Aside from the apologia aspect of the Kavanaugh op-ed in the Wall Street Journal there appears a phrase “on the sunrise side of the mountain” that may simply be the repetitive evocation of personal faith. But it could be a sign thrown to the GOP faithful.
The op-ed does nothing to actually apologize for perjury or any actual crimes, he’s just sorry he went berserk and paranoid during the SJC hearing. That lie about not watching Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony may have been that last straw.
Not a neutral party in the current disinformation battle, Molly McKew decided to look at the sunrise phrase more closely and it seems like another of those RW memes referencing perhaps religious resurrection with reference to the born-again GW Bush. Darn those secret handshakes… Hail Hydra. Like Zina Bash, they really aren’t very subtle when they display their allegiance.
The Boofster may have needed to reassure his mob that he’s still their “boy”.
Then I remembered Bush 43 also used this more than once -- especially when talking about Texas.
This book, which discusses how Rs use religious language as political speech, talks about meaning of the phrase as a reference to resurrection used by conservative Evangelicals /2
That author interpreted it for sure as signaling on a set of hardline beliefs.
This paper (p21) notes the same ideas, referencing the previous book /3
But here, Bush references artist Tom Lea as the inspiration for this phrase, saying it is intended to mean optimism, he coming day, not the ending one
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southwestart.com/articles-inter…
Btw -- Tom Lea -- pretty badass.
It's pretty clear this was the meaning for Bush -- derived from the landscape and beauty he lived in. So it's interesting that it was nonetheless seen as signaling for a specific crowd that he was "one of them" /5
I wonder how Kavanaugh intended it.
Today btw the Heritage Foundation used it as a podcast title to discuss SCOTUS issues. Interesting title choice.
This is not a widely used phrase.
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I really don't know. Kavanaugh could just use it because he lifted it from Bush. But it's interesting how often he uses this -- almost compulsively. /7
So Kavanaugh was reminding his supporters what was at stake in terms of the continuing dominionist agenda. Darn that pesky church/state separation.
What images from Thursday do you think will linger?
I'm going to watch the news carefully to see what clips get played. But I suspect it'll be the clip of Blasey Ford saying she's 100 percent sure it's Kavanaugh; the clip in which she talks about remembering Kavanaugh and (Mark) Judge laughing [while Kavanaugh pinned her down]; the clip of Kavanaugh breaking down and saying "You won't ruin me," portraying himself as a victim; and the clip in which Kavanaugh was unable to answer Senator [Patrick] Leahy's question about whether he would personally welcome an FBI investigation. And then Lindsay Graham's histrionics.