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President Ricky Perry?
Sure Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin are batshit crazy. But Rick Perry as a brown-shirted cadet and cheerleader at Texas A&M University... whoah!
The Texan Tribune writes:
When Rick Perry arrived at Texas A&M University in 1968, it was at the end of a summer in which Soviet troops crushed the Prague Spring, protesters at the Democratic National Convention were met by a police riot and the United States reeled from the twin assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. With its conservative culture, military tradition and focus on agriculture, few places in the U.S. might have seemed more insulated from the prevailing currents of the age... Perry was elected a yell leader — an esteemed male cheerleader who has traditional responsibilities at major athletic events — and social secretary for his class. And he was exceedingly loyal to the corps, which he credited with giving him the discipline to get an animal sciences degree — his 2.5 grade point average wasn’t high enough to go the veterinary route — and join the Air Force.
Photos Below: Rick Perry as a student and a cadet at Texas A&M University in 1972.
110 Comments so far
Show AllOh, I can't resist the mental photoshopping where I paint that little mustache in the proper place and see the eerie resemblance....must be the hair....
You won't need to photoshop the bookcase. It isn't real.
Isn't that the bookshelf he uses to store his collection of bibles?
gob bless and sieg heil, y'all
Now being in the ROTC and being a cheerleader is a sign of something BEYOND "batshit crazy"?!?!
I'm so damned tired of these stupid "culture wars".
That Rick Perry bio sounds eerily like George W. Bush's bio.
Beat me to it.
I'm thinking, Texas governor and former boy cheerleader in the White House? What could go wrong?
Except Bush went to Yale as a Legacy and Perry went to Texas Agricultural & Mechanical University -a public land-grant school.
Oh and the Perrys are a long-time, plain-folks Texas family and the Bushes are New England silver-spoon carpetbaggers.
But, yeah, other than that they are practically the same guy. ;)
Please note, as a "Native Texan" (reformed and exiled) I thoroughly dislike Perry. But I dislike even more the way that ignorance and prejudice on the part of non-Texans pushes Texans into the arms of a-holes like Perry.
-matti.
As a fellow born and bred Texan, I couldn't have said anything you wrote better.
Umm... ditto.
Matti said: " But I dislike even more the way that ignorance and prejudice on the part of non-Texans pushes Texans into the arms of a-holes like Perry."
How so, Matti? Some of my favorite people, such as Molly Ivins (sorry if I misspelled her name) were/are Texans. How typical was she? Our task is most arduous, and, in consideration of your statement above, we cannot allow ourselves to be divided along borders. So, it is best to have the "ignorance and prejudice" corrected by those in the know.
Well, I'm not the Ambassador of the Republic of Texas or anything, but I'll give it a whirl. ;)
First off, when I say "Texans" I mean the "white people"-the Anglophones really, but the "black" Native Texans are not to be entirely lumped in with them, entirely. The Hispanics -"Tejanos" if they are Native Texan, all the other typical names if they are immigrants- are a whole different story. And keep in mind the Hispanics are slowly becoming the majority and finding their voice -as in all of the lands conquered in the Mexican-American War. (The "blacks" have also changed dramatically due to the exodus from New Orleans, but that's a whole different story again.)
So, why do I say that non-Texan's "push" Texas "white people" towards the Perrys and Bushes? (and of course they are responsible for their own actions, but understanding and compassion are more persuasive than ignorance and contempt.)
Such questions always make me think of the movie of the play "1776". Where the Representative from South Carolina -played by the immortal John Cullum- says to the Northerners "You REFUSE to understand us." over the question of slavery.
The North/South divide is older than "The War of Northern Aggression" (which my buddy's Dad -descended from settlers that came with Stephen F. Austin- would always correct you to call it if you said "Civil War"- ALWAYS.) and runs deeper than slavery and land-use, going all the way back to the North being Company Colonies and the South being Crown Colonies.
Well, in Texas you can pile the fact that the place was once its OWN COUNTRY, that fought its OWN War of Independence on top of that North/South divide.
The culture of Texas -what is left of it- still reflects the pride that comes with its unique history. Do people in Maryland proudly display "Native Marylander" bumperstickers on their pickup trucks? No. People in Texas DO.
So, the long and short of it is that Perry is a Texan, Perry takes pride in being a Texan, Perry talks in a way that lets other Texans take pride in being Texans. The critics of Perry are NOT Texans, they would crap on the place if they were Texans (like the Austin Enclave folks too often do), and they talk in a way that makes it clear that they think any and all Texans should be ashamed of who they are.
So what are they supposed to do?
Remember that they are trapped in the Two-Party Trap just like most of us are.
