I have wanted to keep this, here, free of my usual political rants and raves, but given this past week, and the weeks leading up to it, I'm lifting my own self-imposed gag order.
In light of the passing of Howard Zinn, may his great soul truly rest in peace, I recall a few gems. "Most wars, after all, present themselves as humanitarian endeavors to help people. " Sound about accurate? But my all time favorite and a constant go-to for this liberal is his saying about how, in America, they're always telling you that you can make anything out of yourself, you can do anything if you just work hard enough. They don't tell you how easily you can fall. One pink slip, one family member getting sick is all it takes to wipe everything out. He added "I saw my parents work their fingers to the bone every day, and they never made it out of the tenements."
Watching the State of the Union on Wednesday, his words coursing through my mind, several things occur to me, as they usually do. As much as I'm not only an Obama supporter and cried the night he was elected, and again during his inauguration, but I'm a huge admirer of the man and his abilities and his audacity of hope. Now, having said that, I also concur with my patriots in arms, other liberals who feel like this particular president has a pretty golden window and perhaps isn't doing as much as maybe is possible, or that somehow has lost that audacity.
I'm also fully aware that after the past 8 years and a Machiavellian (at best), idiotic, jingoistic, and criminally reckless Administration, whoever won the '08 election was going to be inheriting a pile of shit.
But watching the SOTU, it just smacks of empty rhetoric, doesn't it? Doesn't it make you just wanna give it all up? I realize there's a distinct difference but I wanted to hear at least a twinge of the kind of speech we heard at the Dem convention in '04 that blew everyone away. Instead, per usual, you have POTUS speaking and half the room acting like kids who got their candy taken away. But this year in particular really fucking pissed me off. Just looking at John Boehner's petulant smirk on his over tanned face (it's January in DC for christ's sake) was making me insane. And the man's constituents are in Ohio. OHIO. Not South Carolina even. O. HI. O. So, I get it, this is politics. You're either with us or against us.
Everyone has known that even just bringing up health care reform is touching the third rail. Not only that, it's potentially a career killer. It happened to Hillary just, like, a few years ago really. But then again, as my darling Gore Vidal always says, the country we live in is more like the United States of Amnesia. Look I had to really rack my brain just yesterday to remember the neighbor's cat's name, but I still remember that knock down drag out career (almost) killer that the Clintons went through when they approached health care. But even then, maybe behind closed doors it was happening, but we didn't have the level of public - oh, we'll just say "debate" that's been happening. People taking to the streets in protest and talking about socialism. There we go. Bing! The button. Drop the S bomb into an idiotic constituency and bam. They're your zombie soldiers arguing vigilantly for...
For....?
What are they arguing for? Nobody can answer this for me. These people, these tea partyers, these Fox News watching terrified idiots, what are they fighting for? Honestly. I don't get it. Is it really just change? Is it that simple? Is the theory of Occam's Razor in full effect here? That the simplest explanation is the answer here?
The number one mistake in American history is not letting the South secede. Don't get me wrong, I love the South. Love it. Most of our great American writers and a good majority of our best music comes from the South. But we shoulda let them go, you know what I mean? But the biggest mistake of American politics for at least a century is the bipartisan system. Sunday after Sunday after debate after debate I am absolutely sickened, mollified, indignant at the binary level of discourse. Who will take back Congress. Which team will win. How will the Reps battle the Dems, vice versa.
All these years of supposed evolution, and we end up in the Coliseum watching Jersey Shore, I mean, Gladiators fight, standing and applauding or sitting and smirking at every well rehearsed and focus grouped line of the State of the Union.
Welcome to the vomitorium, my friends.
Binge, purge, the excelsior elixir of the end of the Empire.
It's not a fucking Super Bowl game, god dammit. There are people's lives at stake here. And all it takes for everything, everything they've worked so hard to earn to be taken away is one pink slip, one natural disaster, one family member getting sick. Are these people protesting, now I'm not specifically talking about the politicians yet, but the Fox Newsers, the people in the streets, are they seriously telling me they don't have a single family member that has a health problem? Or that they're so set they can afford to put Mom through chemo without worry? In the words of Bill Hicks "I dooooooooooooooooubt it."
But then! It's a bird, it's a plane! President Obama went into the lion's den, the Republican Retreat (wait a minute, they have retreats? Did anyone else know that they camp out together and have team building retreats???) in none other than Body More, MD and intelligently and cogently and passionately argued (of course, per usual) his case for, let's all say it together, bi-partisan cooperation. Normally this is the stuff of barfdom (see: vomitorium) but there is so much at stake here, now, especially with healthcare, that this one act was truly an act of heroism. Truly.
I'm not sure how long this link will be active, but here it is for as long as it stays up. Obama at the House Republican Retreat.
And to end this highly charged political week is our old standby, the always great SNL Weekend Update. Seth Meyers said of the Republicans inviting Obama to speak and argue his case was like "inviting Aquaman into the water. You guys do know that's how he got the job, right? By debating? It's like in Indiana Jones where the guy waves a bunch of swords around and Indy just pulls out a gun and shoots the guy." Or something like that. That link, for as long as it's up, here: SNL Weekend Update.
