Bear with me. It's only 5 as I start this, and for some reason, I am just very ready to write. And it will meander, and it's a little long... but there's a point, I promise.
I think sometimes, that my politics must look awfully hard to pin down. By raising and by training I am very 
liberal; but life experience has made me cautious, and more than a little convinced that not every flaky, hippie-era idea deserves equal weight. The last 25 years (i count the GOP power surge from Reagan's inaugural in 1981 to their smashing loss in 2006) have taught me, if nothing else, that I need to understand Republicans and conservative ideas better, if I'm to have any way to counter them.
I have a patience for this that many do not. I've listened - patiently - to all sorts of conservatives, ideas and arguments. My mother has little patience for this; my friends, quite possibly less (and that's just the liberal ones). I, however, need the test. If these liberal ideas are to mean something to me, I need to know what the alternative is.
And I just want to remind you - and me - that we've seen the alternative. And I think as liberals, we can be pretty comfortable holding our ground. In some ways that may seem like an "of course" moment. Of course I'd say that; of course I'd think liberals are right. For the liberals I know, I'm probably late, while conservatives will probably say "just doesn't get it." But confirming what I already believed isn't the point here; the point I'm going for is that this morning's epiphany is realizing what's at stake, and why it matters.
I've avoided watching the latest string of candidate debates - I thought, at first, that they would be helpful in exposing the ideas of the candidates, seeing some of the lesser known names, mix things up. But they've proved useless. The Fox GOP debate - arguably the best moderated - added little that wasn't known already (the candidates were so "I'm ready to attach the electrodes to the terrorists myself" that it was like, "just get a ruler and haul them out already, and let the longest one win"). I went in not expecting much from CNN, and this morning, catching last night's GOP debate (I completely missed Sunday's Democratic one), I saw I was right.
Partly, I just can't stand Wolf Blitzer. If there's a reason CNN has been decimated by Fox News, I'd say look no further - Blitzer's hold on the network is inexplicable. Aside from being one of the least telegenic (and I don't just mean not good-looking, I mean just a terrible presence onscreen), Blitzer's a so-so reporter and a shoddy interviewer. All of which was on display as he hectored the GOP candidates for being, well, Republicans (really, each question boiled down to "how can you believe [crazy GOP idea like teaching creationism]?"), and then leaving the answers there, pretty much inert and unexplored (like John McCain's bizarre assertion that he'd leave the evolution vs. creationism debate to individual school boards, which deserved more probing since it was clearly a sidestep on having an opinion).
Republicans, from what I've observed, seem to get that disaster is looming with this slate of candidates. That's why Fred Thompson looks so appealing from a distance, and why they seem to nitpick each (at least in the major) candidate's flaws to death. What's missing is the realization that the problem here is not the salesman, but what's being sold. Listening to the "creationism" answers - so carefully calibrated to not offend religious conservatives - was watching perfectly sane people offer up craziness (you gotta love - especially as New Yorkers - the fact that Rudy Giuliani doesn't have a poker face; his amusement with the struggle others had with the question spoke volumes).
But it was the "gays in the military" question that brought me to this post. What was fascinating was not the dismissal of the issue, but how: both Huckabee (where I didn't expect it) and Romney (where I kind of did) didn't offer up traditional antigay boilerplate, but instead offered legalistic sidesteps that basically said "I'd stick with "Don't ask, don't tell." Giuliani, even more interestingly, wouldn't justify the firings of a large number of Arabic language translators from the military over their homosexuality (he wouldn't condemn it, either, but he really couldn't, with that crowd).
You have to understand - gays in the military is so not my issue; it's an issue for me, that kind of sums up how liberals have struggled over the ast 25 years, taking something I was never really that thrilled with (the military), combining it with "identity politics" which I'm supposed to support, to arrive at a collective groupthink that becomes hardened unquestioned dogma in seconds. I wrote about this years ago - on dead tree - I don't want gay soldiers mistreated or discriminated against; but I also don't want to be a soldier, partly because, well, I'm gay and they don't want me, either.
As I was watching the GOP non-answers, I was reading this latest post from RedStar (whose spotty blogging the past couple of weeks gets a wagging finger) on her cousin's upcoming call-up to Iraq... and something just clicked. I just thought "enough with this crap" - referring to the debate. I have just had it.
I've known Bob Rumson for years, and I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. Bob's problem is that he can't sell it! We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. - Aaron Sorkin, The American President
I have listened patiently to every stupid, crazy idea conservatives offer up; I've put up with the Ann Coulters and Newt Gingriches and Dick Armeys because I don't want to seem close-minded or unwilling to consider alternative ideas... but enough. Wake the fuck up. Enough with the pandering to the folks who hate gays and want creationism taught in the schools (and not, you know, by gays). Enough. This coming election is about the family of my friend and her cousin going to Iraq and the prospect that her Uncle may lose his only son. Enough. Wake the fuck up.
I just want to be clear - cause I've been here all along - we have got to get out of Iraq. It's killing us, it's killing my country, and I have just had it. And the guy who can't frankly tell his own constituency to wake up and let go of the crap about "culture wars" and who can't call the current Administration fuck-ups (yes, Mike Huckabee, that would be you, talking about failures on Katrina and immigration as if they happened by magic, so you wouldn't have to call the President by name). Tomorrow, maybe even later today, I'll probably get back to being even-handed and contemplative. But for now, I'm just pissed. And that's pissed-off liberal. Don't forget it, and don't mistake it for something else. I don't.
I'd like to just defend myself that I had virtually no internet connection from last Thursday until I posted on Monday!
Posted by: Leigh | June 06, 2007 at 02:03 PM