Smart People Discuss Politics

"You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare. When you have a President encouraging the idea of dividing America based on the 99 percent versus 1 percent—and those people who have been most successful will be in the 1 percent—you have opened up a whole new wave of approach in this country which is entirely inconsistent with the concept of one nation under God. The American people, I believe in the final analysis, will reject it." - Mitt Romney

"Taking a quick trip through Twitter reveals that the same people who don't trust the government to verify that their food, drink and pharmaceuticals aren't deadly, to teach their children or to administer their healthcare are—as is the case with at least 100,000 Iraqis and counting—absolutely king-shit stoked to let the U.S. government decide when to murder the fuck out of non-white people." - Mobutu Sese Seko

"It is considered declasse in our higher politics to mention this, but there actually is a class war underway in America, and it doesn't need politicians to stoke it. It happens in millions of battles every day, over mortgages, and college loans, and retirement, and the granite-like impassibility of the country's elites in the face of what's happening to the great mass of people. Now, it's possible that our firmly purchased political system may be able to continue to divert the energies of that war in the directions most amenable to maintaining the status quo. (Blame the black people, the regulators, the drum circles, public school teachers, the Community Reinvestment Act, Van Jones!) But, sooner or later, someone's going to be desperate enough - or bold enough - to grab that energy and ride it to glory, and we all better goddamn hope that person has a good heart, because those kind of things can go awfully badly wrong. What the Wall Street casino is playing with is not house money. It belongs to all of us. They are gambling not merely with currency, but with the stability of the political system. Someone is going to pay." - Charlie Pierce

- Yours Truly

Day 5-6: Teeth Like God's Shoeshine

Our generation has had the most comfortable upbringing of any group anywhere at anytime in the past 10,000 or so years* the Earth has existed. Chances are you're part of this generation, which means you have enough of everything you need - food, water, security, sleep, porn. You probably have too much of these things.

* * *

To do something great, you have to aim to do something great. Jordan wasn't born with that jump shot. Steinbeck didn't stumble upon East of Eden. You make the choice to put the work in for the chance at a delayed reward.

You think ambition is ugly, and yeah, it often is, but you have to realize how beautiful it is too. After all, you are a human being. You always aim higher. You have to. You should. 

* * *

You think the American Dream is a sham. You think you can't make it in this country as easily as you used to. Maybe you're right. Maybe opportunity is disappearing in quantity and declining in quantity. Or maybe you're spoiled. Maybe wealth and status and prestige are finite qualities that are all used up. Maybe  this is where ambition meets economics.

You think the United States is in decline. You think jobs should be plentiful and unions should be strong and our boys should be landing on the moon and constructing new interstates and Dick Clark should be on TV. You want to take home a decent day's wages for a decent day's work.

But what is a decent day's work? Fixing sewers? Picking up roadkill? Microwaving McChickens? Writing press releases? Wasting away in middle management? 

* * *

The good news is that you can still have half the American Dream. You can bring home the bacon or you can bring home your soul, but your upbringing dictates that you can't have both. Because as much as you want to meet those higher needs of love and esteem and self-actualization, you have to survive first. And to survive you need money, and to get money you must help run the magnificent capitalistic machine. 

Your dad wasn't as comfortable as you were. He grew up with nothing, but he made it, through some hard work and some good bullshitting. He doesn't love what he does. That never mattered. What mattered was that he still got somewhere. That he gave you that awesome childhood full of chicken nuggets and cable TV he could never have. That he fulfilled his ambition of getting comfortable. That, as a consequence, you were quite comfortable too.

* * *

You won't be satisfied that easily. You need more than you really need. Something more than money (though, of course, you need that too). 

You realize your dad had all of your big hopes and dreams. You realize he wanted to enjoy his work. And when you grow up, you realize that having a job is more important than having a career. That self-esteem is impossible without shelter, that you can't care about morality if you don't have any money. 

You know the job pool is shrinking. What you didn't realize was how much further your expectations shrink it, the dreams the cogs of the capitalism give up, the fantasies you'll have to give up too. 