One side runs a Texan with Texas Pride, the other runs a Northerner who has contempt for Texas and Texans -or at least his supporters do, and express it LOUDLY and CONSTANTLY. Both sides are basically fronts for the Empire and the Corporate Crooks just like everybody knows.
Its a "He may be a son-of-a-bitch but he's OUR son-of-a-bitch" sorta thing combined with a reflexive cultural defensiveness as the Texans slowly lose the cultural struggle for dominance with the Tejanos, the other Hispanics, the "blacks", Texan or Louisianan, and the USAn Mobile Masses -though they still control the money, land, and politics (mostly).
The illusion is that it is Perry's policy stances and "ideas" that would make Texans back him, when it is his IDENTITY. Watch the polls if he gets the Red Party nomination. The numbers from Texas will give him more votes than his policies would seem to deserve. I firmly believe that if LBJ were to run today for a second term against Obama, he would win Texas soundly for the same reasons that Perry could.
Oh, and also the vote is always corrupt as hell. Almost half as corrupt as in Chicago. ;)
Anyway, that's my theory, others may have others.
But I'll tell you what, insinuating that being in the Aggie Corps of Cadets makes one a NAZI is putting a wedge into the Cultural Chasm and hitting it with a sledgehammer. NOT expressing our "Common Dreams."
From MY perspective, it looks like Zimet would risk giving Texas to Perry the way it was given to Bush just to make her total contempt for the place and its culture and people clear to her friends in the Echo-Chamber. ;(
-matti.
Wow!
That was a long reply and I didn't even answer one of your questions!
I'd say Molly Ivans is like Jim Hightower. They're "real Texans" FOR CERTAIN.
They've just got/had too much sense to be fooled by the B.S. and too much guts to be cowed by the crowd.
'Course, that makes them atypical for USAns period, not just Texans. ;)
America had its European name before Columbus "discovered" it.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/9/messages/529.html
Doesn't it though!
But the animals came out ahead.
KK, first the shirt was green. Second, no self respecting homo-fascist is going to wear those boots with that shirt. So, obviously the man has never had any respect for himself. Is it any wonder, then, that he has no respect for anyone else?
For the sheer humor value alone of this, I think he's going to win if he runs. WTF how much worse can it get? Whoopee we're all gonna die!
So Rick Perry & W started off as cheerleaders. That leaves me feeling just a bit queasy, but times are allegedly changing. At least to his credit, Perry actually had a real career as an Air Force pilot.
What is this?
Bush is evil. Bush was a male cheerleader. All male cheerleaders are evil?
That is a false syllogism.
Let's let Perry's evil be evidenced by his record.
Let's leave the poor male cheerleaders alone, shall we? ;)
And all this time I was thinking "Bush is evil. Bush was a male cheerleader. All male cheerleaders have, umm, difficulty adjusting to heterosexuality" . . .
;)
I don't know... at my school it seemed like every time a girl cheerleader got dumped by a football or baseball player, a guy cheerleader got them on the rebound.
sloppy seconds, eh?
Rick Perry dog with his prairie dog, but he couldn't be the boogy woogy bugle boy from Company B.
Delete
Madman
I doubt if it is saying very much when you believe that "Perry actually had a real career as an Air Force pilot" unless you believe that Perry, like GW Bush, had somehow kept the skies of Texas safe against the Viet Cong during the Vietnam conflict in the early 1970s.
Well, the Viet Cong didn't bomb Texas, so obviously they're both great war heroes who single handedly conquered North Vietnam ala Rambo before the ebil peaceniks made them give it back and surrender something or another...
Wait, did I get the batshit crazy rant correct?
bomb'm back.
bomb'm back.
waaaay back.
Has he broken the Shrubber's execution record yet?
I understand he's set to break junior's elocution record, too.
Not sure what this is supposed to prove. After all, Perry was a Dim before he was a Rethug, switching parties in 1989.
A Perry presidency would be a return of the Bush presidency, just like the Obama presidency has been a return of the Clinton presidency. We, as a nation, are being forced by the 2 party corporate run corporate 'democracy' system into going around in repeated circles like a some sort of rabid critter. Ain't that right, Rick? You going to make us road kill, aren't you?!
Exactly...
It would be the Bush presidency on steroids!
So, it would be different from the Obama presidency how?
This is spooky. Every time I think people seeking office can't get any crazier I am disappointed.
I'm with matti on this one. Articles like this one just "prove" to the right how out of touch the left is. He was a cadet and so he had a cadet's uniform - so what? Same with the male cheerleader. There's enough to dislike about Perry without having to resort to b.s. like this. If this is the best we can do then we're in for one rough campaign season.
