One the country's most significant problems is the stupidity of our political discourse. It's most obvious in cable news, but it's everywhere, in print, on the Net, on the Sunday shows, on the left, on the right, on the center. It's not just inconvenient and annoying; it interferes without our ability to address our problems and allows thugs to get away with metaphorical murder. Here are three examples, two of which involve me.
Joe Klein represents virtually everything wrong with political discourse in this country; he's ignorant, insulting, self-satisfied and feels himself to be some sort of victim. Writing about Connecticut, he complains of the "expected torrent of rubbish from left-wing blognuts and conservative wingnuts . nauseating triumphalism . unblinking assertion ... stupid excesses" and that's just in the first few paragraphs. It's all typical Klein but what caught my eye was the end, where he describes "bipartisan moderation" as "the highest form of patriotism" here. Oh really? What if the "center" goes off the rails, as in Iraq? As in the present economic policy? The Medicare bill? Etc, etc. Klein says, "Agree or else: dissent is unpatriotic." Where does it end, Joe? Just a little bit of torture? A touch of illegal spying? Throw away half the Bill of Rights?
Now, how stupid is the extremist Left in this country? Klein and the whole so-smart-they're-stupid-Neocon establishment treat sensible liberals like Ned Lamont as if they were raving Commie lunatics, which is a shame, but it doesn't mean there aren't a few raving lefty lunatics around. Fortunately, they are entirely impotent. Still, when my name's involved, I usually hear about it and it can be pretty annoying, the way mosquito bites often are. Look, for instance, here. If you read this column, you see someone making an argument that liberals thought Liberman was good and Nader was bad in 2000, and now think Liberman is bad, so doesn't that mean Nader was always good and we liberals are hypocrites?
It's sad that anyone would think this requires a response, but here it is. In 2000, Lieberman was:
a) a vice-presidential candidate, an office with no inherent power;
b) running against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
Nobody's views on Lieberman have to change to prefer him as vice president to Bush. Just because someone is preferable to say, Cheney, does not mean they are also preferable to Ned Lamont. Is that clear? (Moreover, I had always argued that Nader should have run against Gore in the Democratic primary, just as Lamont did. Had Lamont gone the Nader route, he would have been but a blip. Of course Nader was apparently too deluded by his onset of megalomania to do so, which is perhaps the most significant reason this country is in the mess it is. So thanks again, Ralph.)
And how stupid is the Right in this country? Here. (To say "extremist right" would be redundant.) James Pinkerton, complaining about liberals and Lamont, writes "Needless to say, Beinart's left-bashing has been reciprocated by plenty of Beinart-bashing from lefties, including The Nation's Eric Alterman. And so the guns of 1948 are still not silenced, and the wounds are still open."
In the first place, what does that mean? I have no idea, to be honest, and Pinkerton does not point to a single example to support his point. Maybe I bashed him because I didn't like his haircut. Maybe I didn't bash him at all. Anything is possible on the basis of evidence Pinkerton doesn't bother to provide.
But whaddya say we break it down anyway? I did, in fact, bash Beinart's article that led to his book, but hey, Beinart removed almost all of the material I criticized when it came time to write the book. As far as his book goes -- which is what Pinkerton is writing about -- I called it "mostly excellent." If that's his idea of a "bash," well then, don't invite him to your party. And second, what the hell does it mean that "the guns of 1948 are still not silenced, and the wounds are still open"? I have pretty strong anti-Communist credentials, after all. And while unlike Beinart, I did oppose the war in Iraq, he would say I was right and he was wrong. And what has Communism actually got to do with the invasion of Iraq anyway? Are they, in fact, interchangeable? Pinkerton doesn't bother to argue this, but his article makes no sense otherwise. But of course the very argument is laughable.
Anyway, whenever you read something on Tech Central Station, remember Nick Confessore's terrific piece on just how fundamentally corrupt the entire enterprise is.
The U.S. helps plan and execute an Israeli war: a Neocon dream come true.
Spike Lee's previous two movies were two of the best films to be released by major studios in the past decade. He's got a new one, about Katrina, and he's profiled by the writer who became Maureen Dowd's New Best Friend, here.
From MediaBistro: Fox News Priest Tricked Us Into Talking, Says Brit Imam (Guardian)
Representatives of a mosque used by several of the terror suspects reacted angrily to a "sick stunt" by Fox News Channel. The imam of the mosque complained that he and others were tricked by a rep from the cable channel, a priest who said he was working for the Vatican and wanted to talk peace.
Jill Carroll's series is here.