By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
Joe Biden, providing a balm to growing liberal angst, kicked some ass this week. Taking license from candidate Romney’s steamrolling performance last week, Joe chortled, mugged and snorted his way through the debate, poking holes in opponent Paul Ryan’s protective coating of studious sincerity. Steeped in superior experience and a passionate persona, Joe cast doubt on the veracity of the know-it-all Republican second, who is, at best, part policy wonk, part numbers cruncher.
Although the Pubs called it a mere draw, a good deal more of the nation thought it a Biden win, with Joe seizing the direction of the debate early. This surely moved the trajectory of the polls, if not the election. As polarized as we are, there is no way to call this close race nor even to isolate the undecided voters who supposedly hold the fate of the nation in hand. I think there’s more wiggle room in vote manipulation than in undecided votes, and although it matters, much of what we’re watching this week — and into early November — is moot. What is NOT moot is the direction in which the nation chooses to go.
Although no presidential campaign has been swayed by attractive vice presidential candidates, it was important to balance out the sharp decline in poll numbers that came with Obama’s stumble, and more, necessary to tarnish the halo erected over Mr. Ryan’s head by those who seem oblivious to the fact that Ayn Rand was not an admirable figure. Think of the Prez as the club and the VP as the bouncer: Mr. Ryan may work out to gain his showy muscle, but Joe’s been around the block a couple of times and knows how to throw a roundhouse. If the Vice President’s part was to pull an e-brake on Mitt’s momentum, he played his role expertly. All the push-back Barack seemed unable to deliver, Joe salted into his comments with a generous hand.
Re-reading the transcript of that first debate, I recalled how many times in the first few minutes I swore at my television — yes, like a sailor — as Mitt backed up on previous positions. Obama went at him aggressively two or three times regarding his plans, Mitt making him look foolish by insisting the Prez was misinformed about his proposed policy, and giving the Pub candidate a Reaganesque “There you go again” opportunity. Looking back, it became obvious that that was when Obama began to pull his punches, rather than play Elmer Fudd to Romney’s pesky wabbit. Thrown off his game, he then failed to demand those policy details, leaving Joe to make up for it this week, and the Veep brought enthusiasm to his task. But Ryan had few details to offer, as has become the Pub campaign strategy, prompting tough and engaged moderator, Martha Raddatz, to ask at one point, “No specifics again?”
Romney has a plan to handle all the nation’s ills, Ryan insists, but — playing to an unsuspecting moderate demographic that seems oblivious to his radical plans – he won’t share it and we can’t know it. It will have to wait until they take power, when they will (so they insist) suddenly find lush pastoral climes in the nation’s capital, where they can picnic on the lawn with their newly bi-partisan foot soldiers and compliant Dem partners, won over to fiscal responsibility (read that austerity) and the end to their chronic liberal victimization. HA! For those of us who awaited Obama’s promised sea-change in Washington, D.C. with a jaundiced eye, this is a laughable fantasy, especially coming from those who would, still following the Tom DeLay congressional playbook, simply turn their backs on the Democrats as if they didn’t exist, and slicker Republicans and Independents as well. Snake oil for all.
According to Think Progress, the representative from Wisconsin presented the viewing public with 24 political myths (read that, lies) in 40 minutes. Some on the list of untruths were pounced upon by Biden, who acted as a fact-checker during much of the debate, successfully giving the Pubs a case of collective heartburn. According to Reince Priebus, RNC Chairman, Joe interrupted a total of 82 times, causing FOX News to blow a gasket and call Biden, variously, rude, unhinged and a cranky old man.
The network had spent most of the previous week touting Mitt’s foreign policy speech, which was also strewn with mischaracterization and outright lies. These fabrications are never mentioned, of course, since the FOX experience is about creating a bubble of special interest, not fact-finding. Nor, despite a tendency to talk over one another and constantly interrupt, can such a faux pas be tolerated from an arrogant old lefty like Joe Biden. No, when FOX pundits do it to one another, it’s just a spirited conversation; when the Vice President does it to their golden boy, he’s “unhinged.” Worse yet, complained Chris Wallace and Charles Krauthammer, Joe was “disrespectful.”
Disrespectful? It’s an absurd contention. In a debate pitting mainstream politics against extremism, the pundits have suddenly become fastidious about not being “rude” to the other guy. This is part of the “all opinions are created equal” theory — and of course, they aren’t. We owe no polite acquiescence to notions that fly in the face of scientific knowledge or considered reason, especially when they’re being stuffed down our throats. The press no longer closes in on this level of honesty; even Martha Raddatz fell prey to the meme that Social Security is broken beyond repair, a myth unsupported by fact. Biden missed a response to that one, and I wish he hadn’t (even though he pledged support for non-privatized SS.) The base is still worried that the program, funded through 2033, will be fiddled with to its demise.
