For those of you younger than dirt, the Yippies were antiwar protesters that employed not-entirely-serious means to jolt the establishment. For example, Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman once organized a protest during which, he claimed, the Yippies would use psychokinetic powers to levitate the Pentagon. The media gave the protest heavy coverage because it was so ridiculous, and all the very serious journalists savored the chance to make Hoffman and the Yippies look stupid. Which was the whole point. Hoffman and his Yippie friends got a huge amount of airtimeat the small cost of dignity that they didn't even care about.
Now we have Alan Keyes, who has no chance of getting elected and owes more than a half-million dollars on his two doomed Presidential campaigns. (Thanks to Roger Ailes.) Keyes shows all the signs of running a Yippie-class dada campaign. His first little bit of performance art is from his blog:
Obama Campaign in Trouble -- Barack Obama seems to have seen the writing on the wall, and he's now terrified of the prospect of running against Alan Keyes.
This is, of course, insane. But that's the whole point. Levitating the Pentagon was insane, too.
Keyes is playing the Yippie game. He doesn't care about dignity or civility or pride. He just wants to cause trouble and get on television. He's going to do nothing this election sseason but insane stuff, ratcheting up his own apparent symptoms to keep the media intersted. Illinois Dems would do well to remember that the Yippies made a significant contribution to ending the Vietnam War. Never underestimate the power of pure, unbridled lunacy.
Keyes is a gifted orator, but I've had the impression ever since I first encountered his, that he's as crazy as a rat in a coffee can.
Posted by: Conrad | 08/10/2004 at 11:05 PM