Minneapolis’ Moronic Convergance
On Saturday, I was flipping through channels and there was convicted felon Dean Zimmermann sitting next to self appointed arbiter of Minneapolis racial issues, Bill McGaughey on the always low-quality broadcast of the Metro Property Rights Committee.
And of course Avidor already has it up on You Tube, albeit with McGaughey cut out to focus on the Evildoer’s bête noir, Zimmermann.
It’s a shame in a way that Avidor didn’t keep Bill McGaughey in the frame, since McGaughey nods like a fucking autistic metronome while Zimmermann spins out the gossamer strands of bullshit. Occasionally spouting forth inane commentary in support of his hairy counterpart, McGaughey shares Zimmermann’s cadence, that of the pompous populist. It’s tedious but instructive to watch these two blowhards together.
Oliver Sacks, the famous neurologist, tells the story of aphasiacs in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat who, watching Ronald Reagan speak, howled with laughter. Why? Because aphasiacs have lost all or most ability to understand words, and rely on “the expression that goes with words, that total spontaneous, involuntary expressiveness which can never be simulated or faked, as words alone can.” Thus they have an uncanny ability to pick up “what is authentic and inauthentic.”
As Sacks says, it is virtually impossible to lie to an aphasiac. The “Great Communicator” was hilarious to them, since his tics, inflections, and mannerisms showed that he was really the big liar, perhaps even a grand parodist, making fun of himself, the office, and the audience with a note perfect performance demonstrating his insincerity.
They would hyperventilate watching Zimmermann, “our” Ronald Reagan, tell the story of his “setup” by the FBI to a bunch of landlords. They wouldn’t pick up on the inconsistencies of his narrative with the trial record painstakingly recorded by Liz McLemore at Minneapolis Confidential, but the “errs″ and “aws″ and “wells″ with the hand gestures, the shifting eyes, blinking, and head wags would likely communicate to them what we “normals″ (to use Sacks pithy description) often miss, total insincerity.
Bill McGaughey has his own problems, most notably his rather fucked up views on race, ethnicity, and gender, which he proudly displays on the web. That Zimmermann and McGaughey have found each other at this juncture is a beautiful thing, bringing together two white strands of a peculiar brand of illusory Minnesota populist progressivism.
Both these guys are decidedly minor league, their aspirations for the big time and their vanity intact although the heyday of their “careers” as public figures is over. They need each other. Even as I write tonight, McGaughey has posted on the Minneapolis Issues list, quoting himself in defense of Zimmermann.
The Quid Pro Quo of McGaughey’s world is this: come to one of my lame ass Property Rights meetings and I will give you praise or at least stop attacking you. Just ask Chris Stewart.
I will be taking a closer look at these two men–Zimmermann and McGaughey–their rhetoric, their ideology, and their connections over the next couple of months as a way to consider Minneapolis progressives’ peculiar tendency to tolerate what we from warmer climes would call “yahoos.” McGaughey has emerged recently as an “activist″ in the Independence Party, notably supporting Tammy Lee and writing a self-published book on the direction of the IP , and Zimmermann, ostensibly a “Green,” proclaims his purity of intention loudly, even as he lunches with Republican developers or prepares for prison after being convicted of bribery.
–Loosestrife
Original post by Loosestrife