I heard the news today, oh boy...
And this was what I heard--the Democrats have taken over Congress. Bush's approval ratings continue to dip. The administration is suddenly eager to hear (if not implement) alternative ideas, including proposals for Iraq withdrawal.
It almost makes you hope.
The Democrats have now, as the kids used to say, "got it to do." They've been chomping at the bit for so long that their teeth are worn down to nubs; now they've got an opportunity to make a change. Only the most short-sighted and unrealistic among us will expect these changes to happen overnight, but they'd better damn well happen ASAP, or the Dems may find themselves in the same position as in 1994, and that would be a shame. Because as much as the Democratic party sucks, it's the best viable party we've got going.
Those who read the site (back when we updated--I cannot believe that none of us have had the time to write since JULY) know that I've been calling for a real third party for years now. I still am. I just don't have much faith in our current system. And here's one reason.
I once read a quote from, I believe, professional wrestler Terry Funk, in which he said that the Internet just looks like a bunch of people yelling at each other. In many ways, he's right. Message boards are, in general, little more than a collection of screeds without substance, a group of petty and immature louts insulting each other without bothering to listen. Comments at the bottom of your average blog tend toward the same (with some pleasant exceptions, of course). Emails that writers receive often devolve into "yur stoopid" or "if u don't like it hear u should leaf." It's really more sad than maddening; constructive debate falls apart and becomes a series of shouting matches in which no one really cares about the subject or the validity of other opinions. Sometimes the only thing that seems valuable is one's right and ability to talk, whether or not one has anything to say.
Perhaps this is related to the general air of dissatisfaction that has permeated the country for years now. In an age when the executive branch can ignore the Constitution, the nation's laws, the Congress, and the people, maybe any old voice and any old forum will do. Perhaps rage is the new intellectualism, bile the new passion.
But it shouldn't be this way. And this spirit of
fin de seacle blathering should not infect our nation's leaders. But it has.
Ever since the Bush administration has been in power, politicians have sunk ever deeper into the pit of logical fallacies. You name the illogical argument, and Republicans have used it--"straw man," "hypothesis contrary to fact," "ad hominem," "post hoc, ergo prompter hoc," "overgeneralization," "oversimplification," "circularity," "bandwagon," etc. and so forth, hail Mary and praise the Yankees. These kinds of arguments have lead to heated exchanges that have themselves devolved into playground namecalling. You'd think our elected leaders were fourth-graders who had just gotten their first email accounts. They tell stupid jokes and spread vicious rumors, almost as if they cannot control their own voices and the power that lies within our ability to persuade each other.
I hope the Democrats can change all this, perhaps more than anything else. I hope we can soon call for new Iraq policies without being called "terrorist sympathizers" or "cut and run Democrats," especially since I'm not even a Democrat of any kind. I hope we can support better environmentalist legislation without being called a "tree-hugger," as if that's bad somehow. I hope that we can reject isolationist immigration laws and oppressive foreign policies without being called "unAmerican."
I long for the dawn of a truly new day, not the beginning of a Groundhog Day-like repetition of the last six years.
You've got it to do, Dems; you've got it to do.
The Existentialist of
www.mischievousprophet.comEmail:
existential_dilemma@yahoo.comComing soon to this space: Doctor Scorpion
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