The Heathers Are Back

Yes, Maureen Dowd's ridiculous column chastising John Edwards for getting a haircut only makes sense in her world, where politics is like junior high school and she's the catty chick at the cool lunch table.

But I can't help but wonder if the American public, after suffering through a President who launches unnecessary wars, treats the Congress with contempt, asserts executive powers akin to kinghood and generally can be ranked right at the bottom of all chief executives in our history, has had enough with this kind of infantilizing, character-based, content-less media. John Edwards can get a $3,000 haircut with his own money as long as he doesn't spy on Americans without a warrant and send detainees to secret off-the-books prisons where they spend eternity in legal limbo.

I mean, this is absolutely true:

The idea that the Democrat is weak, effeminate, and just plain girly is more than just the attack the Republicans will use against Edwards, it's the attack they have used against every Democratic presidential candidate since 1968. It is the essence of Republican presidential politics, the plea to white men that if they vote Democratic, people might think they're light in the loafers. And it works because of the enthusiastic cooperation of commentators like Maureen Dowd, queen of the Heathers, casting her lighting bolts of snide psycho-sexual humiliation down on anyone who fails to win her favor. Quite worthy of the Times op-ed page, the most valuable piece of real estate in the pundit universe, don't you think?

But in a country where everyone knows that this government has driven us into a ditch, I wonder if haircuts are really going to matter to John and Jane Public. Maybe I'm dismissing the effectiveness of this demonization by feminization tactic, ably hyped by Ms. Dowd. But I think 2008 will be a campaign where issues matter. Of course, people will have to shut off the teevee for that to happen.