Maybe it's just part of growing up. Maybe selling out is necessary for survival. Maybe just because things are doesn't mean they should be.

* * *

So: what to do? 

Maybe you should lower your expectations. Maybe you should get used to manual labor. Maybe the 75-year-old woman scanning your Wal-Mart purchases shouldn't make you sad. Maybe that will be you in all those years. 

You should probably get used to the new economics of America. You should probably worry that your goddamned ambitions might well go unfulfilled.

Day 1: We, The Fucked People

(Editor's note: Inspired by a different blog of greater repute, we have decided to exhaustively chronicle our summer in Highland. Most posts will probably have nothing to do with Highland; its just an excuse to blog more and something to fill these long days. We'll call it (85) Days of Summer (in Highland (with 100% Less Zooey Deschanel)). Or something like that. Enjoy it more than that shitty movie, motherfuckers.)

* * *

I come from a family of political animals. Both of my grandpas are passionate Reagan-hating liberals, peculiar for middle class white men from rural towns surrounding Saint Louis, and they make sure everyone related to them felt the same way. I certainly do.

But even though most of my family members are Democratic partisans, they can't really explain why. That's not necessarily wrong, and surely not uncommon in America, where politics is too upsetting a subject to dwell on - but it is harmful. Mix in media narratives and the apolitical animal is easily misled.

My mom wants Mitt Romney's DNA checked. She swears he's too robotic to be a real person, and that that's the reason she can't vote for him. It's a complaint that's common (and also true I suspect). But is it really valid? Can the President of the United States, the Leader of the Free World, the man with the biggest job of any human that's ever walked the earth, be a normal guy (or gal)? And, more importantly, why would we want him to be normal?

Since the arrival of blowhards like Bill O'Reilly and Chris Matthews on cable TV, we've heard that presidential candidates have to connect with the common man. Go out, shake hands, hold babies, touch, feel America's pain.

You gotta have empathy. It's why Ronald Reagan will be on the $10 bill some day, why Bill Clinton is held up as a model politician, why a decent dude like John Kerry could never be President but a scumbag like John Edwards could lead the polls. Because the average American, after all, not only doesn't understand politics, he also doesn't want to. He isn't seen as an intellectual being but as an instinctual soul,  a stupid "Joe the Plumber," only desiring someone who can understand his feelings if not fix his problems. It's a pernicious prophecy, propagated by everyone from Rush to Dr. Phil, and it's turned out to be self-fulfilling.

All the talk about connecting with the common man seems grossly misplaced, considering the President actually deals with other hardly-human politicians and lunatic dictators and media fiends and especially billionaire businessmen. The presidency is an uncommon job that forces its holder to do uncommon things and cooperate with uncommon people. So why should a common man hold it?

I won't ever get to have a beer with the president, so why should I use that as a litmus test to choose who gets my vote? Do I really want people like my friends in the Oval Office? Do I want Ricky, who would shun speeches and interviews in favor of animated gif propaganda? Do I want Amanda, who would make Russian our official language and generally behave like some horrid combination of Margaret Thatcher and Imelda Marcos? Do I want Mr. Strong, who wants to TAKE ALL THE OIL AND NUKE THE FUCK OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST?*

Or do I want my president to be a Harvard graduate, calm and cool in the face of overwhelming pressure, experienced in wheeling and dealing with the weirdos who control our fucked world, an exceptional man fit for an exceptional job?

I won't vote for Mitt Romney in November, but not because he doesn't appeal to my emotions. I'll vote against him because of his pledge to repeal health care reform, his proposal to let the auto industry go bankrupt, his opposition to gay marriage, and his shitty rendition of the Baha Men classic "Who Let the Dogs Out?"

My mom won't vote for Mitt Romney because she doesn't like his wooden posture, slicked-back hair, flat voice tone, awkward mannerisms. Sure, she cares about the things I do too, but she doesn't understand them because the commentators she watches ignore them in favor of cheap, diversionary gossip. And as long as this continues, as long as politics prizes personality over policy, we further lose track of what really matters and lose hope of ever making things better.

*Actually, yes. I would definitely vote for all three of these people.