Neo-Confederate Empty Suit

Two brief points about Ryan Lizza’s terrific article (free with registration) on no-things-can-actually-get-worse GOP frontrunner George Allen, which will undoubtedly generate an enormous amount of discussion:

• Since there will be a lot of diversion about the issue, it should be emphasized that Allen wearing a Confederate pin as a high school student is particularly odious, because he wasn’t a Southerner. If someone actually spent all of their childhood in the South, there is at least a plausible argument that it’s being used as a symbol of their geographic heritage. But, as Lizza asks, “Why would a young man with such a sensitive understanding of Southern racial conflict and no Southern heritage wear a Confederate flag in his formal yearbook photo?” Allen was unambiguously making an endorsement of ideology, not heritage, and to be clear the ideology in question is treason in defense of slavery, and the symbol was later revived to defend post-Reconstruction apartheid.
  

• I’ll have more about the silliness of “authenticity” later, but Lizza has some good stuff about it. The fact that Allen is a vacuous bully is particularly important, because his personality is pretty much all his candidacy has to offer. Nobody seems to suggest that he’s particularly bright, or has any interesting or innovative political ideas. Rather, as Lizza says. “It’s a word they use a lot it the Allen world–“authenticity.” His aides and the growing ranks of conservative backers hungry for someone to take out McCain emphasize Allen’s down-home credentials and cowboy-boot charisma far more than his voting record.” It’s worth noting that this “authenticity” is a simulacrum designed to fool particularly gullible rubes, which should tell you all you need to know about the value of this concept in choosing political leaders.