November 16, 2007 archive

If I have seen further,

it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants.

            – Sir Isaac Newton

I remember when I was in junior high school, we had to read a book called Flatland. It wasn’t a very long book – more like a novella, really – certainly not a weighty tome like The Iliad, or a classic work of literature like Great Expectations, both of which we also read. It was a small book, paperback, not much bigger than The Elements of Style, a book you could read in one sitting easily, if you stayed focused. I took two or three sittings, as I recall.

As I say, Flatland was no Iliad. But while Edwin A. Abbott’s opus didn’t carry the physical or cultural heft of Homer or Dickens, I remember to this day its lesson, a lesson about perspective, ignorance and arrogance.

Which brings me, unavoidably, to the Democratic Party.

Fall is election time for capo di tutti.  Currently the Corleones are content to watch from a distance for the most part.  After Michael and I cleaned up the joint and moved to Nevada things have been quiet for the family, not that we haven’t seen a few bodies buried.

This is real politics-

Harold is a veteran who has run before and lost, to both me and Michael among others.  This time he was unopposed until 2 days before the election.  He has the very best resume among all the current members.

A lock?

We have planning meetings where we democratically develop our platform (have an agenda? nobody comes).  At one meeting this year that Harold attended (because that’s what you do as a candidate) he vociferously opposed a really stupid idea which was adopted.

There was a really talented gal who will do an outstanding job, all of the retired capi had been recruiting her all year, but she would only run if her arch enemy (not Harold at all) ran.

So she got an email that Harold had been a supporter of this ludicrous notion (which would have been ignored anyway and which was a total lie), and on the spot her Al Gore campaign started and in three days she was capo di tutti.

Badda Bing.

Hmm… what does Don Vito notice?

Who was in that poorly attended meeting?  Who has relationships with our new Capo?  Are they attempting to clear the field?

That is politics.

What a day,

This was all foreshadowed recently on Bill Maher’s show when Kos was speaking of the netroots in the past tense, apparently without even realizing it.  He said that news media wasn’t allowing critical voices to be heard a few years ago which is why DailyKos became so popular but failed to point out the critical work being currently done and did not even mention the future of the netroots.

On a previous media appearance Kos said that anyone who posted photoshopped pictures on his website was an idiot. I figure that ruled out about 35% of the top posters who were now completely ignored as idiots by the guy they were helping to make rich.  Arrogant?  Hell yes.  Self serving?  Ahuh.  

So perhaps we need better leaders.  Perhaps here we need A leader.  Because right now we aren’t accomplishing a hell of a lot.

Did the netroots go boom?

Is it worth salvaging?  Or have our leaders already left us for the country club?

With Joe Biden given qualified tenative support, we see that Dennis’ leadership on the impeachment issue may be bearing some fruit.  Now Dennis has announced another major initiative, which is called The Constitutional Convention Initiative!

From the Are You Shitting Me Department:

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman urged bipartisan action from the next administration and Congress to address the global war on terror, health care, energy independence and climate change during his lecture Wednesday night at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union Theater.

He said these issues are vital to the welfare of the country and must be resolved without adherence to political alliances. He decried the last generation of politics as “hyper-partisan,” suggesting that most people decided ideological positions based on their party affiliation rather than on the issues themselves.

However, with the need to address these universal and fundamental problems facing the country, he expects a shift away from partisanship in politics.

“On all of these issues instead of seeing red versus blue, which we have seen the past couple of years and two presidencies, you are going to see much more of what I call ‘free agent politics,'” Mehlman said.

Mehlman, who was the campaign manager for the Bush-Cheney 2004 bid, praised the entire field of presidential candidates from both parties, describing this as a unique election in the country’s history. He predicted the balance between the public’s apparent desire for change and the concern of being in a prolonged war will significantly impact the election.

I thought it must be a joke, but it is reported seriously by WisPolitics, a usually reliable political site.

I’m too stunned to comment, although you are welcome to do so.