{"id":62072,"date":"2012-10-13T04:13:58","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T08:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=62072"},"modified":"2012-10-13T04:13:58","modified_gmt":"2012-10-13T08:13:58","slug":"this-above-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/this-above-all\/","title":{"rendered":"This Above All"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"PoliticalAlthough 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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?”<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> 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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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…<\/p>\n

They’ve apparently convinced almost half of America of their lies \u2013 including many who would suffer most under Romney and Ryan.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just after I read Reich’s article, I found this<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}