Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Let’s Push Some Buttons
One of the tragic things to happen to American discourse, is that we tend to get caught up in what outlandish things we can say to get attention. Like for example…nobody would bet any real money that mankind is causing global warming, and facing extinction as a result. Or that we’d be better off if men were barred from holding public office for the next hundred years, or that Saddam Hussein made life better for people in Iraq than the way things are with him gone. Nobody would bet any serious money on those things. Certainly not important body parts. But people say things like that all the time.
It’s the price we pay for being an affluent society. People get to say silly, outlandish things all the time. And they don’t pay any price for saying these things. We’re too comfortable to pay prices for holding the wrong opinions. And this ends up hurting our collective ability to think problems through logically.
So let’s go all the way. I say, let’s just circumvent the tricky issue of how to get to the things we want…and discuss what it is we want to do. I think that’s what is lacking in 2006, right before our elections.
Here we go.
This is my “America” button. Push this button, and over in Iraq our guys are going to win and the terrorists are gonna lose. Nevermind how. The terrorists get captured or killed. Maybe the really good ones drop dead of heart attacks, and all the rest of them crap their pants and get captured. Or something. Point is, we win. Instantly. Guaranteed. All you have to do, is push the button.
Would I push it? Hell ya! Get outta my way, I’d push the button.
Okay, now this is my “No America” button. You push this, and we LOSE. That’s right, the terrorists kick our asses.
I would not push that button. No, no, no, no, no.
If I could take it apart, I would snip the wires. Osama bin Laden, of course, would like that button pushed. And so would a bunch of other dirty evil men. But I don’t want that button pushed, and I don’t think you do either.
Mmmkay?
This is where things get tricky. If you push this button, it’s World War II all over again. We’re going to have our elections and the Democrats are going to kick ass. Not only that, but all Republicans will wake up tomorrow with their heads full of Democrat thoughts. Everybody’s going to have an irrational fear of Pat Robertson breaking into their bedrooms and busting them for having sex in the wrong position. And confiscating their condoms. All Republicans lose in November. All Democrats win. President Bush resigns, and (somehow) a liberal Democrat takes his place as our new President. Immediately.
Oh, and the button also does what that first button does. We kick ass in Iraq.
As far as I’m concerned, that right there is a fair trade. I’d push it. Push it, push it, push it, push it. Of course, the Democrats would get ALL the credit for kicking that terrorist ass. Everyone would go “Yay, Democrats! They kick terrorist ass!” I know that’s silly…but anyway, that’s all good. I’d push the button.
Ah…well, you know what this button does. Push this, and nobody cares about Democrat issues. We all wake up tomorrow with an unquenchable thirst for dead terrorists and tax cuts. Republicans win, and…we kick ass in Iraq.
Yeah, I’d push that button of course.
Now, Democrats…which of those buttons would you push? And therein lies my point. We seem to have hit this bizarre little chapter in American history where one of our major political parties, has evolved into perfect and total opposition to, quite simply, knowing what to do. I personally know of a few Democrats who would join me in pressing that first button. Just a few. For all the rest of them — and this includes the ones I see on television, as well as the ones I know — the Shakespearean question of “to press, or not to press” is met with…some kind of silly speech. “Well, what I WANT is for George Bush to pull his head out of…” Anything to avoid stating the actual goal, in terms that are easily understood. “I don’t want to push the button that would make America lose, personally, but under the leadership we have NOW…” Just more speeches. That’s it.
Throughout the twentieth century, when Democrats won elections, they did so through the populist route: We perceive a lot of people want this thing, right or wrong…if your financial interests are aligned such that you also want the thing, you should vote for us. Other people have different interests but there are more of us than there are of them, and we’re going to win. In other words, from the gold-standard issues, right up until Watergate, they won by identifying their peers and I apply that plural in the most narrow definition possible: Companions who share interests. You and I don’t both have to like orange sherbet, or football; if what’s good for me is also good for you, climb on board. More of us, than there are of them.
Here it is 2006, the nation is bitterly divided…and yet, Democrats lost three elections in a row. Barely. Between Watergate and today, they’ve won not by defining peerages, but by sliming the other guys. It doesn’t work very often. What they need to do, is to go back to forming peerages. Defining common interests that appeal to so many people, that it really doesn’t matter who would be outside of those interests or who would be hurt by those interests.
I have to think the movers-and-shakers in the Democratic party know this. And yet, they won’t tell us which buttons they’ll press and which buttons they won’t. Neither will their rank-and-file. They’ve got a situation going where they can’t do this.
And they seem to like it that way.
That’s kind of unsettling.
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