By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
“The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country — and we haven’t seen them since.”
— Gore Vidal (1925-2012)
The road to hell, it is said, is paved with good intentions, and each of those paving-stones is cut from a block of rationalization. Rationalization, which is the crafting of a plausible explanation to make something seem reasonable, has a wicked stepchild: justification, the defense of actions one is ‘forced into’ by the facts at hand (proven by clever rationalization.) Humans have used this combination — rationalization and justification — for all manner of self-interest, including hatefulness and cruelty, since time began. Listen for just a moment to the political rhetoric of the day and you will feel the flames lick at your soul.
Perhaps the political ads routinely turn your stomach, and the one where Romney sings “America the Beautiful” makes me snort, chuff and mumble profane words every time I hear it. They play that over and over here in the Pea Patch, and it makes me not only cover my ears in distaste but wonder WHY the man sang it all the way through. Because Barack got a national high-five for giving us a taste of Al Green and the Mitt-bot didn’t want to be outdone? In the black/white world he inhabits, perhaps so. I can’t tell what goes on in the minds of his campaign handlers. Heretofore, rationalization has required a modicum of truth in order to lend itself to political justification, but not lately: now they just make shit up. Seriously. They do.
After weeks of skewing Obama’s record, misquoting and taking his statements out of context, Romney has now declared that his campaign has taken “the high road,” not attacking on personal attributes but only on policy. Hmmmm! How un-Rove-like of them, and hardly credible given their list of high-rollers and their multimillion-dollar advantage. While some might think this more of the peculiar Republican delusion that’s been branded “truthiness,” boldly believed despite all signs to the contrary, this is more likely a calculated position: justification for a renewed assault on the prez. Apparently, Obama’s critique of Bain Capital and Romney’s brass-knuckled wealth-building techniques was considered a personal attack, simply beyond the pale of modern political warfare. The religious right took it in stride, knowing Obama to be both demonic and a socialist/Muslim implant, but the business class took real umbrage, considering it a vicious attack on the sweatshop capitalism they seek to re-establish as the latest version of “America, land of opportunity,” circa 1898.
Recently, an Obama Super PAC produced an ad featuring a former steelworker whose job was fed into the Bain destruct-o-machine. The gent suggested that if he’d still been employed, his wife might have sought earlier treatment for the cancer that took her life. In a world where tit is measured against tat, the possibility that Romney’s actions might be responsible for someone’s death could be compared to thousands of accusations that Obama plans to kill Grandma and countless others by rationing health care (as if Paul Ryan’s proposed voucher system will keep them all safe and well.) In such a comparison, the Obama campaign is still “in the black,” in terms of who has the high road. We can’t prove the accusation against Mitt, but the one about Dem “death panels” has been swatted with a newspaper a multitude of times (and buzzing and bleeding, just won’t die).
Of course we aren’t in a tit/tat struggle. All things are NOT equal between the two campaigns, not even their rhetoric. Consider this recent exchange of insults: ‘Romney Hood’ v. ‘Obamaloney.’ Really, Mitt? Frankly, I’m embarrassed for Republicans everywhere, especially those who think that to be an equal jab or — gasp, choke — even funny. And I applaud one of Obama’s campaign operatives who retorted, “When the Romney campaign finally reaches the high ground, we look forward to greeting them there.”
Now, admittedly, all of this is just silly business, the stuff that campaigns are made of in a traditionally silly season. It’s not nearly as deranged as the campaign season of 2008, when Palin did her soccer-mom best to make Alaska the new summer White House, nor is it nearly as entertaining. But back then, battling over who could see Russia from where, and who thought they might be able to fix the red-flagged economy in a weekend, we had little notion of how critical that election was, how much it would matter to the next four years and the well-being of the world. Think of what a McCain/Palin administration might have given us (put down that Prozac bottle! Down!!).
