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Friday, October 22, 2004
That's if you AREN'T INTERESTED IN YOUR OWN SUCCESS 
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I'm guessing May
| | Any idea when the election will be over? |
| | I'm not kidding about that, by the way. I think we're heading for a national nervous breakdown/constitutional crisis, starting the night of November 2nd. Consider it all part of the Latinamericanization of our politics. |
Politics as conversation
| | My sister Jan is a retired Navy Commander with a masters from the Navy War College. She's also a historian who reads widely, stays in touch with colleagues in the service and hates to grind political axes. |
| | She was the one who astutely told me, way back when the Howard Dean Phenomenon was getting underway, that this presidential election was, essentially, a recall: a referendum on the administration of George W. Bush. Its energies of opposition, she said, were like those that removed Governor Davis and replaced him with Governor Schwarzenegger here in California. |
| | In other words, this election is far more about Bush than about Kerry, much as the Bush folks would (naturally) rather it be the latter. |
| | Her emails are always astute, observant and original. With her permission I've combined the last couple to share with the rest of you. Here ya go... |
| | The story has changed. It is not about the candidates anymore. That is just cursory coverage of their bus-embedded reporters, and equal-time sound bites. He said ying/he said yang. |
| | The story now IS the election. The election process. Not only the dangers of chaos, early-voting, registration mess-ups, the stolen signs, the various scenarios of a challenge to the results, the legalities and the larcenies. |
| | The real story is the engagement of the people. The passion to recall. The fear of change or the unknown. The push to get the youth out. The lack of the population's ennui amidst their fatigue from the rancor. |
| | The recognition that, whomever you're voting for, the stakes are too high. |
| | And that the prime lesson learned from 2000 is that every vote CAN count. |
| | I put on a bumper sticker for the first time (A Veteran for Kerry) this election. The one I would like to put on would read: |
| | We can blame the last four years on Bush, but we can only blame the next four on ourselves. |
| | Also another thought this morning as one of the morning shows were talking about a poll re the youth vote and how historically young voters vote like their parents. |
| | I think those "historical" statistics are about to be broken. This election is divisional. It is being fought out daily between husbands and wives, between lovers, between generations in the same house, friends, at the workplace, on teams, everywhere. And I think that is because everyone realizes how important this election is for America. How we chose our next president may be about what what we are as a country, as a democracy. But who we chose is about who we are as a people. And that is very personal. |
| | There is a lot being said about the "uncommitted" but that is the wrong word. They are not uncommitted, they are torn. They cannot make up their minds because IT MATTERS. |
| | It is not just about being passionate over our choice, it is about trying to convince others. There might be loud, vicious political rhetoric in the medias, but there is also intense, heartfelt dialog in the homes, at work, in restaurants, in chat rooms, on the campus, in gyms, on the golf course, in the flu shot lines, at the soccer game, in the car on the way to the mall. |
| | Remember how newsworthy it was when Carvell and Matlin married? How could they live together if the were so divided on politics? Because back then we just assumed that to marry, to love, you either had to think alike on the big issues of religion and politics or just not care about them enough for it to be an issue. Now think of everyone you know who is in a similar situation. By this point in the election, they have probably had to make a specific agreement NOT to talk about it in order to preserve the relationship, |
| | There is a huge conversation going on in America. And I think it is one that is not really being covered. |
| | So my next thought is: What kind of hangover will will all wake up with on Nov 3rd? One that makes us vow abstinence next time, or reaching for the hair of the dog? |
| | Two more emails, both from friends. One points to Band of Citizens, which hopes to elect Kerry. The other shares the writer's fear of what will happen if Kerry wins. An excerpt: |
| | What scares me about Kerry most of all is that he talks like he's running in 1992. If you read Philip Barlow's Achilles Shield, it becomes clear that both candidates talk to the electorate like the cold war never ended. I think that's because th electorate, in many ways, hasn't moved past the 20th century yet. For example, the future is not about universal health care and it never will be. That's so 20th century it hurts my head. Will we have to solve the health care crisis? Yes, absolutely. But FDR and Johnson are the wrong models for how to do it. Government can't and won't solve the problem. |
| | Bush's biggest failing in his presidency, so far, has been his failure to communicate his doctrine on changing the Middle East in a way that resonates with the foreign policy establishment, including academics, the State Dept. and Congress. No amount of victory in Iraq or anywhere else will do any good, if Bush can't institutionalize this doctrine into American foreign policy in a way that the doctrines of the Cold War were communicated and institutionalized by Truman so that they could guide Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush I. Even through party changes in the presidency, these doctrines were followed with remarkable consistency. |
| | I'm confident that Bush understands this, but the campaign forces him to talk about WDM, Vietnam, and so on. I'm not sure about Kerry. The campaign, the debates, and all the blogorhea on the subject hasn't given me any evidence that he does. That scares me. |
| | I'm grateful and flattered to find that some of us are still talking, thoughtfully, to each other, no matter how we're leaning on this thing. A big thanks to all the friends and relatives who keep the faith — in the openings that remain apparent in each others' minds. |
Soundings
| | Prioritizing adopting the philosophy of discovering and using public domain, Creative Commons licenses or other unencumbering copyrights, new formats, niche content, etc. equally along with the technology (XML feed format, directories, cool names..) is the way to go right from the beginning and will make this something new and different to the masses and most importantly attractive to future money - advertisers!!! |
| | I'll end by saying this Creative Commons licenses or other unencumbering copyrights, public domain, new formats, niche content, etc.has been my Audioblogging philosophy goal and IMHO the philosophy of most audiobloggers from the beginning. |
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