I am (add any name you like) and I have not improved my message.
It’s the summer of our discontent and once again, it is web weaving time, “Charlotte” has just finished hers. That intricate pattern of empty ideas that includes all and speaks of absolutely nothing, (zilch, rien, nada, nichts, netchego, bubkes, etc.,ect.)
The right and left wing of the American eagle likes EVERYBODY. We didn’t know that. Now we do.
Both wings (where are the representatives for the non-wing registered voters?) have a plan to make the next four years better. Really? How? And after watching the conventions, and listening to ALL the blather, I still don’t know.
All I know is that we all need to go forward together. ALL of us. Together. United. As one. No dissent. And no cutting in line. Forward. Together. MOVE it!
We’ve all moved forward out of the Stone Age and progressed as a society to the point where black men can make death threats against President Obama, and convention delegates feel unafraid to say they want to kill Mitt Romney. But we are cool! As actor Kal “Kumar” Penn enthused from the Democratic convention sideline, “I felt like it was cool to be engaged in politics” What a cool thing to say!
There obviously wasn’t enough hope last time, so if you’re feeling all hoped-out, keep hope alive. That’s an order.
During a Republican delegate roll call, South Dakota’s spokesman bragged that his state was the “pheasant-hunting capital of the world,” which lent a strong impression that there’s not a lot going on in South Dakota.
Notably absent were the last two Republican presidents, who by happenstance share the surname Bush, as well as there is a reason they call me Dick (Cheney).
I suspect there were snipers perched in the nosebleed section with orders to shoot any speaker who deviated from the tightly controlled lifeless script. Speaker after speaker informed us that what makes America “America” is its uniquely American sense of Americanness. There was much talk of “personal responsibility” but not a whisper of who was personally responsible for putting on such a boring convention.
Ann Romney said, “Tonight I want to talk to you from my heart about our heart,” confusing everyone about which heart she was talking about. Rick Santorum said, “I shook the hand of the American dream, and it has a strong grip.” No, I’m not kidding. Those were his words.
Darling Clint Eastwood spoke to an empty chair which was supposed to represent Barack Obama but more suitably reflected the entire convention’s message.
Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney made it quite clear who butters his biscuits by mentioning “Iran’s nuclear plan” and how Obama “has thrown allies like Israel under the bus.” As his speech ended, over a hundred thousand Viagra-filled balloons dropped from the rafters before everyone returned to their cocoons.
Ex-president and serial philanderer Bill Clinton gave the Democratic convention’s best speech, blaming the Republicans for everything and sidestepping all ‘inconvenient truths’.
Vice President Joe Biden literally misused the word “literally” at least five times, at which point I stopped counting. The country has “literally stood on the brink of a new Depression,” it was “literally on the verge of liquidation,” it “literally amazes him” that important issues “literally hung in the balance,” and how “the direction we turn is—not figuratively—literally in your hands.” We literally didn’t know you could turn a country’s direction using your hands. A film showed Biden claiming that Obama “has a backbone like a ramrod.” Am I reading too much into that?
And finally, President Obama, spoke of hope, and of moving forward, and of moving forward hopefully, claiming that he wasn’t merely peddling “blind optimism or wishful thinking.”
FORWARD! The Republicans want to go back, but the Democrats want to go forward. Going forward is always good, even if you’re headed toward an iceberg.
And the only way we can move forward is together. The Democratic Ministry of Truth informs us that “Government’s the only thing we all belong to,” whether we choose to or not. Overheard was this vaguely terrifying line, “You may not be thinking about politics, but politics is thinking about you.” Ouch!
The only thing we need to move forward together is hope. More hope. There obviously wasn’t enough hope last time, so if you’re feeling all hoped-out, keep hope alive. They hope you keep hoping. Keep re-hoping.
Keep hoping, even though our challenges and the solutions to them are global, not a concept even remotely addressed (it is OUR economy, OUR financial markets, OUR environment, OUR 4-year hope plan, OUR oil, OUR problem, OUR planet).
Keep hoping, even so, we are disconnected from an ever more interdependent planet.
Keep hoping, even though, instead of uniting us in the struggle to face our woes we are fragmented like shattered glass.
Keep hoping through four years of … what exactly?
Keep hoping, because we finally have a nation where people of all colors, genders, sexual orientations, and creeds, can fail united.
and I approve this message.
23 comments:
And so do I.
and I.
I'm THE Candidate, and I didn't approve this message.
You're too erudite and cutting.
It's not fair.
Definitely not pussian!
Now this is funny. Almost woke up my husband (and failing) to suppress my laughter. Great way to start the weekend!
