House of Eratosthenes

Oy, this is embarrassing. I’m in a passionate back-and-forth with a lovely lady over on Rick’s blog who lives in upstate New York…and I’ve blabbered on to such an extent that the posting form won’t accept that volume of text anymore, so I have to come back and host it here.

Her point, as I understand it, is that the election was lost when the Republican nominee was chosen — a point with which I personally agree. Her rant was pretty priceless and captures exactly the spirit I think the country needs. She also thinks it would’ve gone differently if the Republican champion was Rudy. Hmm. Not sure if I disagree with that, either.

But there seems, to me, to be something missing from the formula, especially since she went on from there to disparage my guy Fred Thompson:

I guess it’s a matter of perspective, resting in no small amount on personal biases. To my way of thinking, Fred did just fine. I was about to say so, but a week or two before I got the opportunity South Carolina made the decision for me, declaring Mr. Thompson wasn’t charismatic enough.

If charisma is the litmus test then what’re you complaining about? Who can doubt, given the premise that Americans are supposed to put in office whoever is the most fun to watch, that we picked the right fella? Whatever your predilections, Obama is one fun guy and mega-awesome too!

The paradox is this: The electorate wants to make the final decision. But they need to be led like a child. If they aren’t led like a child, they end up picking whoever is taller. Or whoever they’d most like to see on American Idol. These are symptoms not quite so much of a dissolving society (although it is that), as a lack of leadership.

Look at Ronald Reagan. Yes, he was more “fun” than Jimmy Carter, and he was more fun than Walter Mondale. But he didn’t win those elections because he was a fun guy; we didn’t talk that much about hopey-changey charismatic goodness in 1980 and 1984. He won them because we had spirited debates about policies. We had spirited debates about policies because Reagan took control of the debates and made sure that’s what they were about. And then it became blindingly obvious that his opponents’ policies were just-plain-bad.

Your mistake here, Mommynator, is comparing Giuliani’s policies with Fred’s charisma or lack thereof. In so doing, you’re formulating a plan that depends on all the electorate seeing things the same way you do. Rudy DID run, and we saw what happened when they got a look. He just didn’t become an eminent force. Granted, neither did Fred, and granted Fred blew a lot more chances than Rudy did. But the point is it’s descended into a high-school popularity contest, and it’s done that because of a lack of leadership from all of the candidates. THAT is the answer to your question.

What we really need…and I personally lack the talent to do this…is to distill this conundrum into something that will fit onto a bumper sticker.

I can use an analogy, though. Republicans say to change the oil in your car every 3,000 miles or something close to it, democrats say it’s wrong to change the oil in your car because it’s just a scheme by the oil companies to get us to use more oil. Obviously, to a thinking adult, the democrat policy will ruin your car, but to an immature mind it might sound plausible.

McCain’s approach a few months ago was to become embroiled in a phony-intellectual debate about how much obscene profit is made for the oil companies when you buy five quarts of oil. And then to compromise on a new policy that tells you to change the oil in your car every 10,000 miles. The McCain theory is that by recommending an oil change interval that is just nominally better than not changing your oil at all, the candidate is spared some criticism. That is the only value there is to it. And…this doesn’t work. The Manhattan blue-blooders still criticize, just as vociferously as they would’ve otherwise. And then they vote for Obama. He’s cuter.

The right approach would’ve been: Folks, this really isn’t complicated at all. The more often you change your oil, the longer the car lasts, and an oil company making a profit by selling you oil isn’t gonna hurt your bottom line, while a busted car will.

Global warming, treatment of “detainees” at Guantanamo, “shoring up” America’s “image” for approval by her “allies,” corporate “greed,” and many other issues: The McCain campaign took on a halfway-liberal position on each one. It created the impression that liberals had a point, when they didn’t.

That doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker.

I can also do a right/wrong approach:

ATTACK: Sarah Palin is a stupid idiot who isn’t qualified.

RESPONSE (WRONG): You can tell she’s smart because she’s a capable speaker, we’ll put her on with a couple interviewers who’d just love to make her look like a dolt, oh by the way she’s the commander of the national guard, her duties in that capacity amount to…blah, blah, blah…

RESPONSE (RIGHT): Quit arguing like a six-year-old, you democrats. Palin’s policies are good, Obama/Biden’s suck, and here are all the ways history says that is so.

My long-winded point, Mommynator, is that Rudy might very well have cured cancer and single-handedly stopped martians from invading the planet. But if the democrats and “centrist” airheads are out there making the election into a reality television show and nobody has the balls to stop them, it won’t ever matter, because we’ll just end up voting for whoever played a saxophone on the Arsenio Hall show. And that is why your guy got beat.

We need to be discussing policies, but first there needs to be a consensus that policies are what it’s all about.

You know, I can think of some things that fit on a bumper sticker. Things that we should be hearing about all the time, not just during election campaigns…but during election campaigns especially. The air should be thick with these words.

Liberty.

Freedom.

Opportunities.

Individual Ambition.

The chance to make yourself all you can be.

Higher standard of living.

Defense.

Victory.

Limited government.

States’ rights.

Sovereignty.

Those will fit on bumper stickers…although, by themselves, they do not quite make the point. The point is that, as Americans, whether we lean right or lean left, we all should be living and breathing these things, every waking moment of every day — and then dreaming about them as we sleep. Something is viciously wrong with our country if & when that is not the case.

Change that, and democrats have won their last election for a generation or more, even if the Republicans choose as their congressional and presidential nominees, a family of crazed ferrets. Then, maybe, the country has a chance.

If you don’t change it, on the other hand, then you can nominate Jesus Christ Himself. And the conversation will turn to how boring He is when Katie Couric is interviewing Him…how gross those holes in His hands look…the “charisma” He doesn’t seem to have, and how sleepy He looks, when He does that praying thing…scandals involving Mary Magdalene.

If the conversation isn’t about the right stuff, then the candidate doesn’t really matter.

OH HELL YES.
- rob | 03/03/2009 @ 13:32
Some bumper stickers:

Republicans pay taxes Democrats EVADE them.

You cannot spend yourself out of debt

What’s mine isn’t yours

Have you shrugged yet?

Freedom is not the same as Socialism
- Fai Mao | 03/04/2009 @ 03:50
Or…

One Big Ass Mistake, America

Hope Won?

And some more that need just a bit more compressing…which I don’t know how to do…

The country now works like any one of a number of our large cities run entirely by liberals. It’s working out about the same way. God help us.

If Obama names 100,000,000 more cabinet appointees, the deficit will be taken care of as they suddenly remember to pay their back taxes.

Yet another democrat with an awesome, amazing personality who could sell ice cubes to an eskimo, is our President. This time, let’s learn the lesson for good.
- mkfreeberg | 03/04/2009 @ 10:22
This one almost fits:

In 2012…let’s talk a little bit less about “hope” and a little bit more about liberty and freedom.
- mkfreeberg | 03/04/2009 @ 10:25
Freedom is lived for not hoped for!
- Fai Mao | 03/04/2009 @ 22:34

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To Mommynator, With LoveTuesday, March 3rd, 2009

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Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009