Such a nasty business, this politics thing. Just when I'm tempted to be fascinated by the mix in these primaries where there's an actual race on both sides, the same old venom arises within them.
In 2000, I remember being stunned at the depths the Rove-steered Bush Machine sunk to after W's loss in New Hampshire. What I thought was an open race was anything but once the money and power had selected their candidate. How they were somehow able to tar the POW McCain as unpatriotic, and add race-baiting rumors of fathering bastard black children or some such LCD-appeal, all to turn the South Carolina primary around and salvage W's campaign.
Shame on Rove and friends for the tactic. Shame on Bush for letting it happen (ha, as if the Reagan-lover was aware). And shame on those stupid, gullible primary voters for allowing that to actually influence their vote. Seriously, who the hell is swayed by campaign ads and rumors?! You can pretty much identify their policy proposals, investigate whether they're likely to stick with them, and then take the rest of the campaign/mudfest season off.
This time around, McCain appeared ready to defend the same style of smearing. He's just scaring me with talk that "this election is about who can keep us safe." Hello?! Are we really still in this mode? I don't need a daddy to keep me warm at night, thanks. Leave "safety" to the bureaucrats you select to run your military and intelligence. Pray you don't ignore their terror threat memos. Maybe use the pulpit to get people thinking about the next 20 years instead of just tomorrow.
Tigers Eating their Young
Meanwhile, Bill Clinton always seemed effective because he could navigate the dirty politics game while furthering his policies. But to see him now stoop to dirt and race against his own party on behalf of his wife's and his own ambitions, and to see her play silly charades in the name of turning the tide -- wow, it's disgusting to my tastes.
Part of my last dwindling sinew of Proud American Patriot wants to believe Obama and followers really can change the tone of this foul game and actually redirect politics toward attaining common goals. But the cold, analytic part of me fears it will all be the same, and even if Obama wins the nomination, the game will get dirty and comically irrelevant as his opponent's strategists desperately respond to the latest poll numbers. So maybe let the dirty experts play it out on the dirty stage? But I can't stomach any more of the Newt-Monica-Rush-Billy anything-but-issues, with-us-or-against-us scene.
In the classic Joseph Conrad- or "Lord of the Rings"- style assessment of whether human nature is inherently good or evil, I've always generally believed in the human capacity for good. Good makes us happy. But even if we're all on average good, it only takes a few who seek power over others or are motivated by greed to drag out the evil in all of us. Your abode is cool until someone tries to f*ck with it -- often out of pure envy. Then suddenly the pacifist must throw down. This aggression will not stand, man.
So it seems with politics in this country. You can try a debate on actual policy and mutual interests, sure. But as soon as someone's quest for power is threatened, that's when they get dirty. That's when they count on the gullibility of a populace that has mouths to feed and bills to pay and their own drama to digest before comprehending the latest spin game. That's when you change the course of history by calling a POW a treasonous betrayer of his country, and voters actually believe it.
But man, what if the tone really did improve?! Ack, I can dream.
As you may have noticed, the site has changed. Sampa, the free-site host, did a version 2 of some sort.
Despite an FAQ that made it sound like allowing one's site to go through v.2 surgery would be okay, there were several flexibilities that surprisingly disappeared with the click of a button. (e.g. I cannot believe sidebars like this one are even narrower than before.)
And I'm told -- miraculously! -- that the conversion cannot be undone. Truth be told, I'm actually quite pissed. But free is free. Sampa has otherwise been good to me.
So I need to sort through site "features" to see how I can make do. Except that I don't have the time at the moment, in the middle of graduate classes and Lighthousehockey.com. (btw, I've removed that Lighthouse RSS feed so that you're not clogged with random Islanders hockey gibberish).
But I promise to touch up the accessories when I get a chance, and return to irregularly scheduled blogging.
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February, 2008