Truth-telling begins with ourselves, and a lot of us are still unfamiliar with it. When I think about coming to some kind of authentic world view, I always think of the Shakespeare quote, “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” Knowing ourselves is the real task at hand, the rich vein of wisdom just out of reach of those who make no effort at self-reflection, at breaking through the comfort zone of social programming and parental influence, religious and political rhetoric.
Learning not only to tell the truth, but to hear it as well, remains part of our karmic bundle in this nation. If we Americans were as smart as we consider ourselves, we’d rethink election politics and put the vapid mythologies of religious leanings, likeability and moral perfection away as romantically childish. Mitt Romney, for instance, is a competitor, a salesman conversant in the art of the deal. A Mormon woman who has known him since childhood verifies that Mitt comes across as cold and unfeeling because … well … because he is. “I don’t have a sense that Mitt went on his mission to understand people, to engage them as human beings, but rather to excel in the eyes of the church,” says Dushku. “It was about fulfilling an assignment, not about compassion. And that has been his modus operandi his entire life.”
America is in financial trouble, although we’re apparently doing a bit better than much of the rest of the world. For the cold-blooded among us, an amoral CEO with killer instincts isn’t such a bad choice for president, looking to recoup our national stability. Although the result would be disastrous to democracy, Romney has the street cred to get the job done, so if that’s who we think we need to be to get out of the red, then such a political choice might seem pragmatic. But, gratefully, such a decision is playing against type in this nation. By and large, we’re better people than we know ourselves to be.
Most of us were not raised to be cut-throats, not born with only ourselves to worry about, and I think that’s why Mr. Romney’s likeability numbers continue to be low. I’m pretty sure that Romney, shark though I consider him, would be a good deal more likeable if he flew his OWN authentic colors, not those of a compassionate moderate concerned about the whole of America’s melting pot. None of us believe that, certainly not his own party. Just saying it doesn’t make it so, and more and more of us can “hear” these things now, but the truth is, I don’t think Romney hears it. I think he really believes he’s a terrific human being.
Economist Robert Reich has continued to go after Romney aggressively in his blog and over at Huffy. Like many citizens, Reich is flabbergasted that we find ourselves in an era when lying goes unchallenged. Most recently, Reich wrote:
Yet Romney is such a chameleon that in last Wednesday’s debate he appeared to disavow everything he’s stood for, hide many of his former positions, and even sound somewhat moderate…
They’ve apparently convinced almost half of America of their lies – including many who would suffer most under Romney and Ryan.
Republicans are well practiced in the politics of fear and the logistics of the big lie. The challenge for Obama and Biden and for the rest of us over the next four weeks is to counter their fearsome lies with the truth.
Just after I read Reich’s article, I found this from Robert Perry, the last sentence in an article critiquing Mitt’s foreign policy speech: “It’s almost as if many Americans like being lied to.”
It gave me pause. I’d like to think Robert Reich is right, that truth-telling would finally make a difference in the political dialogue, but I can’t help but think Perry right, as well. Many people just don’t want to know the world is changing; they are happier lost in the smoke of political propaganda, avoiding the mirrors and making their way through life avoiding the truth. For the fearful, it’s still the old paradigm, still the days of Shock ‘n Awe when might makes right and lies are comforting. For the rest of us, change is here and our comfort zone long gone.
This is clearly a choice. WHAT do we believe about life, about ourselves, about our future? Even if it’s a painful process, many of us can consider the chaos of our current circumstance as progress, growth, stretch. As Neal Donald Walsch puts it, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. You won’t find glory at the center of safety, but at its edge. You won’t find love at a place where you are covered, but in the space where you are naked.”
There are millions of us around the world on the edge, naked. We can’t go back and we’re tired of being lied to. We’re luckier than most: in this country we have options that aren’t so chaotic or dark, so dangerous and dire as some of our brothers and sisters on the planet. And increasingly, we’re aware that this isn’t just another election, these aren’t just average times with nothing at stake.
This is 2012, the clock is ticking, and what we need to know is right in front of us. As the political has become personal, what has been accomplished, personally, informs the political moment in which we find ourselves, informs the choices we make. The result of this election will reflect us, like a cosmic progress report, because as above, so below — as within, so without. We’ll find out how well we’re integrating this energy of shift in just a few more days. And, even as we lift our thoughts, refine our intent to actualize for the whole of us, together, remember — this, above all: to thine own self be true. It’s the most important thing we can do.
