Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Everything Has Its Price

So, I'm on my way home from the day job last night, and it's going on 6 pm, and I'm listening to NPR. It would usually be "All Things Considered" at that hour, I think, and maybe it still was, but it was all Republican convention coverage. (Sorry, don't know that I can link a particular broadcast, and I'm too lazy to try just now ... maybe you heard it.) I happened to catch a live interview with Kansas senator Sam Brownback, who's all Christian-conservative and pro-life and all of that, and he was being asked about The Sarah Palin Thing. Now, here's where I wish I could link to the interview, because I can't quote him exactly; I was just doing the old-school driving and listening to the radio procedure. But I think I can paraphrase him fairly. What he said was: McCain really wanted Joe Lieberman, but, you know, it's a shame, but that just wasn't getting any support among the delegates when it was floated, and it just couldn't be done. Because, you know, there are some basic differences between Joe Lieberman and us on, you know, the social issues. I had a speech prepared to put his name into nomination, but it just wasn't happening, and it's a real shame, because, you know, he's really with us on security.

Well, I got to thinking: there the whole thing is, in a nutshell. Summed up so neatly. People like me, people who don't think it should be legal to kill babies, people who acquired criminal records back in the Operation Rescue days ... we're supposed to be supporting the GOP, and we're supposed to be tickled pink with "leaders" on the order of Sen. Brownback. In my mind, Sen. Brownback can usefully serve as a symbol for the whole GOP. He says he's "pro-life," and I have no reason to believe he's lying. I'm willing to assume that he is "pro-life," whatever he may understand that to mean. But, you know, he has his priorities. First of all, he's got to have his war. No matter what else, he's going to get his war on. The entire party: they may profess some mild interest in circumscribing abortion, at the margins. They may affect to think that the inverted fraternity getting all gay-married will weaken marriage (although their own serial adulteries apparently don't). They may nod politely to the idea of low taxes and small government (although, not lately). But first things first: they will get their war on. The rest of that stuff is, at most, boob-bait for folks like me.

Die, GOP. Go on ... die a little. You literally cannot die fast enough to suit me.

2 comments:

Kathryn Magendie said...

Just me again - stopping by to see what's up, what you've written...

Anonymous said...

Yeah, funny enough, I see the mirror image. Us Leftists have been sold the line for upwards of 30 years now, that the Democrats are the only hope -- not a guarantee, mind you, just a slight hope -- of promoting renewable energy, passing better environmental laws, promoting civil liberties, alleviating poverty, redistributing income equitably, etc. etc. And yet despite boogeymen like the "Green Gestapo" and "punishing success", which Rightist politicians use to scare the gullible on their side, from my point of view it seems like all those things keep retreating farther away. We've passed some environmental laws, sure, but they grow less effective every year while the income gap keeps increasing. And the party of "Civil Liberties" held their convention this year protected by razor wire, 'Free Speech Zones' and concrete blast bunkers.

But still we get our wars. Clinton bombed the sh#t out of Iraq, the Balkans, and Sudan for good measure. Republicans bombed... well, all kinds of countries. The War Must Go On.

Gee whiz, you might almost conclude from that, that the "politician" class has its own agenda, separate from the people they represent, which crosses party boundaries, which they consider more important than the wishes of the people they allegedly represent. But no, no, no, one could only conclude that if one were a tinfoil-hat cynic.