What was I saying yesterday about hypocritcal bipeds? So easy to dish it out, so tough to have it thrown back in your face.
So Sarah Palin, who winked and grinned and revved up the red-meat crowd, spat at Barack Obama for being a community organizer, baited him as a socialist traitor and friend of terrorists, played Annie Oakley, ratcheted up the rhetoric and encouraged loonies of every stripe, now feels all hurt and sensitive because her former co-conspirators turn out to be not nice people.
Boo hoo, je suis désolé.
So fight back, hockey mom! Lipstick up, pit bull! Since revenge is best served cold, maybe Alaska is just the place to dish up a big platter. Let’s hope Palin turns her wacko-guns on the people stupid enough to make her into every demagogue’s favorite pin-up. I can just see the Arctic Lady as Frankenstein rampaging through Republican ranks and laying waste to all she surveys.
Start today!
Saturday, 8 November 2008
Friday, 7 November 2008
Critical eye on the God thing
One anomaly of the post-election euphoria is the California vote against gay marriage, an odd victory for the sand-swept Mormon Church amid the deep-blue sea of western voters. Mormons, who can’t seem to eliminate polygamy and systematic child abuse in the states they run, poured huge sums into the fight to screw up people’s lives who aren’t trying to tell them what to do.
Although it’s an annoying expression of mean-spiritedness that doesn’t fit with the joyously inclusionary times, marriage equality won’t be stopped, just postponed. But I’d be a little nervous if I were a religious fanatic just now.
We’ve been saddled with a vision of religion’s role in public life for decades now that has more in common with 20th-century totalitarianism than with the teachings of Jesus, whom the born-agains wouldn’t recognize if he were pissing in the next urinal. Enlightenment naiveté about human perfectability inspired Bush who thought he knew exactly what the big Guy was thinking at all times.
Barack Obama is known to follow the thinking of Reinhold Niebuhr, the Protestant theologian who warned against passivity in the face of evil and at the same time cautioned people against deputizing themselves as saints. Andrew Bacevich has some prudent words in today’s Boston Globe about the failures of evangelism as foreign policy, and we may well be in for some interesting national discussions about where all the self-righteous Bible-thumping has taken us in 30 years and especially the last eight.
I think the light may soon be shown on that old biped hobbyhorse, Hypocrisy, especially as manifest in the projection of our own worst tendencies onto the hated enemy. Just as the Mormons should focus on some home-town clean-up, our (emphasis on our) nation may be in for some soul-searching about how religion-driven delusions blinded the country to its own crimes, just as much as any Iranian mullah or mad bomber from Sri Lanka.
Although it’s an annoying expression of mean-spiritedness that doesn’t fit with the joyously inclusionary times, marriage equality won’t be stopped, just postponed. But I’d be a little nervous if I were a religious fanatic just now.
We’ve been saddled with a vision of religion’s role in public life for decades now that has more in common with 20th-century totalitarianism than with the teachings of Jesus, whom the born-agains wouldn’t recognize if he were pissing in the next urinal. Enlightenment naiveté about human perfectability inspired Bush who thought he knew exactly what the big Guy was thinking at all times.
Barack Obama is known to follow the thinking of Reinhold Niebuhr, the Protestant theologian who warned against passivity in the face of evil and at the same time cautioned people against deputizing themselves as saints. Andrew Bacevich has some prudent words in today’s Boston Globe about the failures of evangelism as foreign policy, and we may well be in for some interesting national discussions about where all the self-righteous Bible-thumping has taken us in 30 years and especially the last eight.
I think the light may soon be shown on that old biped hobbyhorse, Hypocrisy, especially as manifest in the projection of our own worst tendencies onto the hated enemy. Just as the Mormons should focus on some home-town clean-up, our (emphasis on our) nation may be in for some soul-searching about how religion-driven delusions blinded the country to its own crimes, just as much as any Iranian mullah or mad bomber from Sri Lanka.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
North Carolina to Obama
Okay, I was off by three electoral votes—he won 364.
