Breaking away temporarily from reading all the attacks on me for taking Senator Clinton's lead and throwing in with the nominee of my party, I found some strong voices out there in the last day or so in this fascinating time of transition - so read on, whilst rejecting the notion of voting Republican.
Lance Mannion returns to a favorite subject: the media's self-appointed arbiters of "elitism" in American politics: "....Republicans are always jess folks. Democrats, as everybody knows, are nothing but a party of prissy, latte-drinking, leafy green vegetable eating elitists, even the dockworkers and steamfitters among us." Read on for insight into Hillary, Barack, McCain, and RFK.
Obama supporter Katha Pollitt in The Nation on why feminists owe a huge debt to Hillary Clinton to bringing so much sexism out into the cold light of day: "Clinton's run has put to rest the myth that we are living in a postfeminist wonderland in which all that stands in women's path is women themselves. Like a magnet--was it the pantsuit?--Clinton drew out the nation's misogyny in all its jeering glory and put it where we could all get a good look at it." Lot's more, especially on the media - go read it.
Digby has a great post (as usual) that takes on the still-looming 42nd President of these United States. Here's a bit: "Whatever happens, Bill Clinton will still be the 42nd president of the United States and the first two term Democrat since Roosevelt. That's never going to change. Democrats should ask themselves, once the smoke has cleared, if it's really a good idea to discredit his accomplishments. However you personally may feel about him, there is value in a popular ex-president remaining popular. Political value. (See: Reagan legacy project.) The question is what they are valued for. I see the Clintons as warrior chiefs against the hardcore conservative movement machine that nearly crippled this country (but which may have just run its course after drifting into decadence and hubris.) But, at the time of the movement's greatest power and influence, no one took more crap or was more deft at beating them back. I, for one, am grateful to both of them for taking a nearly unbelievable amount of heat from both the media and the Republicans during that era --- and surviving." Right on.
I especially enjoyed this part of Al Giordano's essay on how Obama's win may signal turning the page on some old political - and more importantly, social - ways: "The American home had become a bunker. People gathered around the TV, then the TiVo and the computer screen, and when they did briefly emerge from their bomb shelters it was to sterile office and workplace environments, where they are subordinate, or to socialize or worship generally with people very demographically similar to themselves. Worse, the bunkers themselves have become echo chambers and, by and large, dysfunctional and disempowering places, in which all the injustices of the world are compressed and internalized, often with violent and despairing results on the individuals inside them." I'd add that the network and rapidly changing demographics are part of the shift.
Chris Bowers warns against our pathetic national media and another obvious bias that may cost us: "McCain's attempt to force an age-based backlash actually makes perfect sense. Seniors tend to be the most socially conservative voters, and senior Democrats will be Obama's most difficult group when it comes to securing the party's base. Over the past few months, the national media has repeatedly mocked McCain's age, and so it won't be hard to point out that he is being attacked on ageist grounds."
Finally, this week saw the anniversary of Steve Gilliard's death. As regular readers here know, I considered Steve a friend and one of the true blogging pioneers and I missed his voice throughout this long primary season. So here's some recommended throwback reading: "The more illogical the right becomes, the more
they turn into a circus freak show. While left bloggers raise money and
help campaigns, the right makes more and more outlandish claims, which
then embarasses them. People only give them credibility out of the
reflex that any drivel from the right has to be taken seriously." Amen brother.
