Not a propitious way to begin the year, railing against the political currents of our age, but I find it necessary in order to aspire (not obtain, it isn't that automatic) a measure of relief. The Republican Primary debates and the spectacle of candidates who are fighting to stake out ever more radical positions is extremely dispiriting.
The news media make it a point to pick out the more alarming and extremist sound bites possible, which, I admit, is the purpose of sound bites to begin with, but it doesn't make it any easier to hear or read the coverage when I know that I am being emotionally manipulated. The candidates, specifically, the radical extremist referred to as "Mr. Speaker", have an incredible facility with words, and are able to project an assurance and certainty that their highly ideological positions don't support. They all have pat answers grounded in a no-compromise position that reflect the way Republican have pandered to fear and the growing anxiety many feel about a country that is in decline. I wonder to what extent that decline is real, despite all the problems that have become ever more glaringly evident.
It seems as if disgust over the excesses of Wall Street and the subsequent government response played into the needs of a political movement that needed to find a way to attack President Obama, while cheerfully ignoring the role of the past president who so blindly led us down this path of hyper-inequality. It spawned a pugnacious movement known as the Tea Party, which is the right-wing AM talk-radio audience assuming an official guise, and it has led to a politics based on vitriol and destructive brinksmanship. And we see it in the pandering of the Republican debate audiences, those social conservatives who have hijacked the party. It is extremely difficult to hear them clapping and cheering as Mr. Gingrich mounts an attack on the media, deflecting any inquiry into his personal ethics and the hypocrisy that characterises his personal life. Ordinarily, I wouldn't bring the personal into the political side of affairs, but for social conservatives who make it a point to do so, it is disheartening to see how willingly they ignore their own contradictions as they admire the sheer audacity of nope that charcterizes their candidates. And the culmination of this sad state is evident when I listen to the media celebrating Gingrich's deflection of the question as an example of a supreme tactical move, as a chutzpah move that ignores the fundamental issues that underlie the question and that have to do with self-serving politicians who have no appreciation for the anti-rationality of their ideological positions. They all aspire to be ideologically "pure", and when caught, they all make the standard response that they have sought forgiveness from their lord, and are ready to move on to the next stage. The Republicans are shameless.
I can't take the Republican candidates. Any of them. Whoever emerges from the primary process will, of course, tone down his rhetoric and appear to take more centrist positions, but I won't forget the positions they staked out during this initial process. I may not be happy with President Obama and the way he squandered the enormous capital he wielded when he took office, trying to compromise with Republicans when he had no partner to work with, but I certainly can't envision another lurch towards the failed policies of the past.
I had to say it. I don't feel much relief, since I am trying to write a more reflective blog, but I had to express my disgust.
(UPDATE) It is official, Newt Gingrich has won the South Carolina primary. I just heard Mitt Romney give a concession speech in which he made little reference to his defeat, but instead, continued his series of attacks on President Obama. It is obvious that he is trying to adopt a graceful, patrician tone, one in which he takes little notice of stumbles such as this one. Every failing he attributed to Obama is an example of a distortion on his part. His definition of "success" and his dismissal of the criticism of his corporate dealings is in accord with his self-serving impulse. I really am having difficulty with these campaigns.