That was a bullet dodged and — fingers crossed — it seems likely we will be able to outwit Romney this time, as well. Doesn’t hurt that nobody can warm to this man, even rabid-right Ann Coulter thinks he’s a twit. But it’s the numbers that impress, with less than a hundred days to go. It has been reported that a mere five percent of voters remain undecided at this juncture and that Obama has a sizeable lead, somewhere between four and seven percent. Yes, I know: the Pubs in the Red states are doing everything they can to disenfranchise leftie voters, especially those of color and the elderly, but the Republican brand has an approval rating of only eleven percent — even our head-up-ass, dysfunctional congress enjoys a higher number than that. Even better, recent polls show that the nation doesn’t blame Obama for the current financial debacle, and that it trusts him more than Mitt with its financial future.
Should we be worried? We should be concerned, especially about local elections that create obstructionist candidates, impeding our ability to fashion a functional future. We should be lending our voice and resources in support of the local candidates we believe in. These hundred days are so important; please don’t doubt it. What lies ahead of us is the next leg of a journey this planet began long ago and challenges that will demand the energy and intention of each of us.
The most important thing we can do to prepare ourselves for this adventure is to fully inhabit our hearts, bringing our best, most genuine effort to each moment. Ex-congressman and former presidential candidate, Gary Hart, bemoaned our collective silence in a recent piece for Huffington. Hart points out the many reasons we don’t feel adequate to speak up in this powerful moment, but rightly concludes, ” … silence conveys assent. Assent for the status quo. Assent for the majority opinion. Assent for the loudest voices and largest megaphones.”
After all the personal work we’ve done in these last years, to remain distanced from what calls us to stand up for ourselves now is perilous, both to ourselves and for those we love. During those long and frightening years that George W. raided our national coffers to fund his multiple wars, I remember Edmund Burke constantly quoted as a goad to get Americans up off their excuses and standing tall for their values, and that warning is no less true today: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
In recent conversation with a friend, commiserating over the darker forces that serve the plutocracy (or perhaps vice versa) I mentioned that the lizard-brains don’t appear to be the infallible ring-masters they used to be. The 2012 energy is shaping up to be The Great Equalizer, making each of us aware of our vulnerabilities and pointing us to the critical points of consciousness we have not attended. It seems to me that what the dark side has not attended, perhaps due to (and at least encouraged by) our protracted silence, is the inevitability of the Light.
No matter the rationale, no matter the justification, this is no longer a time to remain silent, giving implied assent to those who are so sure they have “the high road.” There are liberal values at stake, progress in the cross-hairs, truth to be told. We can’t know which of our neighbors just needs some little piece of the picture to banish their confusion, we can’t be sure what bit of kindness or encouragement can change the way a co-worker sees the world. We can’t know which word we speak will vibrate necessary change into the world, but let’s agree that it can and will happen as we become mindful of our power. This is not a time to retreat, holding close what we know. If you’re reading these words, then you’ve had lifetimes when knowledge proved dangerous, when what we knew put us on the rack, tied us to a stake, drove us underground. No longer.
Let’s put the road to hell behind us, shall we? Let’s put the old fears to rest. We came to share what we know, summoning courage, clasping hands — shifting an era with our intent and our numbers. As we love, we reveal a universe of lovingness and compassion; as we evolve, we bring in waves of evolution. These are changes organic to the moment, not requiring defense or justification. What is light-filled will chase away the darkness and this is our time to put fear aside to shine brightly.
Thank you sooo much for this quote Jude./be
One last quote, a riff by Bill Moyers on the “end times” feel of all this and the legacy of conservatism a’la Goldwater — the Evangelical spin on this is what we face, with all its hysterical energy:
“This was never Romney’s party, and without Karl Rove’s shadowy money behind him, he would not have survived the primaries. So shape-shifting a figure was unlikely ever to inspire the front line troops in an election the Right sees as a showdown with the Anti-Christ at Armageddon. In this campaign, Romney is now “the man who isn’t there” – the dispensable one.
“But in Paul Ryan, the Golden Boy from Janesville who schooled himself in the ideology of right-wing think tanks inside the Beltway, they finally have one of their own — a true believer for the new Gilded Age.
“The country, too, now has a choice, not an echo. And that should add up to a definitive election in November.”
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/13-6
I’ll mark my calendar, be — and Neptune is an even more interesting light-switch than Venus, I think.
Thanks, everyone, for playing this weekend. Fun conversation! Keep the faith.
