Frankenstein's Monster is loose, and it ate Mitt Romney in SC.

[JoePhilly]

The GOP establishment created the Tea Party monster. Its a loud, angry, bitter, hungry monster.

The GOP had been keeping its monster on a short leash, no Fox News sponsored protests rallies ... they sidelined Glenn Beck.

They were able to distract the monster in Iowa with lots of shinny objects like Bachmann, Perry, Santorum, and even Paul.

But the monster got loose in SC, and it ate Mitt Romney.

It will be fun to watch the GOP establishment try to capture its monster and chain it up so that it can't get loose in Florida.



go Newt!!!

[MjolnirTime]

1. That monster ate Jeb Bush and his candidate for Governor in 2010.

It will feast on what's left of Mitt.

[JoePhilly]

2. I'm hoping so!!

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Dead on (so to speak).

That same metaphor of Frankenstein's monster for the tea party has also been bouncing around in my head as singularly appropriate.

[JoePhilly]

6. I started to think about it back when the TP first appeared ... George Will was ...

on ABC's Sunday show, and he's going on and on about how its a grass roots movement, and that its a real mix of Republicans, Democrats and Independents ... and I screaming the word "Liar" at the TV.

George Will and all the other GOP pundits, plus Fox News, they helped created it. They gave the crazy right wingers a channel for their anger.

And now they don't seem to be able to control it.

[K Gardner]

4. Perfect Analogy !

[K8-EEE]

14. +1

Really good and will be stealing.

[LiberalEsto]

5. Be careful what you wish for....

He's ugly inside and out

[JoePhilly]

7. As long as he's attacking his creators, I'm for it.

[Jackpine Radical]

8. There is no doubt of that.

But maybe he's sufficiently ugly that he will be a self-limiting problem. Not everyone in this country has the shriveled little soul that predominates in parts of South Carolina.

[coalition_unwilling]

9. At the risk of igniting a flame war, I really wish we could

stop comparing the Tea Party to Frankenstein's monster. The former is disgusting and vile, the latter a noble creature forced to suffer because of man's hubris and arrogance.

I'm not even sure it's appropriate to compare the Repukes to Dr. Frankenstein since he, for all his shortcomings, believed in science whereas the vast majority of Repukes would be hard-pressed even to define the scientific method.

I just hate to see Mary Shelley's glorious creation besmirched by any comparison to the racist, misogynist and racist Tea Party folk.

If you're searching for a literary analogue, perhaps Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" (and specifically the lynch-mob scene with Sherburn) is most appropriate. Twain would have had nothing but absolute scorn for these Tea Party charlatans.

[JoePhilly]

10. I guess I'd explain it this way.

You are correct in your description of the original Shelley work. However, I'd say that I was not "searching for a literary analogue", or even basing the analogy soley on Shelley's original work.

The Frankenstein story has been told and retold with a wide array of variations ... including numerous books, movies, songs, even TV shows.

As a result, the story of "Frankenstein's monster" is not only defined by what Shelly wrote, but also by a much broader "popular" awareness of the story.

Personally, one of my favorite versions is the movie Young Frankenstein. There too, the monster is also a "noble creature".

I agree with your statement that generally speaking, the creature comes to exist "because of man's hubris and arrogance". I would add that those who create the creature also think they, and they alone, will be able to control it.

The other key touch point, particularly in the popular understanding, is that at some point, the creators loose control of their creature, and it turns on them.

Last point ... with the GOP and the Tea Party ... you and I don't see them as "noble", we see them (correctly I think) as totally insane ... THEY see themselves as the most righteous, perfect beings, ever "created".

[coalition_unwilling]

12. I was indulging my pedantic urge, simply because I think Frankenstein's monster

deserves better than to be compared with the likes of scumbags like Gingrich and Romney (or their tea bag followers).

Thanks for indulging my pedantry

The Repukes have definitely created a monster, that's for sure.

[JoePhilly]

13. NP ... induldge away!! ... all analogies, and all classification systems for that matter ...

are by definition imprecise.

Ironically, I was talking to my son about this recently. What I was telling him is that a thing is what it is. A classification system attempts to describe a bunch of things, such that most of the "things" in the classification share their most critical characteristics. An Analogy is similar, but it tends to compare similarities between 2 things which would generally never be classified together. In other words, an analogy picks some characteristics, and then connect 2 or more disparate things. A classification system takes N number of things, and tries to extract the critical commonalities.

In classification systems, you end up with some odd situations. For instance, penguins, ostriches, and turkeys can't fly, but they are classified as birds.

In a sense, all analogies fail in a similar manner. They describe something that is "like" the original thing, but that are not the actual thing.

Anyway ... I like to discuss analogies in part because they are flawed. They can be used to draw certain aspects forward, and also lead to a discussion of how they don't fit ... which broadens the discussion of "the thing".

So ... again be "pedantic" ... call out where you think an analogy doesn't fit. It expands the discussion.

[annabanana]

11. VERY good!. . . .k&r . . . n/t

[Tripod]

15. Plus one again. n/t