At last, incredulity has shaken me from blogging apathy. I'm teaching at 9 a.m. this term, so each morning I drive to work as the main national and local news plays on NPR I've learned more about U.S. politics in recent weeks than in the rest of my six years here, and I find it all pretty alarming. But to beat all else, yesterday I heard the following clip of one of our candidates for State Governor, Tom Tancredo, speaking at the Tea Party convention a few months ago:
(Found on e on mediamatters.org)
There's a lot of talk of an "enthusiasm gap" - the (often extreme) right are vociferously fired up just now, while those who were so energized by Obama two years ago are apparently somewhat disillusioned and thus less likely to vote at all. Goodness knows, Obama is a little disappointing - he was almost bound to be so, arriving as he did on the wave of so much hope for change. I think the same happened with Blair after a couple of years, although unlike Blair with his strange messianic convictions, Obama instead reveals too much of the face of a negotiator, as he has proved lately in his statements on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I saw him on TV basically saying, "Yes, we will change it, but it has to be done at the right time and with due process." Too much honesty! It would surely be better to make a forceful statement in public, and carry out the negotiations in private.
In any case, it seems to me that a lack of enthusiasm for Obama shouldn't stop people in the center and on the left (left for here, that is, where people can really accuse Obama of being a "committed socialist ideologue" and get cheered instead of laughed off stage) from getting fired up. These Tea Party candidates, Palin and her followers, seem to me to be dangerous people who revel in ignorance and bigotry. Shouldn't that be enough to get anyone to the polling station? If I had a vote, I'd be there.
(Found on e on mediamatters.org)
There's a lot of talk of an "enthusiasm gap" - the (often extreme) right are vociferously fired up just now, while those who were so energized by Obama two years ago are apparently somewhat disillusioned and thus less likely to vote at all. Goodness knows, Obama is a little disappointing - he was almost bound to be so, arriving as he did on the wave of so much hope for change. I think the same happened with Blair after a couple of years, although unlike Blair with his strange messianic convictions, Obama instead reveals too much of the face of a negotiator, as he has proved lately in his statements on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I saw him on TV basically saying, "Yes, we will change it, but it has to be done at the right time and with due process." Too much honesty! It would surely be better to make a forceful statement in public, and carry out the negotiations in private.
In any case, it seems to me that a lack of enthusiasm for Obama shouldn't stop people in the center and on the left (left for here, that is, where people can really accuse Obama of being a "committed socialist ideologue" and get cheered instead of laughed off stage) from getting fired up. These Tea Party candidates, Palin and her followers, seem to me to be dangerous people who revel in ignorance and bigotry. Shouldn't that be enough to get anyone to the polling station? If I had a vote, I'd be there.
No comments:
Post a Comment