My optimism got the better of me—I also said the national margin of victory would be nine points rather than the actual six. I reversed the results in Indiana and Missouri (Obama won the former and lost the latter) and was overly sanguine about the Republican heartland (North Dakota stayed with McCain).
But my intuition was much sharper than I had any reason to expect based on past experience. I sensed the shift back in September and said so right here (I swear I haven’t altered any back posts except to correct a spelling error here and there.)
The level of anxious anticipation and doubt among my friends and acquaintances was quite amazing. I don’t mean to twit you as nervous nellies, but maybe having lived under military dictatorship I had a little more faith in our rickety old democracy than the average person.
Even under Pinochet Chile was capable of holding a reasonably fair election in 1988 and booting the old criminal out of the presidency although not entirely out of power. (That took another 20 years.) When your time’s up, it’s very hard to hold back the tide of history. Even the execrable Mugabe in Zimbabwe isn’t managing to do it very well despite his control of the entire repressive apparatus and his utter lack of empathy with the starving people he misrules.
So based on my modest success, I will now venture another set of predictions.
I think Obama will prove to be a remarkably astute and methodical politician who will line up his forces, gauge his options and move swiftly to win the victories he needs. No doubt the resistance will be intense, but he has to know that the mandate of this week won’t last forever. The exiting Republicans have less credibility than a memoirist on Oprah right now, so now’s the time to pounce.
No one is talking about defense spending, but a collapsed economy might provide an excellent moment to carve out some substantial savings from that overblown monster while waiting for economic activity to revive and refloat the collective boat. A good way to finance that big middle-class tax cut he promised us, too.
Britain established national health care during the depths of its post-war devastation of the late 1940s. That’s nowhere on the radar, but a radically simple proposal hitting Congress in the first 60 days or so might get a lot further than Hillary’s ill-starred plate of spaghetti.
Financial markets reregulation is a no-brainer and should be readied for action before his daughters have arranged their stuffed animals in the upstairs bedrooms.
I wonder if the touchier topics might not get pushed down the list a little so that the political hits come after the first big votes. Among these: closing Guantánamo Bay, dismantling ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,’ withdrawal from Iraq.
Anyway, we’ll know soon enough.
My optimism got the better of me—I also said the national margin of victory would be nine points rather than the actual six. I reversed the results in Indiana and Missouri (Obama won the former and lost the latter) and was overly sanguine about the Republican heartland (North Dakota stayed with McCain).
But my intuition was much sharper than I had any reason to expect based on past experience. I sensed the shift back in September and said so right here (I swear I haven’t altered any back posts except to correct a spelling error here and there.)
The level of anxious anticipation and doubt among my friends and acquaintances was quite amazing. I don’t mean to twit you as nervous nellies, but maybe having lived under military dictatorship I had a little more faith in our rickety old democracy than the average person.
Even under Pinochet Chile was capable of holding a reasonably fair election in 1988 and booting the old criminal out of the presidency although not entirely out of power. (That took another 20 years.) When your time’s up, it’s very hard to hold back the tide of history. Even the execrable Mugabe in Zimbabwe isn’t managing to do it very well despite his control of the entire repressive apparatus and his utter lack of empathy with the starving people he misrules.
So based on my modest success, I will now venture another set of predictions.
I think Obama will prove to be a remarkably astute and methodical politician who will line up his forces, gauge his options and move swiftly to win the victories he needs. No doubt the resistance will be intense, but he has to know that the mandate of this week won’t last forever. The exiting Republicans have less credibility than a memoirist on Oprah right now, so now’s the time to pounce.
No one is talking about defense spending, but a collapsed economy might provide an excellent moment to carve out some substantial savings from that overblown monster while waiting for economic activity to revive and refloat the collective boat. A good way to finance that big middle-class tax cut he promised us, too.
Britain established national health care during the depths of its post-war devastation of the late 1940s. That’s nowhere on the radar, but a radically simple proposal hitting Congress in the first 60 days or so might get a lot further than Hillary’s ill-starred plate of spaghetti.