Hey, I apologize for an error I made last night when I said Venus would be sextile Mars and forming a yod with sister Eris. Actually Venus will be square Mars and sextile Eris on September 26th. It is the U.S. natal Neptune that is sextile Mars and forms the yod with Eris. Eris is still irritated though, along with the U.S. progressed Venus. Probably even more interesting.
be
GaryB,
Yikes, how’d that happen? Not so sure that if I lost 30 bucks a month I wouldn’t be pissed too.
You’re a good son.
Jude, about painting that picture of Ryan as a Radical, this may be just another Kassandra moment, but there’s something goin’ on September 26th. I won’t go into the myriad of aspects and triggers to aspects, BUT yesterday Mars was opposite Sister Eris and they were squared by retrograde Photographica when the big news broke. Transiting Venus was conjunct the U.S. Sibly Venus in Cancer. The air was full of love and money, and more money.
On September 26, Venus will be exactly sextile Mars and they will form a yod with Sister Eris, still at 22 Aries. We know yods can be irritating for the point planet, in this case Eris. That may or may not be something wise to do. . . irritate Eris. . . but, of note, Photographica (having stationed and turned direct) is again back to the same 22 Capricorn he was in yesterday, again squaring Eris at 22 Aries. He’s also squaring the U.S. progressed (Sibly) Venus at 22 Aries. Yeah, Venus and Eris together at 22 Aries. Sabian Symbol is A Pregnant Woman In Light Summer Dress, keynote: Fecundity. Rudhyar says “Man – at the receptive ‘woman’ level – reaps the fruits of his dynamic activity”.
So we recall the scene yesterday, and dang it if it doesn’t irritate some of us. A lot of folks are writing about this VP pick and word’s getting ’round. Come September there will be a new picture “painted” . . somewhat different from yesterday. . somewhat the same. Eris conjunct the U.S. progressed Venus says she will be irritated (by the yodsters Mars and Venus) about things she loves. Things Americans love for that matter. Reallyi irritated.
This day looks special, especially around 7 PM when transiting Borasisi exactly conjuncts Rmoney’s Mercury. By then the transiting North Node will conjunct Rmoney’s Moon – Jupiter conjunction in Scorpio. By then transiting Saturn will be opposite transiting Lachesis (interruption in plans) and Rmoney’s Vesta (investment) in Aries. Rmoney’s invested in his wife and family, and now Ryan, and goddess knows what else.
Like you say, it does “come down to a clash of ideology” and “we’re right where we ought to be”. Pushing HIM out of HIS comfort zone.
be
Well, golly — the glut of info on the economic wonk from Wisconsin certainly leaves little to the imagination, GaryB. His record on right-wing issues — including absolutely CHILLING plans for women reluctant to carry the Holy Zygote — gives him the equivalent political standing of Michelle Bachmann. He’s considered, statistically, the “most conservative Republican member of Congress to be picked for the vice-presidential slot since at least 1900.” He’s being portrayed as the happy culture warrior that will kill off entitlements and allow only the strong (or as he put it in his acceptance speech, those approved by “God and nature”) to survive!
I don’t suppose Mom is a big reader? Oh, never mind — rhetorical question. My condolences, GaryB. I will keep the good thought for both you and Mom, bless her pointy little head.
One of the proposed rationales for Ryan’s pick is that since Romney had already adopted his crushing budget, the only person who has had ANY success at making this gutting of American commonwealth sound reasonable is Ryan, himself. Palin was wonky and jiggly, easily dismissed … Ryan is wonky and convincing and people don’t know him. It’s our job to make sure he is quickly painted as the RADICAL he is!
This really DOES come down to a clash of ideology, doesn’t it! Are we our brothers keeper? Or is it every man (literally) for himself? That IS a 2012 conversation! Looks like we’re right where we ought to be, once again … even if it’s far from our comfort zone.
Judith and be,
To make matters even Worse–(Poor mom)– is a radically devout Catholic and despite the Bishops reproach of the Ryan plan and the traveling Nuns tour to protect us all from Ryan’s proposed sins, she is sooo concerned about PBO taking us to a place of mass unemployment and the loss of the greatest proportions! Primarily she is pissed because she lost 30 bucks a month because of PBO’s purported policies.
