01.12.12
Nugent: Motivational Speaker
Ted Nugent is a busy guy. Ever since he became an accidental hot-selling author (I’m not gonna call him a writer; anyone who has read Nugent’s bits excerpted here knows he has no talent there), Howard has worked it to cultivate his image as a motivational speaker for the extreme right.
Think of him as a really poor man’s Zig Ziglar for an audience of old and paranoid white people who applaud those who tell them they get all ticklish inside seeing student protesters pepper sprayed.
It should be no surprise that there’s an audience for this in the heartland shires of the land. Down through human history there’s always a crowd to enjoy seeing others tied to a post and whipped and those who recommend such treatment as proper. Particularly in hard times.
And now Ted is scheduled to provide the inspiration at a GOP “Lincoln Day” event in Springfield, Illinois.
Some comment, from the State Journal Register newspaper:
In choosing Nugent, organizers will without doubt accomplish their goal of raising money and packing the house. Nugent may be many things, but he is never boring. Given this platform to speak his mind to a friendly audience, Nugent is sure to provide a moment that will endure for years in Springfield’s political lore.
But the local GOP also is taking a risk in making Nugent the voice of one of its most significant annual events.
Right now on the national stage, the GOP is fighting against an image of a seriously splintered party. Twice in 2011, Congress ground to a halt when the House appeared unable to control its most extreme faction.
Nugent clearly is part of at least one of those factions — the gun rights absolutists — and his overall shtick may not play well with more traditional conservatives.
We’ve always enjoyed Nugent’s outspokenness in the newspaper’s direct dealings with him …
Much of what makes Nugent so entertaining is his unwillingness to self-censor.
But that quality also is where the risk comes in for the local party. Some of what Nugent says isn’t so benign …
And that’s a rather large, if gentlemanly, understatement. To its credit, the newspaper links to a column written by one its local pundits, published a earlier.
And that column contains some of of the more odious examples of Ted:
Back in 1990, when the forced-segregation apartheid system was still the law in South Africa, Nugent managed a 40,000-acre ranch used for bow hunting, according to a 1990 Detroit Free Press article.
“(A)partheid isn’t that cut-and-dry,??? he was quoted as saying in that article. “All men are not created equal.
“The preponderance of South Africa is a different breed of man,??? the quote goes on. “I mean that with no disrespect. I say that with great respect. I love them because I’m one of them. They are still people of the earth, but they are different. They still put bones in their noses, they still walk around naked, they wipe their butts with their hands.???
As a columnist for the Washington Times, one Nugent target has been unions.
In a column posted Sept. 2, he wrote, “Labor unions have not sustained labor but rather have destroyed it??? by forcing “unrealistic and unsustainable wages and benefits on businesses.???
If he were to say that in Springfield, he might get some agreement. But many current and retired state workers in the crowd might not love to hear what he wrote about their affiliation.
“Public-sector employees typically enjoy higher pay, more benefits and more time off than private-sector employees,??? he wrote. “This is unconscionable and is yet another example of the fleecing of the taxpayer by our elected officials and labor unions, which are joined at the hip.
“Public-sector employees should be banned from joining a union, paid a wage commensurate with the private sector and provided with the same benefits as their private-sector peers. Only a goon would think otherwise.???
Here, none of this is eye-opening. And readers will no doubt note that Ted is a little late today with the weekly WaTimes Fireball Express of calumnies and slurs on the many internal and external enemies of our nation.
“We wonder if Nugent’s appearance will do more toward bringing new people into the party and shoring up unity or disenfranchising longtime party faithful who already are nervous about where the party — locally and nationally — is headed,” muses the Springfield paper.
It’s one hundred bucks for dinner and Ted. Seventy five for dinner, Ted and a personal handshake in the meet-and-greet line. That’s a joke.