originally posted here
Sarah Palin achieved tonight what John McCain couldn’t, she turned an “experience vs. change” race into an “us vs. them” race. Franklin Foer and Andrew Sullivan are decrying this strategy on moral grounds, which is cute in a weepy sort of way. This is good strategy. If you are in politics for “uplift” you are in the wrong business. Obama learned about politics from reading Saul Alinsky, not Chicken Soup for the Soul. Can we grow up and talk about politics as the enterprise of obtaining and exercising political power?
There is a line of argument that a blissful mid-century liberal consensus was torn apart by the novel and evil strategies of Lee Atwater and Richard Nixon. In reality the politics of polarization have been with us since Adams ran against Jefferson. Only that time it was the Massachusetts candidate decrying the immorality of the Southerner. “Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced,” said Adams of his opponent. And we in the media are tut-tutting Palin for belittling Obama’s run for presidency as a “journey of self-discovery?” That was one of the most effective attacks on Obama I’ve ever heard.
I’ve been shocked by the reactions to Sarah Palin. Like Barack Obama, the hatred and devotion she inspires is pre-rational. Richard Cohen, disgustingly compared her to Caligula’s horse. Keith Olbermann immediately likened her to Tracy Flick, the villain of the Alexander Payne film, “Election.” Does this mean Keith has the same mixed-up fantasies about Palin as the Mathew Broderick character did for Flick? This plays right into the McCain campaign’s hands. Palin won’t have to pose as a victim, she’ll be too busy being a fighter. The McCain campaign will scold the media for diminishing the accomplishments of “a working mother.”
Until these last two weeks I never thought Republicans had a chance.
After two terms of disastrous misrule by Republicans, and with a presidential candidate whose politics I genuinely fear, I cannot pull the lever for the GOP this year. But Palin just gave a speech that warmed my Machivellian heart. I wanted to wear an Agnew pin by the time she finished. Take that for what it’s worth.
Has the Palin pick been uplifting for the country? Is it going to bring us together? These questions are besides the point. No candidate is ever going to “going to make us feel different about one another.” But one candidate usually reminds us of how we really do feel about one another. And that candidate usually wins.
I just wrote a comment on Keith Gessen’s blog.
But I’d like to comment on something else of his. In his novel, All the Sad Literary Young Men, he has a young character who drives between Maryland and New York. This hit me because I drive the slightly longer distance between Northern Virginia and suburban, New York.
There is a wonderful passage [maybe worth copying when I get back home to the book] about how “corrupt” I-95 is, particularly in it’s Deleware portion. The protagonist in that chapter explains how he drives through Pennsylvania, up 81.
I do the same thing, most of the time. Recently, thinking I could get away with it, I came down 95 on a Sunday night. What is normally a five hour drive, interrupted by toll collectors, 20-bucks of ‘em, turned into a nine hour horror movie. A tree was down on the two lane stretch that powers through southern Jersey, blocking one lane. Then in Deleware, there was a bridge closing that forced all of Deleware’s traffic onto 95. It was like a scene in Independence Day just before the alien ship flattens Los Angeles. Finally, another late closing in Baltimore.
The next week, I thought: Hey I’d normally take 270 and 15 up to Harrisburg, and then go 78 to 87 to 287, or 83 to 81 to 84. But, because this is the Feast of the Annunciation, and because there is to be a beautiful sung Mass at the Cathedral in Camden New Jersey, I’ll take 95.
Needless to say, sitting 70 miles away from the pews in Deleware in my Japanese Sport Utility Vehicle, the things I was shouting brought no honor to the Blessed Virgin
Flew into Fort Myers for a story I’m working on while everyone else is on vacation.
There are hassles to all this. I have no food in my room. I have no aspirin for my headache. I have no laundry if I stain my shirt.
All I have is this freedom to do what I want.
I’m staying in Naples and have no idea where to go tonight. Look for fun in town? Take an excursion out to Miami? (long ride back) Tampa?
johncarney:
Heath Ledger’s indulgent, cartoonish performance ruins Dark Knight. In a movie filled with restrained performances, Ledger’s slow-chatter Joker comes off as not just deranged but deranging.
Like a malevolent poltergeist, Ledger moves the film’s furniture into nonsensical patterns. He unbalances the film. Although critics are lionizing his performance as darkly brilliant, the truth is that his Joker is all surface evil with no depth. It isn’t frightening, except in the way that a glass of spilled red-wine is frightening. It gets all over everything and the stain won’t come out.
As the Joker he seems to be channeling that stupid clown from Stephen King’s insipid It. It’s hard not to suspect that the film’s editors were spooked out of cutting his performance down to size by the actor’s death.
(Note: I haven’t actually seen the film, and so this opinion is without any basis whatsoever. I just figured it was about time to start the backlash and no one else seemed willing to do it. Speaking ill of the dead is a nasty business but someone had to do it.)
Unpleasant business yes. Thank you, though.
I’m banning the use of the word interesting from my writing. I find it intolerable. “Engaging” is the bare minimum.
If I told you that The Punch Brothers do some really interesting things in the four song suite on their debut CD, I haven’t said anything. If I said that rambling through this opus is like walking in the sunrise field of magnolia trees after all night brooding and raging over a break-up (phone tossed beyond the screened porch), the trees blurred by rage… well then… I’ve wasted more of your time. Also you should know the Punch Brothers’ bluegrass is dissonant.
The point of all this was this: this is the last time I’m using the word interesting.
I think I’m just playing with tumblr to tide me over until my old blogging service, Squarespace, releases a new version of itself on Monday. Soon after, I will begin my new ventures.
Also, here is the old blog.