Jude – this quote hit me: “Many people just don’t want to know the world is changing; they are happier lost in the smoke of political propaganda…”
I see that, no question. It is a change that will forever shift this country out of its dream-state, and, I fear, not without damage occurring along the way. Those who fear a new paradigm are those who will fight hardest for it not to change, even if there is no real option but to change.
As for climate change: well, my thermometer says it is 92.8 degrees but I take that with a grain of salt anyway, so I’ll call it about 80 or so (it’s in direct sun this time of day). If I’m not mistaken, this is the 14th day of October, and it should not be this warm at 4100′ feet of elevation, even if it is Arizona. Next thing I know, I’ll have to move back north or something…
Hi Carrie!
Got hit with severe storms here, mid-afternoon, that chased us out of the park with lightning, hail and tornado watch; also made computer work perilous, so please forgive my absence. We’ve gotten used to not knowing how the day will turn out around here and it’s a pain to try to plan. Even the computer models have the weather-mavens scratching their heads for the Midwest and plains this year. Guess we’re in for a thrill ride!
Thanks for the quote, Carrie. History is not our destiny — that should be an affirmation for the cynical who believe we can’t do anything to change the human condition. The 2012 energies will see to that. Figuring out how to bring others into an awareness of the probability … as well as the process … has been a more frustrating step than I figured, which is why I keep pounding at it, I suppose. To look emergency straight in the face — like global warming, for instance — and not see it leaves me amazed.
Had a conversation with an older woman, yesterday, who thought the press was just being too tough on Todd Akin [the MO Rep. who thinks women’s bodies prevent pregnancy after rape, which is just the tip of the iceberg on his egregious world view.] He’s still in a dead heat with Claire McCaskill, our blue dog Senator, and I find that almost impossible to believe. According to this woman, he’s just a very nice, misunderstood Christian; worse, one of our Dems actually agreed with her! Neither has plumbed the depths of their authenticity in this regard to know that Akin’s anachronistic sentiments are a danger to them; nor confronted the patriarchy at the core of their belief system. She also mentioned that abortion was, of course, murder — this she whispered lest someone overhear. And while I can appreciate the emotion behind that position, if we can’t say the words out load, how can we even have the conversation?
CRIKEY! There’s no shaking awake those who prefer dreams, I guess. Argue for your limitations, and they’re yours. How to bring them around to a different world view?
As be sez, it may take another 9-11 but I think it will need to be global threat, ultimately, to seize our attention. We’re left looking to weather patterns, which are the 21st century equivalent of Edgar Cayce’s “earth changes,” not so much falling away to earthquake as eroding by raising seawater, alternately baking and freezing as the Midwest seems likely to do this year, etc. I’m not sure what that would have to look like, but it’s sobering to consider …
At our core, those of us who allow ourselves to really feel these things know that the heart-chakra holds the answers, even though it will take courage to follow those impulses. They go against the grain of our perceptions about safety and survival. It was interesting to read Fe’s impressions of those she’s met in her travels, how open and helpful they are as opposed to how cynical and suspicious Americans have become. I think that level of distrust has slowly grown into our culture over the decades, and to our determent. It shows a lack of trust in one another — an echo of our lack of faith in ourselves — and that’s our inheritance from years of polarization [awakened in the 60’s] that has pitted our culture against itself, most evident now in our two-party system.
Here, in America, the Pubs represent the Daddy-state, and Daddy still represents authority and punishment; approved by the old paradigm gawd of power and punitive measures. And the Dems, as nanny-state representatives, still buckle when confronted by that level of influence and perceived “righteousness.”
Break that word down to right-use-ness and it might prompt us to re-think how to use power, how to achieve progress, what we actually need instead of want. How to take responsibility, not only for where we are but for where we need to go is still the question. And while we argue over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, the climate becomes more toxic by the day, threatening our existence and moving the hands on the Doomsday Clock. Moving through a Pluto/Uranus square is kind of like undergoing chemo — we’ll come out the other end profoundly changed if and when we live through it, and we’re just getting into the thick of it now!
As regards the election, I don’t know if Obama can or will put aside the Establishment politics that he was hired to manipulate in order to save the day but I do know that Romney would only hasten our demise and never ever EVER take responsibility for his actions. Or perhaps he would be celebrated as a hero by the Christocrats, who are looking to bring on Armageddon, and achieving something of the sort by obstructing reality at a time when reality must NOT be ignored.
We’ve got to get over that, and fast — I’m keeping my wings crossed that … as be suggested last week … the energies surrounding these next debates prove to be a pin to an inflated Romney campaign.
