Dissing Your Friends, and a Break
Asked what it would mean if Lieberman kept his chairmanship, one Senate Democratic aide said bluntly: “The left has been foiled again. They can rant and rage but they still do not put the fear into folks to actually change their votes. Their influence would be in question.”
That’s one way to look at it. The other is that the left would be up in arms and far less willing to go along and get along with President-elect Barack Obama’s agenda — particularly if it doesn’t contain the appropriate progressive tilt.
Harry Reid Demonstrates His Weakness
In any other profession, when you tell the boss to fuck off, you get fired. Democrats honestly don’t seem to get it: the left that they love to demonize is actually their friend. We elected Obama, not the right wing cuckoo bananas crowd, and all we have gotten in return is a bitch slap.
I’ve been doing a bit of reading lately, delving into “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. It’s a bit dense, and a bit pop-culture-y, but the writer makes some good points, among them the difference between character and personality. Right now, I believe a lot of people in the senate, including Pennsylvania’s lovable thickwit Bob Casey, are have taken advantage of the latter, with little or no attention to the former. I will update with blockquotes later
Almost all of the literature in the first 150 years or so focused on what could be called the Character Ethic as the foundation of success - things like integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty, and the Golden Rule. Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography is representative of that literature…
The Character Ethic taught that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.
But shortly after World War I the basic view of success shifted from the Character Ethic to what we might call the Personality Ethic. Success became more a function of personality, of public image, of attitudes and behaviors, skills and techniques, that lubricate the processes of human interaction. This Personality Ethic essentially took two paths: one was human and public relations techniques, and the other was positive mental attitude (PMA)….
Other parts of the personality approach were clearly manipulative, even deceptive, encouraging people to use techniques to get other people to like them, or to fake interest in the hobbies of others to get out of them what they wanted, or to use the “power look”, or to intimidate their way through life.
Some of this literature acknowledged character as an ingredient of success, but tended to compartmentalize it rather than recognize it as foundational and catalytic. Reference to the Character Ethic became mostly lip service; the basic thrust was quick-fix influence techniques, power strategies, ciommunication skills, and positive attitudes
Sound familiar?
My current feeling is that the Senate and the Congress have become thoroughly corrupted. I don’t mean that in the sense of the bribery and quid pro quo that lubricates the cogs of our political system. I mean “corrupted”in the sense of disintegration and ruin, the kind of structural corruption that leads to buildings collapsing.
Nowhere is this more evident than in yesterday’s Senate decision to protect Joe Lieberman. They even called him a Democrat, as if the 2006 primary never happened. It is as if the system really IS based on “going along to get along.” Rather than dealing with issues of Lieberman’s issues of character (including “integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, and justice”), Senators instead rewarded him on the basis of personality. It’s a bad move, and one that will have predictable results.
That said, I think have come to a point where I think it’s time to take a break from blogging. I don’t know how long that’s going to last: I’m tired, I’m stressed, and I have more on my mind than I need. I can’t keep listening to weasel fucks like Harry Reid exclaiming on the radio that he apologizes to no one for keeping Lieberman in the party. I can’t watch Joe do windmills at the Democratic public with his shriveled little penis any longer (and I’m sure glad I don’t live in Connecticut anymore).
My city is collapsing, and I intend to put my efforts there for awhile. This is the last year I’m going to see my son every other month, and I want to leave mental and emotional space for him before we disappear from each other’s lives, probably forever. I have too many personal issues to deal with, and too short a temper at this time to be treated like an idiot by people who are textbook examples of the same.
So tata for now (unless of course the spirit strikes, which it may…)
2 Responses to “Dissing Your Friends, and a Break”
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November 19th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I think Liebermole has mountains of dirty information on his fellow political counterparts. Blackmail material gleaned from years of underhanded deals with Repubs, foreign spies, wire taps, and god knows what else. How else can you explain the lowered heads, rounded shoulders, and shiffty eyes of all the dirty white boys surrounding him. They all looked like a bunch of kids that just got a whipping from daddy. Pathetic.
He’s an ugly, manipulative, vindictive bitch. I remember girls like him in school. Brrrrrrr!
On the personal side. I think you need to take a break from these guys for a while, they can wear you very thin. I do enjoy your general interest blogs, and hope you will at least throw us a bone now and then.
Take care of yourself.
November 20th, 2008 at 6:54 am
I’ll spare any commentary on Leiberman and the continued lack of leadership on the part of the Dems except to say that, in this case and in many others since you have been active in the blogosphere (and, of course, long prior to that), I remain astounded by your ability to take all this shit on, day in and day out, take the blasts fearlessly, and even when the end result has you kicking and screaming (including rare occasions where I end up disagreeing), you manage to process it all in a way that makes it all a little easier for me to take. While a break may be in order, I hope you realize that there are some of us out there that appreciate the guts you have and the articulate, brilliant discourse of yours that has become a matter of course. (You know I’m there in terms of the personal shit, but I’ll leave that off of this discussion and reserve it for the telephone.)
I don’t know about you — well, I have my suspicions — but the days since Nov. 4 have been a weird time to process, to say the least. Leading up to the election, from the pain of the last eight years to the unease and fear, right up to election night, that something horrible would go down, as we discussed about on the phone as I was walking with a clenched jaw towards work –I couldn’t wait for the day to come. The relief of what happened was overwhelming, but the real chore of the great Bush hellride is becoming more and more clear with each day. I’m exhausted, even though I’m actually (knock on wood) more stable now financially than I was a year ago. While I was sick of the campaign and couldn’t wait until it was all done, the reality of the problems we all face seems more naked and clear by several orders of magnitude without the presidential race to distract us. I mentioned it today to Becky that there was something about the campaign that distorted and softened the harsh reality, and now, I miss that filter. It was an intoxication without pleasure, but an intoxication regardless. And the hangover from it is like booze bender sickness where the sight of everything makes you sad and even sunlight itself bruises you down to your very soul. I think we need lots of water, more sleep, maybe a good egg sandwich, a nap or two, and the occasional nugget of reassurance from friends and loved ones that things might get better.