Who me? Couldn't be.
I have to say, the more Hillary and Obama pressure for withdrawal, the better Rudy looks as a candidate. When you run to your left during an election year, you better hope the electorate is running with you. But the most recent poll I just saw on the war - with stronger support for sticking it out - indicates that perhaps the Democrats are overreaching.
Either way, they don't deserve the power.
And I'd rather deserve the power and not get it then not deserve it and somehow get your grimy, power-hungry little hands on it anyway.
I am just going on record to say that once this poor, pathetic, small-minded, power-hungry little political period is over with - and I would be willing to put up a substantial amount of money with a 50-years-out D-Day on such a bet, for anyone willing to take me up on it, that this period will be looked back upon with wonder at what foolish and stupid ideas can animate our lives - that we will look back very much like imperialist nations of the West look back at their activities before and after World War I and before and after World War II and wonder how much senseless and destructive tragedy we must suffer before we face our failures, all of us, with no scapegoats or exceptions on that one, as political leaders and as people.
In the meantime, I have zero respect for the Democratic party, at this point. Anytime you bully on an important issue where you are wrong or where you cannot put up the arguments to convince others that you are right, you lose my respect and my vote. And, more importantly, you lose any reason to trust your ability to hold power.
This incredible race to the bottom of reasonable democratic discussion that has gone on in the last 6-7 years will:
1) Backfire on everyone who engages in it. Mark my words. Already happened to the President. Democrats are just waiting to fuck this one up to learn the lesson, apparently.
2) Regardless, it means that you don't deserve the power. And there is nothing more stomach-turning in the world, as far as I am concerned, than the arrogance attached to winning power at all costs when you have not earned it.
Democrats need a major humbling, right now. And I will do everything in my power to offer it to them.
In the meantime, my country's political leadership has gone horribly wrong. I can only hope that the tragedy will be as minimal as possible for our hubris.
When all those people die in Iraq once we pull out precipitously, I assume Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton will be taking responsibility. Just like Democrats have taken responsibility for failed public schools, failed poverty policy, failed policies of protectionism and government intervention in the economy, and every other failed liberal political, economic, and social policy of the 20th century that so many are now pretending still form the core of a coherent ideology.
It's the era of responsibility. Which literally translates, "Who me? Couldn't be."
Why would we ever imagine that our children would follow any other footsteps but our own?
Love,
Ben
1 comment:
"I have to say, the more Hillary and Obama pressure for withdrawal, the better Rudy looks as a candidate."
That's just not true. Hillary is a political grotesque. She offends me on a million and one different levels--none of which the eventual Republican candidate will ever be bright enough to mention.
The Obama pot, which once looked sure to boil over, is slowly but surely cooling to a simmer. The more we see of of him, I think, the less we think he's The One. He has issues, too. Plenty of them.
I don't care if Clinton and/or Obama stink like a feedlot, though. Their suckiness cannot conceivably elevate Rudy to viability.
His sucking is far worse than Obama sucking. It's probably dead even with Clinton's sucking, but a little more dangerous.
I know you are disgusted to the point of dry heaves with the D/L bunch these days and I don't blame you one iota.
However, I think that there's a risk in believing that the D/L crappiness somehow justifies or legitimizes the equally stinky (actually stinkier) crap coming from the C/R crew.
It doesn't. In the end, the C/R group are shittier and tote a much higher Evil Quotient.
Now, I know we could come up with the Great Omnibus Debate of All Time on that statement, so I won't bother to really defend it at the moment. Instead, I want to ask you something...
Do you think that it's possible that you are coming down a little too hard on the D/L team because they are MORE DISAPPOINTING and the reason that they are more disappointing is because they are really closer to right than the other guys?
I think it's easier to get super-pissed at them because you know that they should be making the better arguments. Meanwhile, it's almost tougher to diss the C/R folks because they were never close to begin with...
I'm not saying your criticism is unfair, I'm just wondering if you might be whacking the left harder because they SHOULD be doing better and that you're easing up on the right in the process.
For instance, bagging on Clinton/Obama/Ds for not taking responsibility. No shit. They are strangers to responsibility. At the same time, though, we have an equally staggering failure to accept responsibility on the other side of the aisle. Not only are they refusing to accept responsibility, they are often still clinging to the policies that created the fucked up situation in the first place.
I'm just saying that there's plenty of blood smeared on every hand in Washington, that equal opportunity dissing is in order, etc.
It's a real world uniqueness answer. D's suck? Not unique. R's suck, too. Now, let's look for a tie-breaker. That's if we are gracious enough to the R's to claim that D shittiness rivals theirs.
I might be reading you wrong, but sometimes it seems like your sliding to more conservative turf not because of any tangible advantage to the perspective shift, but more out of disappointment and frustration with the liberals.
I'm disenchanted with everyone myself, but in the end I'm going to keep leaning to the better underlying position instead of worrying about the messengers/figureheads.
Oh, and one other thing about responsibility. The one place where I think the responsibility problem is most acute is not in DNC headquarters or the secret bunkers under Karl Rove's compound.
The real responsibility problem lies with us. We're the ones who really suck because we know better and don't do nearly enough to alter things.
We should be revolutionaries of some sort, but we're just armchair pundits instead.
At least I am. In fact, I'm going to close this comment now because I'm going to watch a 12-year old movie on On-Demand just because I think I will get a kick out of watching young Angelina Jolie with a short haircut.
I could be changing the world. I could be taking responsibility for letting things slide toward doom. But activism and responsibility aren't as inviting as a young Angelina and a comfy couch.
Later,
CDB
Post a Comment