Financial markets reregulation is a no-brainer and should be readied for action before his daughters have arranged their stuffed animals in the upstairs bedrooms.
I wonder if the touchier topics might not get pushed down the list a little so that the political hits come after the first big votes. Among these: closing Guantánamo Bay, dismantling ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,’ withdrawal from Iraq.
Anyway, we’ll know soon enough.
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
Wow
There are many eloquent and astute comments about what happened last night, and I will spend any leisure time I can carve out reading rather than adding to them.
But I have to join the personal note sounded by many to say that this election was indeed about belonging, and I am a little taken aback to feel it in my bones. I got up this morning a citizen of a country that I really didn’t know existed and that I certainly never felt as part of as I do today.
McCain’s concession speech, typically, showed that he still doesn’t get it, which makes sense since his campaign kept emphasizing how the rest of us don’t measure up to his heroics, have the wrong ideas and aren’t real Americans. He talked about Obama making it as a black guy rather than the country moving itself into a new and more inclusive era.
This nugget of simple wisdom drove Obama’s remarkable run, and his refusal to dump it as a core strategy was the right decision not only for winning but for governing. He was right not to sacrifice his vision and rhetoric of unity, and surprise, surprise, he turns out to be smarter than I am.
But I have to join the personal note sounded by many to say that this election was indeed about belonging, and I am a little taken aback to feel it in my bones. I got up this morning a citizen of a country that I really didn’t know existed and that I certainly never felt as part of as I do today.
McCain’s concession speech, typically, showed that he still doesn’t get it, which makes sense since his campaign kept emphasizing how the rest of us don’t measure up to his heroics, have the wrong ideas and aren’t real Americans. He talked about Obama making it as a black guy rather than the country moving itself into a new and more inclusive era.
This nugget of simple wisdom drove Obama’s remarkable run, and his refusal to dump it as a core strategy was the right decision not only for winning but for governing. He was right not to sacrifice his vision and rhetoric of unity, and surprise, surprise, he turns out to be smarter than I am.
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Vignette
My voting precinct usually looks like a Christian Science Reading Room. I have never once had to wait behind a single human being to enter the voting booth, and the poor poll workers always look like they could each use a packet of No-Doz.
Today, however, I waited happily in line from approximately 7.40 to ten past eight. This in a reliably blue state where half of Manhattan could sleep through it, and Obama would still win with 75%. Something is afoot.
Today, however, I waited happily in line from approximately 7.40 to ten past eight. This in a reliably blue state where half of Manhattan could sleep through it, and Obama would still win with 75%. Something is afoot.
Monday, 3 November 2008
Limbward at 24 hours
What's a presidential election without making an on-the-record guess? Okay, let's play:
Obama wins all the blue states and the following hard-fought or marginal ones: Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada and North Dakota. Losing only Indiana, Montana and Georgia.
Total electoral votes: 367.
National margin of victory: nine points, 53-44.
There it is, and I promise not to make ex post facto alterations even under pain of mortification.
Obama wins all the blue states and the following hard-fought or marginal ones: Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada and North Dakota. Losing only Indiana, Montana and Georgia.
Total electoral votes: 367.
National margin of victory: nine points, 53-44.
There it is, and I promise not to make ex post facto alterations even under pain of mortification.
Sunday, 2 November 2008
Fugue in B Mayor
The peculiar Mike Bloomberg probably can buy himself a third term, but he may well live to regret it. That is, if people in his airy realm still have that word in their dictionaries.
Bloomberg, the proud possessor of some eight billion dollars as well as the mayor’s office, just rammed through the City Council a suspension of the two-term limit that would apply to mere mortals. Given his famous pockets, that should be enough to shoo him into a third four-year stint.
But the move threatens the key to his success. Bloomberg has benefited from a long American tradition of the anti-politician, the weary ‘outsider’ trope now being reprised by Sarah ‘Shopping Spree’ Palin who rails against ‘greed and corruption’ while charging her daughters’ airfares to the state. Saint Ronald was the master of this chorus as he solemnly exhorted the populace not to expect government to solve any problem because, as he quipped to a round of yuks, ‘Government IS the problem!’
