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David McElroy

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Rick Perry: savior of the GOP or slick opportunist with forked tongue?

By David McElroy · August 17, 2011

The most evil man I’ve ever personally experienced was almost elected lieutenant governor of Alabama. I met him years before that, though, when he was about to run for his first office. Our first meeting at his office was surreal.

He had the coldest eyes I’ve ever seen. His voice was flat and monotone. But he had a presence that you might expect from a senator or a governor. He seemed to feel entitled. He seemed to feel superior. Strangely, none of his words matched what I felt in his eyes. He talked a good game about morality and ethics and feeling guided by his Christian faith to run for office. The scary thing is that I think he believed what he was telling me. I’ve worked with enough charming liars to know the difference. This guy felt evil, like a psychopath.

I didn’t work for the guy, but he was elected to his first office and became a powerful man in state politics. I heard plenty of things about him from friends inside his campaigns that gave me a great relief that I never worked for him. I felt a sigh of relief when statewide voters barely rejected him.

What I’m about to say is terribly unfair, because I don’t have enough facts to know the truth about this man. I’m well aware of that. But I get the same feelings about Rick Perry that I got from that psychopath long ago. I think he’s scary.

It’s way too early to make a prediction about the 2012 election — and I honestly don’t believe it matters who wins — but I have a sneaking suspicion that Rick Perry is going to be the GOP nominee for president.

There are plenty of places you can read about things you like or don’t like about Perry. You can read about how he supported Al Gore for president back in ’88 (when he was a Democrat), but now seems to forget what Gore stood for. The best brief summary I’ve read of who Perry is, though, came from a writer at Texas Monthly, so I recommend his story as a starting point.

Perry looks the part of a president. He says all the things that the conservative and angry voters in Republican primaries want to hear. He’s like a man sent down from Central Casting to play the leader who arrives in a disaster to save the day. I can guarantee that’s the way many people will see him. So why do I see something sinister in him instead?

I admitted to you right up front that I’m not being fair. He might not be evil. He might not even be a lying opportunist. I can’t say for sure yet. I just know that all of my political and psychological instincts tell me that he’s a man to be feared — and that he’s a man who people will follow. Right now, I’d say that I expect him to win the GOP nomination — but I reserve the right to change that as things go along — and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he turned Barack Obama into a one-term president.

When evil comes to us, it doesn’t announce itself and pull out a business card saying to contact him at devil@hell.org. Instead, it looks a lot like Rick Perry. I’m reminded of these lines from the 1987 movie, “Broadcast News,” in which a character speaks of someone who he finds dangerous, but who everyone else believes is wonderful:

“What do you think the devil is going to look like if he’s around? Nobody is going to be taken in if he has a long, red, pointy tail. No. I’m semi-serious here. He will look attractive and he will be nice and helpful and he will get a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation and he will never do an evil thing. He will just bit by little bit lower standards where they are important. Just coax along flash over substance … just a tiny bit.”

Do I believe Perry is the devil incarnate? I certainly don’t mean that in the religious sense. Beyond that, I’m honestly not sure yet what to think about him. I just know that when I look at him closely, I feel some of the same things — on a gut level — that I’ve seen in other politicians who I’ve found to be cold, calculating and scary to sane people who see them for what they are.

It might turn out that I’m terribly wrong about Perry. He might simply be a very sincere but misguided statist who’s no different from the rest. But I suspect we’re looking at a very competent and shrewd politician with the intelligence and ruthlessness to get what he wants by manipulating the populist masses. In that respect alone, it makes me suspect he’s a Republican Bill Clinton — at his very best.

The nation-state is at the end of the road, but men such as Perry will use its coercion in ugly ways as it gasps its dying breaths, whenever that might be. The thought of Perry with that much power is chilling to me.

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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

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