Let it be known: GWB JUST played Texan populist good ole boy. But that's why dear old Molly Ivens (may she rest in peace, God bless her) always called him "Shrub." So as you wouldn't forget he was "Poppie" Bush's boy, a Connecticut Yankee transplanted seasonally in the hardscrabble, but mineral rich soil of west Texas back in the 50s all the way up through the 80s. Until it ran dry that is, and all the locals had to go get jobs at the Wall Mart...
Now ole Rick, he's the real rootin, tootin thing, coyboy, and I DON'T mean maybe. Mr. Perry's got a much, MUCH longer shot of getting in as he lacks Poppie's connections, and the deep, deep wallets in the Rethug party establishment. But if for some reason he is able to harness the populist wind we here on the left appear to be so incompetent at even recognizing, better watch out!!! Better go back and read your Upton Sinclair, cause It CAN Happen Here.
It could be that Those Behind the Curtain like the "cut of his jib", seeing that O's lustre has faded somewhat. Perry is getting publicity way out of proportion to his standing, I think, while decent candidates (as decent as Rs get) such as Jon Huntsman seem sidelined already.
Maybe, but I'm not too sure. I think the deep pockets are sitting things out right now. They're never with the batshit crazy populists like Palin, Bachman, and Perry. I bet they're banking on these candidates self-destructing. And they can always sick their media attack dogs on them later in the race.
They like their candidates docile and compliant, not firey and unhinged. When backed into a corner, they'll eventually cave into the populist fascists (see Germany 1933-9), but remember they're oligarchs, and like their power given to them smoothly in backroom deals.
I was a teen in 72. A little younger than Little Ricky.
So I can speak to the zeitgeist some.
Rick Perry, as personified in these photos, was as uncool, as completely out-of-it as would have been possible.
He looked to have been a dork of epic proportions, last guy anyone would think to invite to... well, to anything.
The only way that living that way, then, would have made sense was if someone had a brother or sister stuck in Vietnam. Or if someone were insane enough to already be planning a career in politics.
Just a little historical perspective from someone who was there.
(To be completely fair though, his hair *has* improved a lot...)
I turned 18 in 1971 and 1972 was my year of draft eligibility. All college deferments were gone for people turning 18 at that time so even though I had just started college, when my lottery number came up 31 I was going to go if they called anybody up that year.
I got a notice from the local draft board to report for a pre-draft induction physical and showed up at 4:30AM. They loaded us up on a bus and it stopped at every county between Wabash Indiana and Indianapolis and picked up more kids.
We got the same physical you get they get the first day of boot camp except for the buzz-cut and the oath.
The anti-war sentiment among the potential draftees was pervasive; probably half would have resisted the draft; by 1972 it was common knowledge that the Viet Nam war was B.S.
Even though the “unofficial rumor” that year was that there would be a call up of 15% there was no draft that year. Why? Too many would have refused to go.
It seems Perry was hopelessly out of touch in 1972.
He still is.
In the context of the quasi-religious micro-culture that is Texas A&M University, anyone in the Corps of Cadets generally will have more sway with the rest of the student body. For the first 90 or so years, TAMU was a male-only, military school, where enrollment in the Corps, an ROTC program, was mandatory. That is the longest hair I have ever seen on any Cadet, which is probably why he decided to join the Air Force, since they at least used to have more lax policies when it comes to hair. (Surprise!) Also, the white uniform is traditional, and has been in use for decades. You cannot be a dork and be elected a Yell Leader; that takes some charisma, or hair and a smile.
That being said, I wasn't a fan of his during my time there in the mid 2000's, even before I became a progressive. The Texas governor has little actual power in the Texas government; most of the power belongs to the lieutenant governor, who has more interaction with the state legislature. A Texas governor is really only there to have a face to go along with the title.
Bush was an athletic supporter. I find the whole male cheerleader thing creepy. Texans are known for big hair and bodacious boots. His coiffure would give Mitt a run for the money and those boots! WOW!!! They are probably made of some now extinct Mexican lizard species. Those almost look like spurs on those babies. Probably for mounting the mascot after a herculean day of cheerleader practice.
Umm... lizards have scales.
Beat me by ONE minute!
Yup. One of those rare, smooth-skinned lizards. ;)
Show you what a Yankee, (me), knows about cowboy boots.
Especially since those AREN'T cowboy boots. ;)
They're field boots - a less formal uniform option, and correct color for what appears to be the day-to-day cadet uniform. The spurs are more show than go. I'm not a military trivia expert; I used to play polo. I wasn't the only FDR Democrat on the field, either. It was part of my job - cleaning stalls at a boarding stable.
As Molly Ivins also said: "Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention."
That's just Molly playing to the crowd for a cheap laugh.
If you like Medicare and Civil Rights you like 1/2 of the Texan Presidents in history.