The faux-populist message in its essence goes something like this: Potholes should be filled and fires extinguished for free. Government should provide the services that make my life more comfortable, but I should not be compelled to pay for them.
There is a faintly royalist hue to this worldview. It would fit nicely if we were ruled by absurdly rich princes who magnanimously bestowed their favors upon us, their peons, upon which we gratefully repaired back to our fields rubbing our calloused hands and remarking upon the fine lord’s largesse.
That’s why anti-politics fit His Bloombergship so well after his accidental stumble into the mayor’s job in a post 9/11 fluke. He doesn’t draw a salary and isn’t directly beholden to the monied interests because he can buy and sell them and so comes up with one policy scheme after another, ranging from the brilliant (smoking bans) to the hare-brained (the Westside stadium). Whatever you think of them, you know they spring fully-formed from his exalted forehead, and his alone.
But the crude railroading of special rules through the Council, dismissing two citywide plebiscites on term limits with a wave of his patronage-laden wand, has given Mayor Mike feet of clay, and New York is still enough of a mob town that you don’t want them to harden into cement. Instead of a selfless public servant, Bloomberg now looks like a rich bully-boy and will enter an eventual third term tarnished just as the populace is about to experience the shock of recession in the flesh and gets ready to denounce either the deprivations to come or the nasty chore of paying money to avoid them. Or both.
The anti-pol pol routine is a great electoral strategy, and if you’re a lucky s.o.b. like Reagan, you can carry it right into the grave while the political class you spent your life dissing sings hosannas and showers your bier with rose petals. Somehow I don’t think Mr Bloomberg’s going to enjoy a similar fate.
Bloomberg, the proud possessor of some eight billion dollars as well as the mayor’s office, just rammed through the City Council a suspension of the two-term limit that would apply to mere mortals. Given his famous pockets, that should be enough to shoo him into a third four-year stint.
But the move threatens the key to his success. Bloomberg has benefited from a long American tradition of the anti-politician, the weary ‘outsider’ trope now being reprised by Sarah ‘Shopping Spree’ Palin who rails against ‘greed and corruption’ while charging her daughters’ airfares to the state. Saint Ronald was the master of this chorus as he solemnly exhorted the populace not to expect government to solve any problem because, as he quipped to a round of yuks, ‘Government IS the problem!’
The faux-populist message in its essence goes something like this: Potholes should be filled and fires extinguished for free. Government should provide the services that make my life more comfortable, but I should not be compelled to pay for them.
There is a faintly royalist hue to this worldview. It would fit nicely if we were ruled by absurdly rich princes who magnanimously bestowed their favors upon us, their peons, upon which we gratefully repaired back to our fields rubbing our calloused hands and remarking upon the fine lord’s largesse.
That’s why anti-politics fit His Bloombergship so well after his accidental stumble into the mayor’s job in a post 9/11 fluke. He doesn’t draw a salary and isn’t directly beholden to the monied interests because he can buy and sell them and so comes up with one policy scheme after another, ranging from the brilliant (smoking bans) to the hare-brained (the Westside stadium). Whatever you think of them, you know they spring fully-formed from his exalted forehead, and his alone.
But the crude railroading of special rules through the Council, dismissing two citywide plebiscites on term limits with a wave of his patronage-laden wand, has given Mayor Mike feet of clay, and New York is still enough of a mob town that you don’t want them to harden into cement. Instead of a selfless public servant, Bloomberg now looks like a rich bully-boy and will enter an eventual third term tarnished just as the populace is about to experience the shock of recession in the flesh and gets ready to denounce either the deprivations to come or the nasty chore of paying money to avoid them. Or both.
The anti-pol pol routine is a great electoral strategy, and if you’re a lucky s.o.b. like Reagan, you can carry it right into the grave while the political class you spent your life dissing sings hosannas and showers your bier with rose petals. Somehow I don’t think Mr Bloomberg’s going to enjoy a similar fate.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)