Making Buchanan Look Classy

I tuned in tonight to watch Cheney's speech, but found myself, at the 10 o'clock hour, in the midst of Zell Miller's snarling, fiery-nostriled, incoherent, inchoate, rant against John Kerry's loyalty as an American citizen. Patrick Buchanan's culture war rhetoric from 1992 looks silver-tounged in comparison.

The most terrifying thing about Miller's speech (aside from the hideous, cringe-inducing, small child-frightening scowl) was the tradition from which Miller drew his cadences and mannerisms. The bitterness, resentment, and hate at the core of Miller's oratory is the product of Thurmond-Helms-Wallace Dixiecrat-ism. But whereas old age, senility, and (in Wallace's case) a professed change of heart had a mellowing effect on the original Dixiecrats, Miller looked and sounded like a militant white Southern Baptist preacher transplanted from c. 1963. Surprised? Miller did, after all, complain once of Lyndon Johnson that he had "sold his soul to the negroes."

Am I alone in thinking that Miller's speech was horrifying? Matt Welch, who is anything but a Democratic partisan, had this to say:

The crowd inside the Garden was absolutely howling for blood during the applause lines of Zell Miller's militaristic, Niedermeyer-like rant. As I watched a 45 foot image of the snarling senator on the big screen, I found myself thinking that this was the most frightening political speech I had ever seen in my life. I don't think I've ever been as uncomfortable at a political rally.

His protestations to being a Democrat aside, Miller revealed tonight the ugliness underlying the contemporary Republican party, which McCain's not-quite-endorsement of Bush, and Schwarzenegger's attempt at mollifying the Republican image, had only temporarily papered over. I can't imagine that Miller's speech will not backfire on the Republicans. Even Jonah Goldberg is a bit uneasy. (Note to Jonah: since, as you concede, such a speech delivered by a Republican would have been disastrous, the fact that Miller claims to still be a Democrat doesn't change much of anything. We're supposed to believe what exactly, that he's not a Bush partisan?)

Via Jonah again, it seems that John McCain had more than his fill of insinuations that Kerry is a traitor, and criticized Miller personally. This raises the question, once more, of just why John McCain hates himself so much---a question I will not try to answer here.

So: two conventions, two keynote speakers, Barack Obama and Zell Miller. The contrast between them could not be starker. The former represents the progress of history in the best sense of that term---as Obama himself put it, the now fulfilled hope that America had a place for a "skinny kid with a funny name." The latter is a throwback to the vilest of all American political traditions, a Fillmore-ite Know Nothing who is rapidly losing an arm-wrestling match with fundamental decency.

UPDATE: A bit of comic relief. Miller's website continues to advertise his remarks about John Kerry from 2001:

In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington.

Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so.

John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment. Business Week magazine named him one of the top pro-technology legislators and made him a member of its "Digital Dozen."

John was re-elected in 1990 and again in 1996 – when he defeated popular Republican Governor William Weld in the most closely watched Senate race in the country.

John is a graduate of Yale University and was a gunboat officer in the Navy. He received a Silver Star, Bronze Star and three awards of the Purple Heart for combat duty in Vietnam. He later co-founded the Vietnam Veterans of America.

He is married to Teresa Heinz and they have two daughters.

As many of you know, I have great affection – some might say an obsession – for my two Labrador retrievers, Gus and Woodrow. It turns out John is a fellow dog lover, too, and he better be. His German Shepherd, Kim, is about to have puppies. And I just want him to know … Gus and Woodrow had nothing to do with that.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Senator John Kerry.

Slightly different tone, no? (Hat tip: Atrios.)