'Pussycon' is a crude moniker for those I have variously described as milquetoast conservatives, yap-and-scribble do-nothings, and bow-tie boys. Esther Goldberg:
The hanky-clutching, cluck-clucking, tsk-tsking faction of the Conservative movement is in for a rough and bumpy ride over the next four to eight years.
They’re the ones who wanted a Republican president who looked like the male manikin on top of the wedding cake. You know, like Mitt Romney. And who were shocked when they got one who wore a baseball cap and spoke with a Queens accent. Like Al Capp’s S.W.I.N.E. (Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything), they are perpetually offended by everything Donald Trump says and does. By the fact that he simply exists.
I call them the Pussycons. They’re demanding a prissiness from Republican politicians, a refined politesse that distinguishes them from the swinish multitude. For George Will, you had to be able to imagine him “in an Iowa living room, with a macaroon in one hand and cup of hot chocolate balanced on a knee.” A George H.W. Bush, dangling a tea cup. Or a Mitt Romney, so much more elevated than his 47 percent of “takers.”
[. . .]
Politesse involves adhering to an accepted code of social behavior. It’s a quality without depth. It describes the surface of a person. The oh-so-refined George Will’s favorite descriptor for Donald Trump, “invertebrate,” which Will uses to denote something low and slithery. Will is always attired in well-tailored suits, carefully accessorized with appropriate ties or bow ties, professorial round wire rimmed glasses and a nicely coifed toupee. You can easily picture him “with a macaroon in one hand and cup of hot chocolate balanced on a knee,” though you wouldn’t bet on him ridding a town of its bad guys as John Wayne did.
Pussycons are excruciatingly sensitive to language. So Peggy [Noonan] wants the Senate to ban the word “nuclear” as in “go nuclear” and “the nuclear option.” It’s too masculine, a “hideous, he-man, drama queen of a phrase.” But aren’t “he-man” and “drama queen” contradictories? Apparently, Pussycons don’t need to be logically consistent.
[. . .]
Pussycons are “embarrassed” by “bigotry” and “prejudice.” Yet they engage in it all the time. They worry that voter ID laws will keep African Americans from the polls, but isn’t it bigoted to assume that they are incapable of acquiring identification cards? Hey, there are voter ID cards in Nigeria. This is called the tyranny of low expectations, and it’s embarrassingly similar to anti-black racism.
[. . .]
“Prudence is not weakness, and carefulness is a virtue, not a vice,” intones Peggy. Yet too much prudence often results in paralysis. It was Hamlet’s downfall. Wait long enough for the time to be right and things may get rotten. And too much carefulness can prevent us from making even minor decisions, as when J. Alfred Prufrock wonders if he dares to eat a peach. A leader must lead with confidence, else he loses the respect of those who would do harm to his country. That’s how wars happen. Khrushchev backed down during the missile crisis only when he came to believe that America’s young president had the balls to act.
Pussycons fret that Trump shoots from the hip. But the shameless dithering of the last eight years has created a dangerous situation. We live in a time of serious and constant crises. This is a time for action, for John Waynes rather than Jimmy Stewarts. And the Pussycons need to wrap their minds around this.
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