January 8, 2011

Now I read that last post and I feel about as far away from that angry, righteous, idealistic, impassioned person as I do from my college self. I don’t know, something kind of popped a day or two after that diatribe. I realized we (“we”, I think of “us” as the non-insane, but of course, this is the kind of “Our martyrs are in heaven, your martyrs are in hell” thinking that soaks the world in blood), “we” had already lost that fight I was so angry at the President for not putting up. Our national politics is not really related to logic any more (if it ever was, I used to take for granted that it was, but you can tell how naïve I am), and not really related to earnest good will on the part of the participants. The real players make use of the earnest good will of the people on their side, and they don’t recognize as legitimate any earnest good will on the other side, so the whole thing is theater, really.

However, the theater needs to be played effectively, or people really will die, as they did and are doing in droves in Iraq and Afghanistan because the Republican theater was more compelling, apparently, than logic or earnest good will.  People really will suffer if the wrong theater prevails, as they did and are doing because their money and jobs disappeared thanks to unregulated pirates who gambled with other people’s money and are still living in their mansions in my very county and threatening to move to Hong Kong if we raise their taxes even a teeny bit. People really will suffer, as they have done and will do because the Republican theater about death panels and liberty from the tyranny of having any decent, reliable health insurance is apparently more compelling than dealing with or even talking about the problem.  Democrats – not inherently wiser or more virtuous than anyone else BY A LONG SHOT but in our times the least insane of the available political options – have no theater. This costs lives. But this tax deal, with the howling sanctimonious purists like me playing our role to the hilt (we didn’t even think of it as a role, this is what gives the mob parts the greatest drama, like the utterly sincere screamers at the health care town meetings), gave President Obama a little theater. Now he gets to be at least the person who actually knows how to give something up to do something for the country.

That is a thin leg to stand on, but he had no leg to stand on otherwise, Democrats just cannot get any effective acting, lines, action, scenery or lighting going.  Why this should be so, this complete inability to impart a message even when the message is at least mostly factual, I don’t know, and I don’t care in the same way any more. Republicans are the real enemy, they are a weird little cult that has enchanted the land, and the show they put on is beloved by many a voter. Whether Democrats or Independents or even any remaining Republican sane people or any political organization whatsoever can unstop the ears and wake the enchanted remains to be seen. Maybe President Obama will figure it out, maybe he’s doing all this on purpose. God bless him, I hope so, he’s the only one we have on the stage at present.

But they STILL should repeal their own health care first!