signalmankenneth
Verified User
Something precious is being squandered in the rough and tumble of this political season - - a shocking decline in respect for the values that made this country a symbol of freedom and decency. After years of progress in the area of civility and civil rights voter angst in a time of economic trauma has become an excuse for virulent, racially-charged campaigns. Suddenly it is acceptable to air long-repressed hostility that had been frowned upon as the country moved to moderate an ugly, divisive past.
Tea Partiers say they want to take the country back, a rallying cry without substance except as an expression of anti-government fervor even though, in many cases, protesters are the beneficiaries of federal programs like Medicare and Social Security. They feel oppressed, over-taxed, and under-appreciated. And they tend to support candidates in spite of their dubious qualifications because those deficits are a better fit with their own self image and distance them from people they disparage as political elites. Gaining an advantage is the game; no rules of conduct need apply in attaining that goal.
What this has come to mean is that Tea-Party and right-wing supported candidates have won Republican primaries despite obvious failings and a lack of preparedness to govern effectively. But anger and dissatisfaction aren’t credentials for holding office, and the brickbats aimed at the president and various incumbents exhibit an unprecedented level of disrespect that cheapens the national debate. Political, upstart Ben Quayle for example, running for the House from Arizona had the temerity to call Obama the “worst president” ever, as if he actually had the bona fides to make such an assessment.
In general the current crop of candidates is a sub-standard lot of people who talk values but trash what’s best about our culture and turn free speech into slurs that signal a return to the dark days when racial epithets and low-minded innuendo were common in the public forum. Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell won her primary race against an incumbent she vilified as “unmanly” saying the race was not a “bake-off” and that he should get his “man pants” on. What garbage from someone who hopes to represent Delaware in the Senate. Nevertheless she won the primary and made an exuberant victory speech with a typically white Tea Party entourage at her side, until someone had the presence of mind to propel a black male supporter onto the stage beside her.
In Connecticut a wrestling maven is willing to spend millions of her personal fortune to run against Richard Blumenthal who has served with distinction as that state’s Attorney General for many years. For her part, Linda McMahon touts her organizational skills as WWE’s CEO and seems to feel that makes her a viable candidate and desirable addition to the Senate. Apparently running a large ‘entertainment’ business is no match for the power trip serving in the Senate would be.
Sharron Angle in Nevada and pals like Michele Bachman in Minnesota seem to be of a mind that any elected representative in Congress who fails to offer uncritical support of business interests is a traitor to the “free market” system and therefore an enemy of the state. When questioned about whether she would actually call such a person an enemy Angle hedged and just said ‘well they aren’t a friend.’
Rounding out a distressingly undistinguished roster of Republican primary winners New York’s Carl Paladino was chosen to run against Andrew Cuomo for Governor. Self-financed with a million-dollar fortune Paladino scoffs at critics who find his racially-laced, pornography-laden e-mails to friends unseemly for someone seeking to serve as the state’s highest elected official. The fact that he thought his mailings were amusing and that voters seemed not to care is just another indication of how distorted our values have become - - perhaps because Paladino and others are very much like so many of us.
But in addition to other pressing issues we should be working to reaffirm our allegiance to standards of common decency. Today’s low-minded contrivances are reminiscent of the fifties when Joe McCarthy conducted his notorious Communist witch hunts. Joseph Welch, counsel for the US Army being investigated by McCarthy confronted the senator for needlessly sullying the reputation of a Welch colleague saying “have you no decency Sir, at long last have you left no sense of decency?” That is a question we should be asking politicians and media propagandists whose personal ambition has led them to trash the principles we most value and admire in ourselves as a people.
FINDING A VOICE by Ann Davidow
Tea Partiers say they want to take the country back, a rallying cry without substance except as an expression of anti-government fervor even though, in many cases, protesters are the beneficiaries of federal programs like Medicare and Social Security. They feel oppressed, over-taxed, and under-appreciated. And they tend to support candidates in spite of their dubious qualifications because those deficits are a better fit with their own self image and distance them from people they disparage as political elites. Gaining an advantage is the game; no rules of conduct need apply in attaining that goal.
What this has come to mean is that Tea-Party and right-wing supported candidates have won Republican primaries despite obvious failings and a lack of preparedness to govern effectively. But anger and dissatisfaction aren’t credentials for holding office, and the brickbats aimed at the president and various incumbents exhibit an unprecedented level of disrespect that cheapens the national debate. Political, upstart Ben Quayle for example, running for the House from Arizona had the temerity to call Obama the “worst president” ever, as if he actually had the bona fides to make such an assessment.
In general the current crop of candidates is a sub-standard lot of people who talk values but trash what’s best about our culture and turn free speech into slurs that signal a return to the dark days when racial epithets and low-minded innuendo were common in the public forum. Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell won her primary race against an incumbent she vilified as “unmanly” saying the race was not a “bake-off” and that he should get his “man pants” on. What garbage from someone who hopes to represent Delaware in the Senate. Nevertheless she won the primary and made an exuberant victory speech with a typically white Tea Party entourage at her side, until someone had the presence of mind to propel a black male supporter onto the stage beside her.
In Connecticut a wrestling maven is willing to spend millions of her personal fortune to run against Richard Blumenthal who has served with distinction as that state’s Attorney General for many years. For her part, Linda McMahon touts her organizational skills as WWE’s CEO and seems to feel that makes her a viable candidate and desirable addition to the Senate. Apparently running a large ‘entertainment’ business is no match for the power trip serving in the Senate would be.
Sharron Angle in Nevada and pals like Michele Bachman in Minnesota seem to be of a mind that any elected representative in Congress who fails to offer uncritical support of business interests is a traitor to the “free market” system and therefore an enemy of the state. When questioned about whether she would actually call such a person an enemy Angle hedged and just said ‘well they aren’t a friend.’
Rounding out a distressingly undistinguished roster of Republican primary winners New York’s Carl Paladino was chosen to run against Andrew Cuomo for Governor. Self-financed with a million-dollar fortune Paladino scoffs at critics who find his racially-laced, pornography-laden e-mails to friends unseemly for someone seeking to serve as the state’s highest elected official. The fact that he thought his mailings were amusing and that voters seemed not to care is just another indication of how distorted our values have become - - perhaps because Paladino and others are very much like so many of us.
But in addition to other pressing issues we should be working to reaffirm our allegiance to standards of common decency. Today’s low-minded contrivances are reminiscent of the fifties when Joe McCarthy conducted his notorious Communist witch hunts. Joseph Welch, counsel for the US Army being investigated by McCarthy confronted the senator for needlessly sullying the reputation of a Welch colleague saying “have you no decency Sir, at long last have you left no sense of decency?” That is a question we should be asking politicians and media propagandists whose personal ambition has led them to trash the principles we most value and admire in ourselves as a people.
FINDING A VOICE by Ann Davidow
