Sunday, December 19, 2004
I think I literally am dependent on a substance. I can't think very well without caffeine. Pretty scary, eh?
Even more scary: there is an interesting article on Michael Moore's web site that compares the relationship between Democrats and Republicans in this country to the relationship between victims of domestic violence and their abusers. And it's totally true, isn't it? That's basically what's going on: ideological abuse. The far right wing figured out in the Clinton era that character assassination is a far more powerful political weapon than anything in the realm of moral righteousness. And since then, the neo-cons have been wailing on any liberal politician who threatens to become powerful with this technique. And it's working. We meek, modest liberals are no match for these ad hominem assaults. All over the place, democrats are apologizing for their existence. There has been some consensus that Kerry's loss of the election was a result of his being "too liberal."
There are those incredibly painful pictures of Kerry waving guns around, trying to tell America, "See? I'm sort of like a conservative, too!" In doing stuff like this, he was sort of admitting defeat. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
It's a sort of metaphorical yellow star of David that we're having to wear now, and I fear that the democratic party is going into the gas chambers, single file. They've already succeeded at turning this country into an episode of "Hannity and Colmes," now will they stop at that?
It seems, though, that another reason that liberals have lost pretty consistently recently, is that they actually talk about how shitty the world is and how shitty it's going to be if we continue doing what we're doing. Liberals look you in the eye and say, "thousands are dying in Iraq, and will continue to do so, all because of a war that nobody is really sure why we're fighting." Nobody in America wants to hear that, even if it's true. In America, where war and politics are abstractions, nobody will accept any reality other than the one in which everybody is happy and nothing goes wrong, and politicians are preferably former movie stars. Not that this is unique to present-day America; in Nazi Germany, for example, few Jews believed rumors that the government had set up massive death camps for them, even though it probably would have been in their best interest to believe them. The more atrocious reality is, the less belief people are going to invest in it. And the more liberals insist on basing their philosophies in reality, the less people are going to support them.
Ah, it feels good to write meandering, pointless text now that school is out. Cohesion is overrated.
Even more scary: there is an interesting article on Michael Moore's web site that compares the relationship between Democrats and Republicans in this country to the relationship between victims of domestic violence and their abusers. And it's totally true, isn't it? That's basically what's going on: ideological abuse. The far right wing figured out in the Clinton era that character assassination is a far more powerful political weapon than anything in the realm of moral righteousness. And since then, the neo-cons have been wailing on any liberal politician who threatens to become powerful with this technique. And it's working. We meek, modest liberals are no match for these ad hominem assaults. All over the place, democrats are apologizing for their existence. There has been some consensus that Kerry's loss of the election was a result of his being "too liberal."
There are those incredibly painful pictures of Kerry waving guns around, trying to tell America, "See? I'm sort of like a conservative, too!" In doing stuff like this, he was sort of admitting defeat. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
It's a sort of metaphorical yellow star of David that we're having to wear now, and I fear that the democratic party is going into the gas chambers, single file. They've already succeeded at turning this country into an episode of "Hannity and Colmes," now will they stop at that?
It seems, though, that another reason that liberals have lost pretty consistently recently, is that they actually talk about how shitty the world is and how shitty it's going to be if we continue doing what we're doing. Liberals look you in the eye and say, "thousands are dying in Iraq, and will continue to do so, all because of a war that nobody is really sure why we're fighting." Nobody in America wants to hear that, even if it's true. In America, where war and politics are abstractions, nobody will accept any reality other than the one in which everybody is happy and nothing goes wrong, and politicians are preferably former movie stars. Not that this is unique to present-day America; in Nazi Germany, for example, few Jews believed rumors that the government had set up massive death camps for them, even though it probably would have been in their best interest to believe them. The more atrocious reality is, the less belief people are going to invest in it. And the more liberals insist on basing their philosophies in reality, the less people are going to support them.
Ah, it feels good to write meandering, pointless text now that school is out. Cohesion is overrated.
