The Pawtucket schools used to offer a course called “Problems in Democracy.” It was a nice name, but the course seemed to be more about triumphal Cold War propaganda (or “American capitalist bullshit,” as an old leftist history professor of Jorge’s put it) than an actual overview of the complexities of democratic institutions.
Your superior correspondents are not cynics, but realists with a well-honed bullshit meter. Although we never bought into “Camelot,” John Kennedy’s presidency brought a palpable sense of hope and possibility. Could we be poised for a return to a similar sense of good things?
P&J believe that Barack Obama represents a moment of great opportunity for this country. Yes, if Hillary were elected she would be the first woman president and that would be an important milestone. But Hillary Rodham Clinton represents a place we’ve already been, a place that proved problematic and divisive (although nowhere near as divisive as what we’ve got now, of course). And, yes, Bill, who was intelligent, engaged, and competent, looks really good compared with Bush.
Obama’s vision is relatively unencumbered by longstanding partisan baggage. He is not compromised by a too-cozy relationship with the corporate boys and the K Street moneychangers, as you can bet that Hillary is. We know that Barack has to play the game, but of all the major candidates, he’s playing it without a (popularity) poll up his buttocks.
Basically, any of the Democrats are preferable to Rudy, Mitt, and the other Republicans. But only Barack Obama can inspire. And while many of the candidates are super-intelligent, wisdom is the rarest of commodities, and it is our belief that only Obama possesses it in a large quantity.
We have a real opportunity. We can vote for Barack Obama and for the promise of America.
A confederacy of wussies
Speaking of the Dems, P+J believe it is time to officially rename the Democratic Party (Democratic National Commit¬tee, proprietor) to better reflect its wonderful recent work. From now on, it should be the Confederacy of Wussies (COW), for the party’s gutlessness in failing to confront the GOP, the frighteningly delusional Dubya the Dumb, and sidekicks like warmongering VP “Big Time” Cheney.
The COWs have shown no backbone in trying to end the Iraq War, even with polls showing that two-thirds of the country opposes this travesty, because they don’t want to look “soft.”
No worries about looking squishy, COWs. You are so scared of Republican attacks that you make Barney Fife look like a picture of courage and steely resolve. Boy George has consistently rolled the COWs into spending billions and billions on a misplaced and unending war, because they didn’t have the prairie oysters to stand up to those incredible fabrications. (The national media remains in good standing as an arm of the COWs.)
The COWs merely bleat while Dubya and the GOP condone torture (and a special bend-over shout-out to the COWs’ own Mukasey ass-kissing Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein). Our rights are snatched away with nary a “Hey, you can’t do that!”
When the time comes to stand up and speak truth to power, the Democratic-controlled Congress does what it knows best: COWers, instead of fighting for the true, patriotic Americans who recognize how the Bush administration has become the enemy and our country has become despised around the world. The sympathy that we had following 9/11 was squandered, and Bush blew the opportunity to lead by establishing a national sense of purpose.
Rhode Island has been fortunate to have at least a modicum of defiance from its representatives in Washington. Linc Chafee and his successor, Sheldon Whitehouse, have had the spine to most publicly buck the warlords at the White House.
Jack Reed, Little Rhody’s Little Big Man, continues to be a sane, powerful and respected voice on the Iraq quagmire, but even he does not go far enough, in P&J’s mind, to loudly oppose what he knows is a horrendous foreign policy blunder, to say the least. Patrick Kennedy, however shrill at times, at least has the bottle to speak out on issues, however unpopular, in which he believes. And even Jim Langevin has shown he can spit in Dubya’s eye with his stance on stem cell research.
But count on the COWs to huddle together in a shivering herd when they get attacked by the GOP during the upcoming campaigns.
Is there someone, anyone, with a liberal bent who will become a bull in the china shop? They would have the support of all of us who are being led to the national abattoir on all that is important to us as Americans.
Gov gets sassy
Just as your superior correspondents were sending our regards for a job well done to Gary Sasse, upon his departure as the executive director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, he was announced as Governor Laughing Boy’s appointee to head the state’s relatively new Department of Revenue.
Sasse, with whom P&J have had the good fortune to work on occasion and who we regard as a friend, has already left a great legacy to the state for his work at RIPEC. He is one of the most universally respected people you will find in the upper echelons of movers and shakers in the Biggest Little.
We hope that his well-established street cred in business and political circles will pay dividends quickly, since his expertise is greatly needed during a time of horrendous budget deficits.