I read a rather good reader's blog over on TPM Cafe this morning. This blogger puts it in simple terms -- in case the Tonya Harding Option is too vague a reference -- by saying, "The Clintons are simultaneously knee-capping Obama and complaining that he doesn't run as well as a Democratic sprinter should. 'Why are you stumbling like that? Why can't you run straight?'."
We were marveling just last night over the array of Rovian swiftboat-esque tactics that have been used in this primary, and how easily American voters have fallen for the same old crap -- again. We really thought eight years of Bush and two stolen elections would have slapped some sense into this country. We smugly assumed that this time the American public would be more wary of media hype and manipulation, less inclined to fall for push polls, robotic vote suppression gimmicks, negative ads, surrogate smears and flat-out dirty tricks. Boy, were we wrong.
What the fuck is wrong with the electorate in this country, when we spend this much time vetting a candidate's preacher? I have the sense that Obama probably goes to church like a lot of us go to church. You take the kids to Sunday school, you enjoy the music, you see your friends and neighbors and you hang around for the refreshments afterward. It's a social gathering, folks. It's a chance to wear your Sunday clothes and Sunday shoes, and maybe even a big old Sunday hat. I couldn't tell you one thing I remember from any of my former preachers' sermons, but I remember the Sunday our choir sang a Pops Concert after the service and we had that really great pot luck. How ridiculous would it be for something one of those preachers said in a sermon to come back to bite me in the ass? I wasn't in the pulpit. Hell, I was barely present in the pew. I was there for the singin' and the shrimp dip! But you can't come right out and say that, can you?
So far I've heard more hand-wringing over the whereabouts of Obama's birth certificate than discussion of his plan for troop withdrawal in Iraq. More innuendo about how he qualified for his mortgage than discussion about his ideas on the mortgage lending crisis facing the rest of us. More redneck angst about flag pins and the Pledge of Allegiance than interest in his economic plan or his stance on gun violence. I'm seriously concerned about us, folks. Is this the best we can do? I keep hearing the Super Delegates (or the "automatic delegates," as Clinton calls them) talked about like a "Survivor-Washington, DC" alliance. Have we sunk so far into the "Reality" TV mentality that we're waiting to see whether Obama will play the immunity idol? Clinton is running for President, not HOH.
Now we're hearing that Obama is an "elitist." He's the pansy-assed arugula to her boilermaker. He's the effete snob to her Rocky Balboa. Guess what? I don't want a president who tosses back boilermakers between bouts while her husband plays grab-ass with the waitress. I don't want a president who has no moral bottom line, who will do anything to destroy anyone who gets in the way, and who will condone anything done by anyone that promotes her.
But a whole lot of people seem to be eating this shit up, so maybe we haven't really had enough quite yet. Maybe four years of McCain will do it. If we're really lucky we'll get Condaleeza Rice as Veep. There. There's your white guy, your African-American and your woman, all in one tidy little war-mongering, big-corporation pandering, middle-America screwing package. Something for everyone. Now shut the fuck up, and if you've got any money left or an able-bodied child who can hold a rifle, send it in. If there's any spare body armor laying around the house, send that, too ... they'll be needing it in Iran.
Kwach
We were marveling just last night over the array of Rovian swiftboat-esque tactics that have been used in this primary, and how easily American voters have fallen for the same old crap -- again. We really thought eight years of Bush and two stolen elections would have slapped some sense into this country. We smugly assumed that this time the American public would be more wary of media hype and manipulation, less inclined to fall for push polls, robotic vote suppression gimmicks, negative ads, surrogate smears and flat-out dirty tricks. Boy, were we wrong.
What the fuck is wrong with the electorate in this country, when we spend this much time vetting a candidate's preacher? I have the sense that Obama probably goes to church like a lot of us go to church. You take the kids to Sunday school, you enjoy the music, you see your friends and neighbors and you hang around for the refreshments afterward. It's a social gathering, folks. It's a chance to wear your Sunday clothes and Sunday shoes, and maybe even a big old Sunday hat. I couldn't tell you one thing I remember from any of my former preachers' sermons, but I remember the Sunday our choir sang a Pops Concert after the service and we had that really great pot luck. How ridiculous would it be for something one of those preachers said in a sermon to come back to bite me in the ass? I wasn't in the pulpit. Hell, I was barely present in the pew. I was there for the singin' and the shrimp dip! But you can't come right out and say that, can you?
So far I've heard more hand-wringing over the whereabouts of Obama's birth certificate than discussion of his plan for troop withdrawal in Iraq. More innuendo about how he qualified for his mortgage than discussion about his ideas on the mortgage lending crisis facing the rest of us. More redneck angst about flag pins and the Pledge of Allegiance than interest in his economic plan or his stance on gun violence. I'm seriously concerned about us, folks. Is this the best we can do? I keep hearing the Super Delegates (or the "automatic delegates," as Clinton calls them) talked about like a "Survivor-Washington, DC" alliance. Have we sunk so far into the "Reality" TV mentality that we're waiting to see whether Obama will play the immunity idol? Clinton is running for President, not HOH.
Now we're hearing that Obama is an "elitist." He's the pansy-assed arugula to her boilermaker. He's the effete snob to her Rocky Balboa. Guess what? I don't want a president who tosses back boilermakers between bouts while her husband plays grab-ass with the waitress. I don't want a president who has no moral bottom line, who will do anything to destroy anyone who gets in the way, and who will condone anything done by anyone that promotes her.
But a whole lot of people seem to be eating this shit up, so maybe we haven't really had enough quite yet. Maybe four years of McCain will do it. If we're really lucky we'll get Condaleeza Rice as Veep. There. There's your white guy, your African-American and your woman, all in one tidy little war-mongering, big-corporation pandering, middle-America screwing package. Something for everyone. Now shut the fuck up, and if you've got any money left or an able-bodied child who can hold a rifle, send it in. If there's any spare body armor laying around the house, send that, too ... they'll be needing it in Iran.
Kwach
3 comments:
The United States likes its' Blacks as Sports stars, or Musicians not as intellectuals. Sports stars and musicians still has the entertainment minstrel show feel about it, an intellectual, not so much.
I'm sorry, did you really think that Americans over 40 are not socially patterned racist?
I don't think that most people have even listened to what Rev. Wright said other than out of context in sound bites. The man is a survivor of the trenches of the Civil Rights movement in this country and people expect him to kiss the white man on the mouth?
I listened to several of his sermons and his speeches. When kept in context. When considered from the frame of reference of an over 50 black male in this country I am not sure what he said that was wrong? At least not from where he is coming from.
When I read some of the crap that Lesbians write about Obama, and his Pastor I find it offensive and appalling. When I read what Lesbians of color write about Obama, their racial inneundos, I know it will take a generation or more to go before the words diversity and equality have any real meaning.
Think about that in the context of what it means to us as Lesbians. When we have people in our own community that will vote for McCain because they will not vote for a black man (and that is really what it is about), how far away is our own equal rights?
Kwach you can Grammar Nazi all over that if you would like, in rereading it I see where you can have a heyday.
Looked fine to me, Cedar ... I could understand every word of it.
Oh, and you were right about the ducks, btw. They really smell good, especially in the morning when they've been under the "grow light" all night.
Mmmm, warm ducks!
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