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Friday, July 30, 2004

Pride and Prejudice
Posted by Jill | 11:32 AM
That was one hell of a party the Democrats threw, wasn't it?  And if Kerry didn't knock one out of the park, it was at the very least a solid two-RBI double in the bottom of the 9th.

I'm not sure he delivered the speech as well as it reads, butit was sure full of content -- and it addressed everything that right could possibly throw at him,except perhaps the flip-flop issue.  I was hoping to hear something about foolish consistency and hobgoblins, and that changing your mind in response tochanging situations is a virtue, not a vice. 

But no matter.  The fact that Drudge and CNN and the other talking heads are all zeroed in like a laser beam on CNN's appalling decision to broadcast the frantic cursing of a stage manager upset about the delayed balloon drop indicates the depths to which our political discourse has sunk.I wish I could feel confident that if this is all the Republican power structure and their whores in themedia (CNN was particularly awful this time around)have it means they're scared shitless.  But I don'tthink that's true.  I'm sorry, but I agree with Michael Moore.  Americans ARE stupid, and we AREincurious as a whole.  Remember, long before Drudge,this is the same population 62% of whom were convinced by Lee Atwater in 1988 that Michael Dukakis' refusalto COMPEL teachers to conduct the Pledge of Allegiance in their classes (they were perfectly well ALLOWED to do so), was an important campaign issue that would affecttheir vote.  I have never forgotten that statistic. And what's still where we are today. I saw yesterday that Pakistan obeyed Bush's order and brought in a high-level Al Qaeda operative (Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani) during theDemocratic convention -- just as they were told to. Doesn't anyone see that as, well, just a tadconvenient?  Maybe a bit cynical?  And why stop atthis guy?  Why not bring in OBL?  Is it perhaps BECAUSE Bush NEEDS Osama Bin Laden to be his designated boogeyman?

The last four days reminded me why I am a Democrat,and what used to make this party so special.  I want to be part of a country where even a huckster like Al Sharpton can bring down the house with what I truly believe was a heartfelt speech.  I want to live in acountry where we can say "We forgive you, Al" even though he has never admitted he was wrong about Tawana Brawley. Because virtue isn't in hating, it's in forgiveness. I want to live in a country where white people and Asian people and Sikhs and black people and butch lesbians and drag queens and everyone in between can dance together and be moved by the same ideals and the same recognition that what unites us is truly morethan what we divides us.  We had this on September 12,2001.  And the Bush Administration destroyed it almostimmediately, by playing on our fear instead of on ourcourage. 

We're human, and yes, we fear.  And yes, we can suck it up and face that fear.  And that's what wedid in the days and weeks after September 11.  No onecared that Mark Bingham was gay. The firemen who wentup those stairs didn't care whether the people theywere rescuing spoke English or not.  Abe Hershkowitz died because he refused to allow his disabled friend to die alone.  After September 11, there were more volunteers thananyone knew what to do with. 

In an odd, horrible way,it was a great time to be an American.  Because for a short time, the flag belonged to all of us, not just right-wing reactionaries.  And because for a brief moment, we knew what "E Plurubus Unum" really meant.  And then the Machiavellian power-drunk psychotics in the White House destroyed that because they saw it not as a strength, but as something to be harnessed,controlled, and put to use implementing PNAC's agenda.

This convention reminded me what that felt like.  Andwhat it means to be a patriot.  And I will NEVER,EVER, EVER allow the bigots and hatemongers and greedypowermongers with an empty hole in their souls so huge that no amount of money or power will ever fill it --or their mindless incurious followers, to call me atraitor ever again.

I don't want to believe that the people I used to regard as "intelligent people of goodwill who disagree" are as evil as the people theyare so blindly supporting.  I want to think that they simply want to believe they weren't duped by the president they supported.  But is their need to not have been made fools of so important that they're going to give Bush a chance to do it again? Is their need to believe they weren't lied to more important than the truth?

Kerry wouldn't have been my choice as a candidate, and I was worried about this speech; afraid it would be another sonorous, stentorian Senate rant that would put people to sleep and give the right wing more ammunition. But if he lacked the pure emotional drama of Barack Obama or the schmoozey bear-hug intimacy of Bill Clinton, it was a solid, workmanlike speech that laid out the Democratic mission.

Next up: The fight for the soul of the Democratic Party.

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