Of course it was a joke. I think the fact that his name is "RED ELEPHANT" was enough evidence of that, being both the color and symbol of the Republican Party. Hence, it was that usual half-joke that all liberals wish for the annihilation of conservative thought.
Of course, I overreacted, but I guess I was tired of this thread resurrecting itself in different forms repeatedly.
Melon
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"He had lived through an age when men and women with energy and ruthlessness but without much ability or persistence excelled. And even though most of them had gone under, their ignorance had confused Roy, making him wonder whether the things he had striven to learn, and thought of as 'culture,' were irrelevant. Everything was supposed to be the same: commercials, Beethoven's late quartets, pop records, shopfronts, Freud, multi-coloured hair. Greatness, comparison, value, depth: gone, gone, gone. Anything could give some pleasure; he saw that. But not everything provided the sustenance of a deeper understanding." - Hanif Kureishi, Love in a Blue Time