The Max Power Way
the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.
Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.
What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”
Actually, the party’s de facto slogan is closer to Homer Simpson’s personal motto when he changed his name to Max Power:
Homer: From now on, there are three ways to do things: the right way, the wrong way, and the Max Power way.
Bart: Isn’t that just the wrong way?
Homer: Yeah, but faster!