Impossible to disagree with common sense. Bravo!
Every four years the naive 50% who vote are encouraged to believe that if we can elect a really nice man or woman President then everything will be all right. But it won't be. Any individual who is able to raise millions to be considered presidential is not going to be much use to the people at large. He will represent those moneyed entities that are paying for him. Certainly he will never represent the people of the country, and they know it. Hence, the sense of despair throughout the land as incomes fall and businesses fail.
Quel dommage!
Those of us in the U.S. find ourselves embroiled in that recurring cabaret often euphemistically called “election season.”
...in the meantime the arctic ice shrinks to record lows...
:O I usually ignore US election rhetoric for the good of my health...
...but I enjoyed you post.
An American President once said that an event "would go down in infamy".
Looking back with hindsight on the 20th century we could all make a list of leaders who should go down in infamy - those who started major wars resulting in millions of deaths or who oppressed their citizens and had many thousands of them murdered.
A hundred years from now people will be living with the consequences of the actions of today’s leaders. Or more precisely, will be living with the consequences of the inaction of our leaders.
Whistling past the graveyard.
In the week when the arctic is smashing records.
When the US has just experienced the hottest 12months on record.
I have always known that the political realm is populated by miscreants. The only difference is that nowadays it's populated by incompetent miscreants.
Republicans: "We can't be worse than the current administration."
Democrats: "Yes you can."
Not the most inspiring of political debates.
…I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen.
Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we -- we own this country.
(APPLAUSE)
We -- we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.
(APPLAUSE)
And -- so -- they are just going to come around and beg for votes every few years. It is the same old deal. But I just think it is important that you realize that you're the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you're libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go…
“Other than that, Clint, how was the convention?”
I was thrilled to learn Gore (Vidal) end his life with these final words: "STOP IT."
Grant it he said it to his nurse who was stretching(!!!!???) his leg. But I think Gore was saying a lot more than that.
I believe he left us with THE mantra of THE moment.
Now ... I dare you to use it ...
In this spirit, I declare America Week officially open.
Of course as a good feminist I believe the personal is political, so maybe every day is politics, but that's a whole other question.
I have resisted commenting about this because I felt it was bad manners to expect you to join me in my obsession.
Here is what I do not get: every year, in the richest, most powerful nation on earth, perhaps the only country on earth that was founded on an idea, 45,000 people die because they do not have health insurance. This is not some crackpot figure plucked from the air by a crazed conspiracy theorist. The number was arrived at after a rigorous study by the American Journal of Public Health, which doesn't sound to me like a Commie rabble-rousing publication.
When the twin towers fell, almost 3,000 people died. In response to that tragedy, millions of dollars were spent, new agencies were created, America threw itself into a state of national emergency. But when it loses 45,000 citizens annually, this great nation does…nothing.
I don't understand why the most powerful man in the world cannot pass a damn bill. I don't understand why health insurance companies can make profits in the billions while people are actually dying. I don't understand why the right wing is shouting about communism and killing grandma. I don't understand how the thousands of lobbyists who are fighting reform can look at themselves in the looking glass in the morning. I do not understand what is going on in the curious mind of Joe Lieberman.
This is when I realise that I do not understand America and how it works. It is the greatest power in the world. It has more money, more Nobel Prizes, more brilliant technology than anywhere else. It has a dream, dammit. One of the things I like about America is that it is not just a country, it is an idea. And it is a truly marvellous idea. The idea is that all men and women are free and equal and entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A corollary to this enchanting idea is that anyone, be she never so humble, be he never so obscure, can rise to the very pinnacle of national life.
Excellent post, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on the matter.
Thank you for the post. You have expressed how so many of us feel at this time, but are unable to express ourselves quite so succinctly.
It is Shakespearian. It is a four act opera. It has produced events so shocking and peculiar that I have to scrabble hard to find any explanation for them as an American.
America may be the most complicated country in the world.
Today I find it wrapped up in a dark rage, impossible to govern. It is mired in a bleak recession and legislative gridlock.
Yet the citizens manage to retain their belief in the IDEA that is America; a place of innovation, progress and that hoary old chestnut, hope.
For this, I truly admire the people.
To all - thank you for your comments. Once again, you have achieved what I enjoy – a discussion. (I always imagine Jean Brodie’s voice in my head: P-E-T-R-I-F-I-C-A-T-I-O-N. Petrification! I do not intend to devote my prime to petrification.)
Or Mrs Merton's: Now let's have a heated DEBATE.
And...(Mrs Merton)
“So politics – is it all a load of rubbish?”
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