Not that I'm pulling for any team or side on this thing. But well played, Sir. Well played.
In light of the passing of Howard Zinn, may his great soul truly rest in peace, I recall a few gems. "Most wars, after all, present themselves as humanitarian endeavors to help people. " Sound about accurate? But my all time favorite and a constant go-to for this liberal is his saying about how, in America, they're always telling you that you can make anything out of yourself, you can do anything if you just work hard enough. They don't tell you how easily you can fall. One pink slip, one family member getting sick is all it takes to wipe everything out. He added "I saw my parents work their fingers to the bone every day, and they never made it out of the tenements."
Watching the State of the Union on Wednesday, his words coursing through my mind, several things occur to me, as they usually do. As much as I'm not only an Obama supporter and cried the night he was elected, and again during his inauguration, but I'm a huge admirer of the man and his abilities and his audacity of hope. Now, having said that, I also concur with my patriots in arms, other liberals who feel like this particular president has a pretty golden window and perhaps isn't doing as much as maybe is possible, or that somehow has lost that audacity.
I'm also fully aware that after the past 8 years and a Machiavellian (at best), idiotic, jingoistic, and criminally reckless Administration, whoever won the '08 election was going to be inheriting a pile of shit.
But watching the SOTU, it just smacks of empty rhetoric, doesn't it? Doesn't it make you just wanna give it all up? I realize there's a distinct difference but I wanted to hear at least a twinge of the kind of speech we heard at the Dem convention in '04 that blew everyone away. Instead, per usual, you have POTUS speaking and half the room acting like kids who got their candy taken away. But this year in particular really fucking pissed me off. Just looking at John Boehner's petulant smirk on his over tanned face (it's January in DC for christ's sake) was making me insane. And the man's constituents are in Ohio. OHIO. Not South Carolina even. O. HI. O. So, I get it, this is politics. You're either with us or against us.
Everyone has known that even just bringing up health care reform is touching the third rail. Not only that, it's potentially a career killer. It happened to Hillary just, like, a few years ago really. But then again, as my darling Gore Vidal always says, the country we live in is more like the United States of Amnesia. Look I had to really rack my brain just yesterday to remember the neighbor's cat's name, but I still remember that knock down drag out career (almost) killer that the Clintons went through when they approached health care. But even then, maybe behind closed doors it was happening, but we didn't have the level of public - oh, we'll just say "debate" that's been happening. People taking to the streets in protest and talking about socialism. There we go. Bing! The button. Drop the S bomb into an idiotic constituency and bam. They're your zombie soldiers arguing vigilantly for...
For....?
What are they arguing for? Nobody can answer this for me. These people, these tea partyers, these Fox News watching terrified idiots, what are they fighting for? Honestly. I don't get it. Is it really just change? Is it that simple? Is the theory of Occam's Razor in full effect here? That the simplest explanation is the answer here?
The number one mistake in American history is not letting the South secede. Don't get me wrong, I love the South. Love it. Most of our great American writers and a good majority of our best music comes from the South. But we shoulda let them go, you know what I mean? But the biggest mistake of American politics for at least a century is the bipartisan system. Sunday after Sunday after debate after debate I am absolutely sickened, mollified, indignant at the binary level of discourse. Who will take back Congress. Which team will win. How will the Reps battle the Dems, vice versa.
All these years of supposed evolution, and we end up in the Coliseum watching Jersey Shore, I mean, Gladiators fight, standing and applauding or sitting and smirking at every well rehearsed and focus grouped line of the State of the Union.
Welcome to the vomitorium, my friends.
Binge, purge, the excelsior elixir of the end of the Empire.
It's not a fucking Super Bowl game, god dammit. There are people's lives at stake here. And all it takes for everything, everything they've worked so hard to earn to be taken away is one pink slip, one natural disaster, one family member getting sick. Are these people protesting, now I'm not specifically talking about the politicians yet, but the Fox Newsers, the people in the streets, are they seriously telling me they don't have a single family member that has a health problem? Or that they're so set they can afford to put Mom through chemo without worry? In the words of Bill Hicks "I dooooooooooooooooubt it."
But then! It's a bird, it's a plane! President Obama went into the lion's den, the Republican Retreat (wait a minute, they have retreats? Did anyone else know that they camp out together and have team building retreats???) in none other than Body More, MD and intelligently and cogently and passionately argued (of course, per usual) his case for, let's all say it together, bi-partisan cooperation. Normally this is the stuff of barfdom (see: vomitorium) but there is so much at stake here, now, especially with healthcare, that this one act was truly an act of heroism. Truly.
I'm not sure how long this link will be active, but here it is for as long as it stays up. Obama at the House Republican Retreat.
And to end this highly charged political week is our old standby, the always great SNL Weekend Update. Seth Meyers said of the Republicans inviting Obama to speak and argue his case was like "inviting Aquaman into the water. You guys do know that's how he got the job, right? By debating? It's like in Indiana Jones where the guy waves a bunch of swords around and Indy just pulls out a gun and shoots the guy." Or something like that. That link, for as long as it's up, here: SNL Weekend Update.
Not that I'm pulling for any team or side on this thing. But well played, Sir. Well played.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.