This week's issue of Entertainment Weekly includes their editors' list of the top 20 "vilest villians" from American pop-culture.
This list, like the AFI "top 100 films of all time", is designed to generate conversation and attention for the publishing entity, more than to serve as a serious commentary on the "best" or most "villainous."
But, this one really made me think.
I thought, given this list of pop-culture supervillains, what would the top 20 conservative supervillains look like by comparison?
So, I've given the EW list below, and added alongside the real-life characters I believe align with them in terms of placement and similarity
I'd love to see your top 3, top 5, top 10, or if you're really motivated, top 20 in the comments.
So, who is the Republican Voldemort? Darth Vader? Wicked Witch of the West?
The Runners-up (in no particular order):
Pat Buchanan Robert Welch Rick Warren Newt Gingrich William Bennett
Strom Thurmond Joe Lieberman Bill O'Reilly Neil Boortz Michael Reagan
Sheriff Bull Connor Roy Cohn Donald Rumsfeld Alberto Gonzalez Ann Coulter
Laura Ingraham Phyllis Schlafly Bill Kristol David Brooks Sean Hannity
Glenn Beck William McKinley Herbert Hoover George W. Bush George H. W. Bush
Tom DeLay Alexander Hamilton Bob Jones, Bob Jones Jr., and Bob Jones III
A Proposal for the Top 10 Most Vile Conservavillains:
- Alberto Gonzalez: Politicizing the Justice Dept.; politically motivated prosecutions
- -Herbert Hoover- Replaced by referendum with: Pat Buchanan.
- J. Edgar Hoover: appointed by Coolidge, abused FBI authority to interrupt progressive initiatives and activists.
- Rush Limbaugh: His rhetoric, influence, and lack of electoral accountability have largely been the fuel behind the right-wing media circus and elected officials; his de facto authority over the conservative core; and the fact that I can now refer to "Rushlicans" instead of "Republicans" without being misunderstood all serve to place him as my personal Number #1 Conservative Vile Villain!
- Joe McCarthy: Blacklisting? It is only because the others are so much more villainous that I put him as low as #6. Even if his concern was legitimate, his methods and himself were just pure villain.
- Tom DeLay: for redefining "corruption" in the modern era.
- George W. Bush: Duh.
- Dick Cheney: his position on my list, debatable. His placement in the top 10, not so much. 5 deferments? The man-sized safe? "I am my own branch of government?" All classic villain innovations- a one-man industry of villainousness!
- Karl Rove: Duh-er.
- Richard Nixon: he set the stage and wrote the script in which most of the other top 10 villains have merely played their parts.
Looking back on this list it really scares me how much several of these players are connected to one another. Nixon as an aide to McCarthy, Cheney and Rumsfeld in decades of conservative administrations, Rush DimBulb and all groveling Republicans except for David Frum, etc...
Now, I ask you- which list frightens you more? The above top ten, or EW's list here:
- Jack Torrance
- Alex Forrest
- Gordon Gekko
- Michael Myers
- Hans Gruber
- The Queen from Snow White
- Annie Wilkes, RN
- Frank Booth
- Norman Bates
- J.R. Ewing
- Nurse Ratched
- Dracula
- Voldemort
- Catherine Trammell
- Mr. Burns
- Alex DeLarge
- The Joker
- Hannibal Lecter
- Darth Vader
- The Wicked Witch of the West
So, who's in your top ten?
Flame, blame, comment and converse: Bring on the villains!