another world


From Salon‘s account of the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual jamboree for the entirely unhinged:

But by far the strangest moment at the podium came during a panel on “Conservative Victories in the 2008 Elections.” (Yes, really.) Nineteen people — with names like Flagg Youngblood, Spear Lancaster and Smoot Carter — sat at the dais, and each one dashed up to the mics, delivered a two-minute speech full of right-wing clichés, and sat down again. “We are the future, fellow young conservatives,” one speaker declared. “The future is the present. The present is now.” True wisdom — and also a fine mashup of “Buckaroo Banzai” and “Atlas Shrugged.”

Flagg Youngblood?  Spear Lancaster? Smoot Carter? The conservative cadre need to decide whether they’re porn stars or Dungeons and Dragons characters.

Jeff Sparrow

Jeff Sparrow is a Walkley Award-winning writer, broadcaster and former editor of Overland.

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