Thanks for the comments, dearhearts — I appreciate your thoughts, as always, and enjoy the conversation.
America’s grand trine in earth can work both ways Jude; you wouldn’t be wrong to think both Reich and Perry are right. In a world of duality the astrological symbols also have a positive and negative expression. America’s Neptune (in the U.S. Sibly chart) in Virgo is the highest major planet in the chart and he is trine Pluto in Capricorn and Vesta in Taurus. By being in the 9th house, Neptune colors our understanding and our beliefs. It can go all spiritual or all escapist or both at the same time. . . Neptune knows no bounderies. Pluto in the 2nd house of America’s chart has been the bedrock of our value system, and what we work to earn is ours to keep. Vesta in Taurus re-inforces this belief with her position in America’s chart on the cusp of the 6th house and her focus and dedication to the work ethic has always been a well-accepted trait of Americans in general.
When it started to go wrong could be partly due to Pluto in Sagittarius making us super greedy, or partly due to Neptune in Aquarius blinding us with magical new machines, but certainly by 2000 when Saturn and Jupiter made their 20 year conjunction in Taurus, the last one in the earth signs for a long, long time, it was well established that our society, especially our government was out of kilter. Our values that once included family and neighbors as people we most cared about were slowly eroding into a self-centered value system, molded by Neptune-influenced commercials and films; instead of family and friends doing things together, individuals hunkerd down over their PC’s and their private phone lines or cell phones and only the most demanding holidays or ceremonies could ever bring them together. Parents wanted to give everything to their kids of a material nature. . what they had never had, and those parents would then work long hours, spending more and more time away from those same kids they wanted to give everything to. Our values were changing and we were hypnotized by the glamour and the hype.
Some Americans aren’t ready to accept that they have been duped and cling to any politician who will keep the “dream” alive and tell them they were right all along. Then along came Barack Obama who also has a grand trine in earth. Where the USA has Neptune, Obama has Mars, where the USA has Pluto, Obama has Saturn, and where the USA has Vesta, Obama has Ceres AND Vesta! I like to think he is the Universe’s catalyst for America’s brew gone sour. His Mars spurs our nation’s Neptune to dream a better dream and his Saturn is attempting to contain and stabilize America’s Pluto gone mad. His Vesta to America’s Vesta renews the focus and dedication by also bringing back the importance of family, through his example and through his deeds.
We’ve spent some time and space here at PW on how people like to be lied to . . or not, depending on your perspective. Most people don’t like to face their fears and without some strong motivation to do otherwise, they buy time by accepting (believing) the lies in order to run out the clock. Perhaps it will take something as powerfully transforming as a 9-11 to wake the still-sleeping Americans amongst us to finally see what we have become. Or perhaps we only need to re-elect President Obama to a 2nd term and see what magic he can perform. Thanks for never letting us take our eye of the ball Ms. Judith.
be
Damn; my keyboard is sticking so much lots of letters are missing.
Ah Judith. So well written. In regards to your comment let me add this: as a student of history, anthropology, psychology, and sociology and being a realist I see the desperate need for a huge sea-change in humanity. In millennia of human history we humans have not changed in our core that much. We have lots of cool gadgets and technology but like our Gobekli Tepe, Aatal Huyuk, Sumerian, and Egyptian ancestors we are STILL killing one another, starving one another, abusing one another, and destroying our planet for greed and self-promotion.
Yet our histoy is NOT our destiny; we can and WILL change. This is our opportunity to do so with love, compassion, strength and passion. So, like Aset working to restore her love, onward and upward through all the barriers and Gates and tests to birth a new humanity.
This is the last fair day event for the local Dems, and I’m working the booth in a few minutes. Wanted to add commentary from Richard Power I got in my mailbox this a.m. — very encouraging, and I’ll be around later in the evening to reply to comments.
‘Til then:
The gods and goddesses do not exist as “separate entities.” Nor do the avatars. Nor do you and I. The gods and goddesses are like vortices. You and I are like fractals. The avatars are fractals morphing into vortices. There is no “above” or “below” or even “within.” All are the dance of particle and wave, all are the revelation of the Matrix. This era into which we enter now demands great courage, great love, great laughter, great patience, great strength, great cleverness, great silence, and great song. You have access to inexhaustible resources of all that will be demanded of you, otherwise you would not be here now.
We must call upon our primal reality to birth a new civilization from the singularity which we have created for ourselves. Our primal reality is not savagery or selfishness or survival of the cruelest; our primal reality is unconditional love and impeccable clarity of mind.
~ Richard Power, Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in An Era of Global Peril, 2012
http://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2012/10/we-must-learn-to-see-in-dark-future.html