Taking her to the tallest cliff next week, can’t stand to see her begging on a sidewalk with a “I voted R/R” sticker on her blouse!
Hug and kiss to yer Mom, Brendan — and one for Dad, too. So many of our seniors literally stood on the shoulders of FDR and his populist policies, it’s hard to believe they’ve forgotten that they DIDN’T do it alone (even if an energized Ryan insists they did!)
Best tweet today? “Ryan is a smart Palin.” Yes — but will it help him sell the country on a plan that will leave the USA floating, tits up, in the bathtub? And will his selection help Romney appear to be more than a secretive plutocrat looking down at the average citizen from his humongous pile of money? We shall see.
For more analysis of the new Republican ticket and some of the better reads, here’s a PoliticalWaves post:
http://polwaves.planetwaves.net/2012/08/the-ticket-2012/
It is always a pleasure to read you, Jude, and this essay was no exception. Today’s news was interesting, in that it shows just how desperate for “credibility” Rmoney is, and how they seem to think (not much chance of that happening) they can win the race.
My parents are in their early 80’s, my mother a die-hard Democrat from when she could first vote, my father a now-lapsed, moderate Republican who gave up on them years ago. They are smart enough politically to know who’s who this year (and in 2008), and will certainly do what they can to ensure the Mitt and Paul Show never makes it to the White House. You know you’re on firm ground with knowing them when they tell you they miss seeing Keith Olbermann…
Get your popcorn ready, the convention starts soon!
Well put, Miss be — the only Pub that ever seemed to have an astrological clue was St. Ronnie the Reagan (Fishin’ Jim calls him the Jelly Bean) and that was all Nancy’s doing. He was sworn in as Gov of CA well after midnight, in precise hour and minute. I respected the huevos it took to make that call. Thank you for fleshing out the picture so beautifully, by the way.
And yes, poor mom. I read somewhere this week that evolution almost always takes its leap when the “old version” begins to shake apart and I fear our oldest remaining generation is the larger portion of support for an old (deceptively familiar) paradigm, “arguing for their limitations” — insisting on them, in fact. It’s interesting how many people seem frozen in a “family plan” of political thought until a parent makes transition, freeing them to think for themselves. Part of our healing process, I suspect.
Sometimes the Grey Lady gets it just right, Fe — thank you! I also recommend the full read by Charles Pierce over at Esquire:
“Paul Ryan is an authentically dangerous zealot. He does not want to reform entitlements. He wants to eliminate them. He wants to eliminate them because he doesn’t believe they are a legitimate function of government. He is a smiling, aw-shucks murderer of opportunity, a creator of dystopias in which he never will have to live. This now is an argument not over what kind of political commonwealth we will have, but rather whether or not we will have one at all, because Paul Ryan does not believe in the most primary institution of that commonwealth: our government. The first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution make a lie out of every speech he’s ever given. He looks at the country and sees its government as something alien that is holding down the individual entrepreneurial genius of 200 million people, and not as their creation, and the vehicle through which that genius can be channelled for the general welfare.”
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/paul-ryan-romney-vp-pick-11562917#ixzz23IFVmeq4
The NYT opines on the Ryan pick. Wear a garbage bag. There’s going to be some Mitt splatter:
PAUL RYAN’S CRAMPED VISION
8/12/12
Mitt Romney’s safe and squishy campaign just took on a much harder edge. A candidate of no details — I’ll cut the budget but no need to explain just how — has named a vice-presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, whose vision is filled with endless columns of minus signs. Voters will now be able to see with painful clarity just what the Republican Party has in store for them.
As House Budget Committee chairman, Mr. Ryan has drawn a blueprint of a government that will be absent when people need it the most. It will not be there when the unemployed need job training, or when a struggling student needs help to get into college. It will not be there when a miner needs more than a hardhat for protection, or when a city is unable to replace a crumbling bridge.
And it will be silent when the elderly cannot keep up with the costs of M.R.I.’s or prescription medicines, or when the poor and uninsured become increasingly sick through lack of preventive care.
Mr. Ryan’s budget “will hurt hungry children, poor families, vulnerable seniors and workers who cannot find employment,” the bishops wrote in an April letter to the House. “These cuts are unjustified and wrong.”
