to repeat how he’s the soul man while maintaining that his enemies are soulless.

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