I’m a little late to this, but here’s a portion of John Bolton’s speech to the Conservative Politcal Action Conference (aka CPAC) late last week (h/t Think Progress):

I’m no fan of Bolton, so I wasn’t surprised that he said what he said.  After all, it’s not like we haven’t heard this stuff before — this is the guy who once suggested decapitating the UN building.  Bolton loves to provoke.  He has a fine-tuned sense of outrage and knows how to push the left’s and the media’s buttons.  So no one should be shocked, shocked to find rhetoric coming out of his mouth.

So why am I posting about this?

What bothers me about the video — and it’s something about which I haven’t seen comments elsewhere — is not Bolton’s “joke,” but the audience’s reaction.  Watch it again.  When Bolton picks Chicago as his “random” city, the audience laughs and cheers.  The applause is sustained.  They love the idea of nuking Obama’s adopted home.

Imagine, if you will, a similar conference held by socialists progressives, where a similarly controversial figure on the left — I don’t know, Bobby Rush or somebody — gets up and suggests something similar about Dallas, Dubya’s new home.

Imagine the screaming on the right.  Imagine the manufactured outrage.  Imagine the coverage on Fox and Hannity and Limbaugh and the rest.  Imagine the demands for an apology/retraction by the speaker and a repudiation by all other God-hating commie God-fearing patriotic progressives.

But when Bolton does it. . . . the audience cheers! Hooray!  Let’s nuke Chicago!  Woo-hoo!

Bolton’s comment was merely a rhetorical device.  He’s a jester.  Sad thing to say, he knew enough about his audience to recognize that a nuclear explosion could be played for laughs.

And what does that say about the state of what is called “conservatism” in this country?

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