Considering how crazy life has been of late, it is odd that I should lack for inspiration. The situation in the Gulf Coast has numbed me. The focus on scoring political points in the aftermath of the storm has left me feeling like our political culture is. . . What? Broken? Corrupt? Unfeeling? Almost stupid beyond redemption? So utterly self-referential that every utterance, every thought, is shared and feeds on the one before it and acts as fuel on the one after it until they forget that there is anything else happening beyond the need to score points. Call it what you will. Pick your own boogeyman. The Howard Deanism or Karl Rovism of political culture. I lean towards Howie. But he's not the cause, just a visible symptom. Like a pimple on a sexual organ is an outward manifestation of an inner sickness.
I'm not saying that "hard questions" don't need to be asked. I'm just saying that they need to be asked by someone who doesn't appear to have an axe to grind. Is that too much to ask?
Posted by Random Penseur at September 8, 2005 10:10 AM | TrackBackI cannot bear the commentary now, radio, tv. The politicization, the opportunism.
"What went wrong?" Is there something wrong with me that I think there is a fundamentally simple answer: Category Five Hurricane; Huge City Located Below Sea Level?
It's not something people living there didn't know could/would happen, eventually.
It's Nature. Humans do not have the power to command the weather and seas. And our expectations for response, and rescue by other human beings (and the federal govt) seem impossibly high.
Of course we can always do better, and should try. What went wrong and what went right is something that should be looked at when it's over. There's a lot of work to do now and I kinda wish people would shut up and do it.
Amen, Amy. Nice to hear from you, RP!
Posted by: Mark at September 8, 2005 11:00 AMok..so...
how the hell did i miss that 'pimple on a sex organ' thing yesterday while reading you at work?
and
(this i meant to get to typing yesterday...)
no
i don't think it is too much to ask.
It's an effect of the polar political culture that is currently in place. The left is so far left and the right is so far right. They don't have common ground to meet on any longer so everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) is a spitting and clawing cat fight.
Moderate politics have succeeded only once in the past 2 years. That was when a small group of senators from both sides cooperated to end the judicial nomination deadlock. And that only worked because it was possible with a very small number of moderates.
Posted by: Jim at September 10, 2005 12:22 AM