Jim Webb's identity-based populism, The potential vice-presidential candidate.

the Guardian (UK) ^ | Friday June 20, 2008 | David Boaz

[PotatoHeadMick]

Richard Just at the New Republic magazine is not impressed with Virginia senator Jim Webb as a running mate for Barack Obama. Webb is fundamentally illiberal, he writes, a misogynist and an ethnic nationalist and "something of an apologist for the Confederacy." So why do lots of liberals like Webb, Just asks. "In the years since he left the Republican party, Webb has found his way to certain policy stands that liberals correctly find attractive. He was right about Iraq, and, on economics, he is right to criticise the disparity between rich and poor." Just can't figure out how a fundamentally illiberal Scots-Irish nationalist can arrive at all those good liberal tax-hiking, big-spending, trade-restricting positions that "liberals" like. But in fact Webb's liberal positions on economic issues stem directly from his self-image as an oppressed working-class white man. When I read his book Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, I was struck by how it burned with a passionate hatred of the English in both England and America, who in Webb's view had been keeping his people down for hundreds of years. Throughout the book he complains about "the Wasp hierarchy" and the "Cavalier aristocracy" from which the hard-working Scots-Irish have been systematically excluded. Just notes that too: "Perhaps the most unappealing thing about Webb's worldview is that it seems to be built largely on resentment. In his book Born Fighting, you can practically feel the resentment coming off the page." Webb complains that affirmative action "focused only on the disadvantages that had accrued to blacks," while "the white cultures whose ancestors had gained the least benefit from the elitist social structure" were "grouped together with the veneer that had formed the aristocracy."

[fieldmarshaldj]

I’m not sure where that branch of the family originates from exactly (my second earliest ancestors that were Scottish/Scots-Irish settled in the Carolinas and then moved to Middle Tennessee around 1800, one served under General Jackson in the Creek Campaign and the Battle of New Orleans from what I understand). The earliest of my ancestors came to the US slightly before those did, and it was just one man, one of those paid Hessian mercenaries hired by the British in the Revolution who settled in New Jersey (I’m more German than Scottish).

Indonesian wife ? Lucky you. My ex was part Filipina. ;-D

[fieldmarshaldj]

Hitler was an “authentic war hero” in WW1. So was Benedict Arnold in the early Revolution. John Glenn was considered yet another. History is replete with heroes gone bad.

[fieldmarshaldj]

The issue isn’t about George Allen’s campaign (nobody is contesting he ran a poor race, almost everybody agrees on that), the issue is about Webb himself. Just because you worship him don’t expect the rest of us to fall in line. I watched that campaign closely (I am in the neighboring state, after all) and I saw full well what he did. I think the man is beneath contempt and a profound embarrassment to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[kabar]

Just because you worship him don’t expect the rest of us to fall in line.

I voted for George Allen. I contributed several hundred dollars to his campaign. I contributed manhours to his campaign. What the hell are you talking about?

[fieldmarshaldj]

I should ask you the same thing. What’s with all the hosannas for Webb and denials he ran anti-Semitic campaigns in the primary and general ? Were you watching the same race the rest of us were ?

[AmericaUnite]

As an old fashioned woman I have one thing to say, HE IS ONE UGLY MAN! His head is out of proportion. He is funny looking.

[AmericaUnite]

Oh yeah, and his eyes are beady.

[x]

Just can't figure out how a fundamentally illiberal Scots-Irish nationalist can arrive at all those good liberal tax-hiking, big-spending, trade-restricting positions that "liberals" like.

Most people understand by now that "trade restriction" isn't necessarily a liberal position.

Boaz is a libertarian (though he's adapted pretty well to the left-wing snobbery of the Guardian), so he's got his own agenda.

The only surprise here is that it's hard for him to figure out how Webb ended up where he did.

Libertarians invented the "Nolan chart."

That bottom left-hand corner labeled "Populist" is where Webb fits in, not especially preoccupied with economic or social freedom.

Libertarians have always had trouble with those people -- in later versions of the chart they're called "totalitarians" and "authoritarians," but none of the labels really fit.

Anyway, in the age of the Patriot Act, those populists may actually end up -- rightly or wrongly -- being more for liberty than more establishment types.

[kabar]

What’s with all the hosannas for Webb and denials he ran anti-Semitic campaigns in the primary and general ?

Anti-semitism was not a central theme in the Webb campaign either during the primaries or the general election. During the primary, Harrison Miller, who is Jewish, pointed to a Webb campaign cartoon about him and said that Webb's cariacature was anti-semitic because of the big nose and emphasis on money. IMO it was Miller who was pulling the "religion" card, not Webb. Personally, I didn't see the connection to Miller's religion.

Allen's macaca remark and repeated apologies including the fact that he heard his mother use the word but never knew the meaning spawned the MSM inquiry into the origin of the word [North Africa] and his mother's background. I don't see this as an orchestrated campaign by Webb to attack Allen over his heretofore unknown Jewish roots. Allen joins Albright and Wesley Clark in this regard.

If Webb's attacks were anti-semitic, I didn't notice many Jewish groups going after Webb nor from what I have seen dissuade Jewish voters from voting for Webb.

My biggest disappointment was with Allen. He was a former governor and incumbent senator yet he got beat by a relative unknown and political neophyte. He showed he wasn't ready for primetime. I found his campaign's using passages in Webb's novel to cast him as some sexual pervert and pedofile to be counterproductive and clumsy. Northern Virginia was and is in turmoil over the illegal immigration issue. If Allen would have taken a stronger stand on the issue, he would have won. Despite all of his mistakes, Allen lost by a few thousand votes.

[fieldmarshaldj]

We’re in agreement that Allen ran a poor campaign, but I vigorously disagree on Webb’s campaign. I know an anti-Semitic campaign when I see it. He was nothing but another nasty little thug on par with Jim Moran, whom also is an anti-Semite. Unfortunately, Jewish groups don’t seem too concerned with this since too many of them are willing to look the other way if the candidate in question is a liberal rodent.

BTW, I also believe Allen’s campaign was right to go after Webb’s writings. I saw the descriptions of those passages and they showed a diseased and perverted mindset. Like I said, had Webb still been a Republican, we’d have never heard the end of it from the media (including his Watts joyride). But when you’re a Dem, all is forgiven. Two different sets of rules for each party. Stringent for one, none for the other.

[kabar]

We will agree to disagree about Webb’s alleged anti-semitic campaign. Any politician today [except for certain Cong districts] would be committing political suicide if they ever tried it. AIPAC would target and destroy him.