Mr. Ryan responded that he was helping the poor by eliminating their dependence on the government. And yet he has failed to explain how he would make them self-sufficient — how, in fact, a radical transformation of government would magically turn around an economy that is starving for assistance. At a time when state and local government layoffs are the principal factor in unemployment, the Ryan budget would cut aid to desperate governments by at least 20 percent, far below historical levels, on top of other cuts to mass transit and highway spending.
…All of this will be accompanied, of course, by even greater tax giveaways to the rich, and extravagant benefits to powerful military contractors. Business leaders will be granted their wish for severely diminished watchdogs over the environment, mine safety and food quality.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/11/opinion/paul-ryans-cramped-vision.html?_r=1
I tried to watch it, I really did but I just couldn’t. I tried to remind myself, these guys are just puppets . . . behind the curtain somebody’s pulling the strings and saying those words. It’s Howdy Doody Time. Perhaps SNL will do some skit tonight (if they’re even on) that will make me giggle. . . somebody to play Romney to say dumb (but funny) stuff, somebody dorky to play Ryan that squeeks out something hilarious. Maybe that will make me snicker.
So why would you pick a day when Mars is opposed Eris to make an announcement full of such bravado? Why would you want to chance it when the Sun is almost exactly opposite the conjunction of Atlantis and Damocles for Pete’s sake? Who in their right mind would wait until the Moon was square Chiron, huh? Or when the Moon was conjunct the U.S. Uranus and square the U.S. progressed Sun? Oh Judith, is it that they don’t know about astrology or do they really just make up shit and let the cow chips fall where they may?
Does anyone here feel better that transiting Burney (naming) and transiting Hermes (timing) were conjunct the U.S. Neptune today? Should we smile knowing that Osiris (whose only missing one impotent, er, I mean important piece) is trine the Sun today? Should we wink to one another knowing that Isis conjunct Saturn delivered those pitiful pieces of Osiris to the Repubs (Saturn so perfect a symbol for them) today, while, meantime Vesta conjunct Jupiter (who so perfectly symbolizes the Dems) focused on what Gemini does best; quick thinking, dodge-and-weave, jack-be-nimble commercials as they sextile planner/strategizer Pallas-Athene who, conjunct Uranus, will revise their upcoming marketing blitz? Or would that be too snarky of us. I’m okay with it, and probably GaryB is too. (poor old mom!)
be
Oh GaryB, dearheart, the great sorrow of finding ones mother a Kool Aid addict — pink stains around the lips, vague look in the eyes, anachronistic babbling about America’s former glory — can only be magnified by the chilling thought of her taking the leap, clutching her pearls and her Medicare voucher. We can only hope she changes her mind by mid-October (and if she doesn’t, call me … I’ll help you push.)
Best line of the day, so far, from Paul Begala: “And somewhere in hell, Ayn Rand is cackling with glee.”
Dear Judith,
I just received a call from my 80 year old mother. She is so happy that Ryan was picked for VP as his budget plan would bring about a disciplined budget and get our country back on track. She thinks that Congress will work together and make it less damaging to seniors. I impolitely told her she was cutting her own throat. She then asked if I was going to go out on the corner and hold placards for Obama. I then asked for her permission to use a picture of her being shoved over a cliff by Ryan for the placard.
Do you think that is too much to ask? or should I just do it myself!!!
signed: a former moderate Republican
True, Fe, and now they’ve given us Paul Ryan! Republican “Young Gun,” author of their austerity budget, die-hard pro-lifer and Ayn Rand admirer, all-around radical! Mitt is so desperate to please his ambivalent base that he picked the extremist but he’d telegraphed his coziness with Ryan weeks ago — the administration began putting together their attack on Ryan then. This will energize the base but — as with Palin — this pick will overshadow the candidate. At least now we’ll find out what Mitt’s mysterious “plan” is and it should scare the crap out of the public. We got us a race!
Jude:
It’s not as if the Republicans aren’t working hard to scare us into voting for President Obama. They’re using every last vaginal-probing, schoolbook-dumbing, knowledge-hating, race baiting idea in the book to show us what we could face if we indeed do nothing!