Warning: Political Post Ahead
Sep. 21st, 2008 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuI've seen the New York Times Op-Ed column in which "President Bartlett" advises Senator Obama on his campaign. It's mildly amusing. But it's not at all the Word of God from a flaming bush that people linking to it seem to think it is.
Bartlett doesn't exist. He's fictional. (As he admits in the piece.) He never had to be President of the USA. He only had to be President of the people who watched The West Wing. His political advice is not that of an ex-President. Not even of a fictional President. It's the advice of an angry, bitter Hollywood liberal.
And it's the usual rant about how Republicans are eeeeeeeevil. And stupid. Republicans, as everyone knows (at least everyone who lives in the echo chamber and believes this tripe) lie, lie, lie. Democrats, by contrast, are too polite and civilized and gentlemanly (or ladylike), too wedded to "truth" and too devoted to the high road, to ever resort to such tactics, and that's why they get their asses handed to them. Except that that's crap. Republicans make the same complaints about their candidates, who are polite and civilized and gentlemanly to respond to the vicious, venomous lies the Democrats sling. If only they'd stop playing by Marquis of Queensbury rules when the Democrats are slandering them with lies and innuendo, they could beat them.
I'm sure this is good, red meat stuff for the True Believers (tm) on both sides. But it doesn't convince anyone else. And campaigns that buy into this drivel just alienate voters in the middle. So "Bartlett's" advice is wish fulfillment--nothing more. It's based on thinking that this caricature of the Republicans is actually true, and that this view of Obama and company, as filtered through the angelic haze surrounding them, is equally true.
I certainly hope Obama loses the election. I don't want him in the White House. But if he wins, I won't be wailing and wearing sackcloth and bemoaning the fall of civilization. I've lived through Carter and Clinton administrations. I'll live through an Obama administration. I won't be claiming that there'll never be an election 2012 'cause he'll declare martial law--as people I know of are actually saying about Bush this year. (To be fair, they were saying the same thing about him in 2004 so clearly they're not very well connected to reality, despite their claims to being the "Reality-Based Community"....)
I will be watching him closely because I don't trust him on Second Amendment issues and others, but he's not the Antichrist. And neither is McCain. Nor is Palin, despite the utterly unhinged hysteria her selection as a VP candidate appears to have generated on the left. And I'll be watching a McCain administration closely too. They're far from perfect. I don't trust McCain on other issues than Obama, but he's hardly my first choice. But in a contest between two sucky candidates, you holds your nose and you pulls the lever.
Bartlett doesn't exist. He's fictional. (As he admits in the piece.) He never had to be President of the USA. He only had to be President of the people who watched The West Wing. His political advice is not that of an ex-President. Not even of a fictional President. It's the advice of an angry, bitter Hollywood liberal.
And it's the usual rant about how Republicans are eeeeeeeevil. And stupid. Republicans, as everyone knows (at least everyone who lives in the echo chamber and believes this tripe) lie, lie, lie. Democrats, by contrast, are too polite and civilized and gentlemanly (or ladylike), too wedded to "truth" and too devoted to the high road, to ever resort to such tactics, and that's why they get their asses handed to them. Except that that's crap. Republicans make the same complaints about their candidates, who are polite and civilized and gentlemanly to respond to the vicious, venomous lies the Democrats sling. If only they'd stop playing by Marquis of Queensbury rules when the Democrats are slandering them with lies and innuendo, they could beat them.
I'm sure this is good, red meat stuff for the True Believers (tm) on both sides. But it doesn't convince anyone else. And campaigns that buy into this drivel just alienate voters in the middle. So "Bartlett's" advice is wish fulfillment--nothing more. It's based on thinking that this caricature of the Republicans is actually true, and that this view of Obama and company, as filtered through the angelic haze surrounding them, is equally true.
I certainly hope Obama loses the election. I don't want him in the White House. But if he wins, I won't be wailing and wearing sackcloth and bemoaning the fall of civilization. I've lived through Carter and Clinton administrations. I'll live through an Obama administration. I won't be claiming that there'll never be an election 2012 'cause he'll declare martial law--as people I know of are actually saying about Bush this year. (To be fair, they were saying the same thing about him in 2004 so clearly they're not very well connected to reality, despite their claims to being the "Reality-Based Community"....)
I will be watching him closely because I don't trust him on Second Amendment issues and others, but he's not the Antichrist. And neither is McCain. Nor is Palin, despite the utterly unhinged hysteria her selection as a VP candidate appears to have generated on the left. And I'll be watching a McCain administration closely too. They're far from perfect. I don't trust McCain on other issues than Obama, but he's hardly my first choice. But in a contest between two sucky candidates, you holds your nose and you pulls the lever.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-21 07:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-21 08:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-22 12:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-22 12:55 am (UTC)I'm just sayin'....
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-22 01:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-22 02:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-22 02:11 am (UTC)I await the saucy suggestive comments.
But seriously, folks, yeah--that's about all the political commentary you can expect on my journal.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-22 02:36 am (UTC)This time around I'm voting Obama. However, I will freely admit that my choice is not based on any belief in the charisma cult rhetoric. It's really more of a Loki-esque urge to find out how he'll fuck things up, and whether his manner of fuckery will be greater, less, or equal to Republican fuckery.
Kara