Friday, November 30, 2007
They're Scaring Me
How can Mike Huckabee be gaining in the polls? I guess he seems like a nice guy, but he doesn't believe in evolution, for crying out loud. We can't afford another president who can't think his way out of a wet paper bag. It's like the Republicans are in an alternate universe, knee jerk bashing immigrants, falling all over themselves to figure out who is most pro-torture, failing to recognize that health care is a significant economic issue that's overwhelming our businesses (forget about moral issue--wouldn't figure that will register with that crowd--but thought they cared about the private sector's economic health--but hey, it's only 16% of the entire economy--maybe we only worry about it when it only takes 1 in 5 or 1 in 4 of our dollars). And it doesn't seem like a one of them really thinks global warming is even worth talking about, forget about addressing it.
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6 comments:
I am scared too. Bob Herbert's opinion in today's NY Times was kind of an echo of your post. Where are the people with any brains?
Saw a piece in the Wall Street Journal that indicated Huckabee's appeal is that he is "affable and charismatic". When are we going to realize that you should not necessarily vote for the guy you'd most like to sit down and have a beer with. I know that's W's appeal, and, heck, I woulda probably rather gone to a ballgame with W than John Kerry. But that doesn't mean I want him being the one to figure out whether we need to send hundreds of thousands of troops to kick Saddam's ass.
See Frank Rich in Sunday New York Times, Dec. 2
Well, you should be scared because Huckabee has all the attributes that appeal most to the Great Unwashed Herd that makes up the voting population of the U.S. He has a fatherly appearance and manner and a pious preacherly approach to problems that says "Never mind. Daddy will take care of you and make it all better." I told your Dad weeks ago that M.H. was a real dark horse and to keep his eye on the guy. I sometimes think that we have turned from a nation of grown-ups who liked a challenge and wanted to solve problems into a bunch of whiny kids who want to sit on a comfy lap and have our troubles all kissed away.
We continue to get the "leaders" we deserve. Why should today's candidates even bother to propose nuanced solutions to complex problems? Neither the mass media nor the electorate is interested in nuance. (But then why should they be any different than the current occupant of the Oval Office?)
As a nation, we're generally content to have info-tainment giants like Anderson Cooper, Bill O'Reilly, and the folks at USA Today manage the flow of information for us. Give us our "Raw Data," our "Talking Points," and our full-color weather maps, and we're good to go. (Kudos to the FCC for continued media consolidation. Kudos to us for allowing it.)
At day's end, we're more interested in missing white girls, drunken celebrity white girls, flag burning, dog fighting, and gay marriage than we are in trying to understand, much less solve, complex global and domestic problems.
Why should we spend hours trying to learn enough about the Central America Free Trade Agreement to have an opinion on it when we can navigate both the news cycle and our water cooler conversations in our user-friendly Swift Boats of Truth.
Hard to believe, but it was only 150 years ago that Lincoln and Douglas debated slavery (along with lesser issues of the day) for hours at a time. All that for a mere Senate seat, mind you. Newspapers from around the country even saw fit to run complete transcripts of these parochial debates. (Today, of course, we'd have Wolf Blitzer telling Lincoln and Douglas, "Raise your hand if you believe that slavery is an issue best left to individual states.)
That's it for now. I need to run -- CNN's reporting that a member of OJ's posse is about to come forward with new information on the Natalee Holloway disappearance.
Agree. See Tom Friedman's editorial in the Times today (12/05)--it is his version of Iran's National Intelligence Estimate of the U.S.
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