Feb 25 2008
The race to the bottom
I’m already so weary of the way politics are continuously devolving in this country. Nixon would be proud, as would Lee Atwater. There seems to be a certain conventional wisdom, shared by Hillary Clinton and Bill Kristol, that the only way to win in this country is to appeal to the worst, anti-intellectual elements of our society. Now, Obama doesn’t need me to defend him, because he does seem to handle these attacks unusually well, but jeezus, this is getting ridiculous. On Drudge today (I’m not linking), word is a Clinton operative got some photo out there from one of Obama’s visits to Kenya, and horror of horrors, he’s wearing traditional garb, complete with headdress. Get it? He really is a Muslim, and a brown one, too! Hide the kids. And then now we also have the ‘Obama doesn’t wear a flag pin’ thing going on (a plus in my book). That one works well with the idiots who confuse nationalism with patriotism and think that the way you love your country is support its government unquestionably, put lots of flags, ribbons, and bald eagles everywhere, and deride those who dissent. Sounds like the Soviet Union.
I think what it comes down to, both for the GOP and Hillary is that they have no other choice but to attack. In the case of Hil, I think she’s just getting pretty desperate (witness the unhinged meltdowns this last weekend). To have prepared yourself for this for the last two decades, only to see it fading fast cannot be easy. In the case of the GOP, they have no choice, simply because if they really talked about what they’ve really done and what they really want to do, they’d be even less popular than they are now. They know quite well that their base is easily manipulated over jingoistic and racist ideas, so they play it to the hilt. I’m just hoping that people are waking up to it and getting tired of it.
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