If you've posted in forums you might remember writing some decent responses. I usually spend a lot of time polishing my discussion forum responses depending on the subject or who I am talking to. Often I want to remember what I said about something, but finding the original post can be difficult. So it makes sense to capture the better responses for later review. Welcome to Clint's Reposts.Tuesday, August 03, 2004
David Warren comments on American Politics
I've basically given up on politics except to always vote libertarian until I see a change in the dull grey debate that David Warren describes below. Gosh this guy can write...and think! David W sums it up again (full article at http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/Comment/Jul04/index231.shtml):
"America is polarized, not only between two parties, but between two cultures, and two worldviews, basically Christian and basically post-Christian, for which the Republicans and Democrats have become mere proxies. As personalities, Bush and Kerry make appropriate leaders. The sort of person who likes Bush -- who has some respect for what the man is, whether or not he agrees with all his policies -- will almost certainly despise a man like Kerry, and consider him a fraud and poseur. And vice versa: the sort of person who finds Mr. Kerry smart and "nuanced", will tend to find Mr. Bush a bloodthirsty ape.
The intense competition of a two-party race will slur the policy differences. It is a capitalist myth that competition engenders variety. The contrary is true, for as my friend Eric McLuhan writes, "Competition leads to sameness, and the hotter the competition the more the competitors are alike." This is in fact a selection principle of nature: cars get more like other cars, Coke like Pepsi, elephants get more like other elephants -- through competition. And politicians, like businessmen, get more alike, by competing for the same broad market.
So while American society may be splitting at the seams, the two ruling parties are struggling, tweedledum-tweedledee, to embrace the disappearing middle -- to find that ideal point, where the seam is, between the two rending buttocks of public opinion. The Republicans trying to be more compassionate, the Democrats more tough, until by election day they have got it just right, and are nearly indistinguishable, on paper.
But people are not paper, and the American public are looking not at policies but at men, and asking the question, which of these two necessarily flawed individuals can we best trust to guide us through the uncertain time ahead? There is nothing either Mr. Kerry nor Mr. Bush can do -- or nothing predictable -- to reduce or enhance their respective appeals to the two contrary constituencies. Events controllable by neither gentleman may suddenly swing a fraction of that electorate, decisively, a little to the left or right."
Clint
"America is polarized, not only between two parties, but between two cultures, and two worldviews, basically Christian and basically post-Christian, for which the Republicans and Democrats have become mere proxies. As personalities, Bush and Kerry make appropriate leaders. The sort of person who likes Bush -- who has some respect for what the man is, whether or not he agrees with all his policies -- will almost certainly despise a man like Kerry, and consider him a fraud and poseur. And vice versa: the sort of person who finds Mr. Kerry smart and "nuanced", will tend to find Mr. Bush a bloodthirsty ape.
The intense competition of a two-party race will slur the policy differences. It is a capitalist myth that competition engenders variety. The contrary is true, for as my friend Eric McLuhan writes, "Competition leads to sameness, and the hotter the competition the more the competitors are alike." This is in fact a selection principle of nature: cars get more like other cars, Coke like Pepsi, elephants get more like other elephants -- through competition. And politicians, like businessmen, get more alike, by competing for the same broad market.
So while American society may be splitting at the seams, the two ruling parties are struggling, tweedledum-tweedledee, to embrace the disappearing middle -- to find that ideal point, where the seam is, between the two rending buttocks of public opinion. The Republicans trying to be more compassionate, the Democrats more tough, until by election day they have got it just right, and are nearly indistinguishable, on paper.
But people are not paper, and the American public are looking not at policies but at men, and asking the question, which of these two necessarily flawed individuals can we best trust to guide us through the uncertain time ahead? There is nothing either Mr. Kerry nor Mr. Bush can do -- or nothing predictable -- to reduce or enhance their respective appeals to the two contrary constituencies. Events controllable by neither gentleman may suddenly swing a fraction of that electorate, decisively, a little to the left or right."
Clint
