Are we really up for this? (I hope so!)
We could be in for some serious trouble. The GOP primary race has been all but won by John McCain, but he is being bird-dogged by a faction of his party that is devoted not to a candidate, but to a notion of ideological purity that would make the Taliban turn green with envy (before they detonated the body-conforming bomb....).
This is some serious stuff. On the other side of the fence, we have an ongoing fight that looks to turn into a stalemate between ambition and idealism. If the electorate settles that question, it will be anybodies guess, if it comes to a brokered convention, my money is on ambition.
On the right, the veneer is coming off the party structure. The ideologues are laying claim, or trying to, and will settle for ruining the chances of a moderate succeeding, thus depriving them of a member of a party on the left to demonize in the next election cycle.
This particular brand of politics is quite disconcerting to me. I know that both parties have their own faction of "purists", but these people seem to be the kamikaze's of the American experience, those who know what is best for us and are willing to do whatever is necessary to get what they know to be best and to hell, (literally, it seems), with those who might not agree.
I am not sure how to describe this strategy and behavior. I cannot call it undemocratic, but it really is. It reminds me a lot of what is termed obstructionist when these tactics are used in the Congress. It is a form of fillibister, but its intent is not to bring compromise, it is to wear the opposition, and the electorate down, in order to secure a bit more power, that is a bit less restrained.
We are the targets. Not the Liberals. Not the Extremists. Not any of the other -ists. Us, the ones that can really hold an agenda back or push it forward.. This election is a test of us. What happens this year will determine to a great extent what will happen for years to come. This is not your run-of-the-mill presidential election, and not just for external reasons. The power structure within the nation has shifted, who comes to power this year, and how, will determine how things run for a long time to come, certainly for the rest of my life, and most likely for the largest part of the productive lives of my family. That is a sobering thought.
Is there a practical alternative here? I honestly don't know, (the term practical being an inconvenient modifier).
There are fairly stressful times, it is easy to not be engaged, to just go with things and keep ones blood pressure low, but I don't think we can afford that. There has been an old adage that we need to simply turn the government over every few years, (the old "throw the bum's out" school of thought), and there is something to that, but for that to really be effective, the shape and footprint of government is going to have to change, radically I think. We need to pick our battles, literally and figuratively, and let the rest of the chips fall where they may.
Right now, (and I admit that these are really vague and nebulous terms), I see the themes of the election shaping up this way: ambition, idealism, pragmatism or ideology. Speaking for myself, I can safely eliminate ideology as a choice, (I think those folks are a bit more dangerous and just a tad less tolerant than say al Quaida), but as for the other adjectives, I will have to wait and see which of those fades first...
Stay focused. Stay very focused.
This is some serious stuff. On the other side of the fence, we have an ongoing fight that looks to turn into a stalemate between ambition and idealism. If the electorate settles that question, it will be anybodies guess, if it comes to a brokered convention, my money is on ambition.
On the right, the veneer is coming off the party structure. The ideologues are laying claim, or trying to, and will settle for ruining the chances of a moderate succeeding, thus depriving them of a member of a party on the left to demonize in the next election cycle.
This particular brand of politics is quite disconcerting to me. I know that both parties have their own faction of "purists", but these people seem to be the kamikaze's of the American experience, those who know what is best for us and are willing to do whatever is necessary to get what they know to be best and to hell, (literally, it seems), with those who might not agree.
I am not sure how to describe this strategy and behavior. I cannot call it undemocratic, but it really is. It reminds me a lot of what is termed obstructionist when these tactics are used in the Congress. It is a form of fillibister, but its intent is not to bring compromise, it is to wear the opposition, and the electorate down, in order to secure a bit more power, that is a bit less restrained.
We are the targets. Not the Liberals. Not the Extremists. Not any of the other -ists. Us, the ones that can really hold an agenda back or push it forward.. This election is a test of us. What happens this year will determine to a great extent what will happen for years to come. This is not your run-of-the-mill presidential election, and not just for external reasons. The power structure within the nation has shifted, who comes to power this year, and how, will determine how things run for a long time to come, certainly for the rest of my life, and most likely for the largest part of the productive lives of my family. That is a sobering thought.
Is there a practical alternative here? I honestly don't know, (the term practical being an inconvenient modifier).
There are fairly stressful times, it is easy to not be engaged, to just go with things and keep ones blood pressure low, but I don't think we can afford that. There has been an old adage that we need to simply turn the government over every few years, (the old "throw the bum's out" school of thought), and there is something to that, but for that to really be effective, the shape and footprint of government is going to have to change, radically I think. We need to pick our battles, literally and figuratively, and let the rest of the chips fall where they may.
Right now, (and I admit that these are really vague and nebulous terms), I see the themes of the election shaping up this way: ambition, idealism, pragmatism or ideology. Speaking for myself, I can safely eliminate ideology as a choice, (I think those folks are a bit more dangerous and just a tad less tolerant than say al Quaida), but as for the other adjectives, I will have to wait and see which of those fades first...
Stay focused. Stay very focused.
posted by eccentric recluse at 10:04 AM
1 Comments:
In times of despair idealism is remarkably powerful, practicality being a non-issue. I'll put my money on that.
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