Portrait of a Plutocratic Operative
.What freaks me out is not so much that people like Roger Stone exist, is that there also seems to be a social milieu in which they exist, in which their attitudes and actions are considered normal, even admirable. That freaks me out.
A long-time fringe (or central, if you believe him) Republican political operator, Stone is quite a character. My personal favorites from this piece are:
“Roy [Cohn] was not gay,” Stone told me. “He was a man who liked having sex with men.”
and:
Not long ago, Stone went to the Ink Monkey tattoo shop in Venice Beach and had a portrait of Nixon’s face applied to his back, right below the neck. “Women love it,” Stone said.
I think it’s fair to say that each of those segments contain statements I find less than plausible.
Of course, the really disgusting aspect of the whole thing isn’t addressed directly by the article, although the article makes the connection clear: that Stone, who lives an extremely privileged life, has wielded significant influence, and clearly isn’t hurting for money, is representative of a political class who have protected themselves by tarring their more egalitarian political opponents as “elitists”. It’s been true for years, but it’s still painful to see it in such stark relief.
(I found the reference to the New Yorker piece on A Tiny Revolution.)