Letters to the Editor
William Timberman
Published Letters: 3298 Editor's Choice: 7
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Pointless,
[Read the article: Neoconservative radicalism has reshaped our political spectrum]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]but I'll try anyway. What is it you want, Jonathan? from my perspective, talking about owning your own body is to indulge in a meaningless duality. Are you not you? Is that you merely something which inhabits and animates a piece of property? Never mind the philosophical shakiness of such a formulation; is that really how you experience yourself? If so, it's a pity.
The Declaration of Independence merely makes explicit what all of us should know from our own experience. Ermine-trimmed robes may make it appear that some are God-anointed as subjects, as actors of their own destiny, and others as objects which may be governed, or bought and sold, but that appearance is false. We're all God's chillun, or, as my father used to say, we all put our trouserrs on one leg at a time.
Give it up; either the truths are self-evident, or they're not. If they're not, it's none of our doing. You'll have to find your own way in this, as do we all.
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Excuse me, Holly but this:
[Read the article: The Politico's John Harris replies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What the Republicans and Democrats have most in common is a drive towards and admiration for statism --> state-organized meddling of slightly different sorts depending on party affiliation.
is bullshit. Pure, libertarian bullshit.
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A followup from history
[Read the article: The Politico's John Harris replies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What would you have done, Holly, when
1) Your Dad was living in a Hooverville, and the bankers assured you that this would all blow over....
2) "Bull" Connor was the foremost proponent of State's Rights.
3) You couldn't eat lunch or attend a movie with a friend because he was...gasp...a negro. (And, I might add, he couldn't vote in his own hometown.)
4) The Cold War reared its apparently ugly head, just when the whole country was heartily sick of foreign entanglements?
Would you have counseled patience, and threatened a tax revolt? All I ask here is a little perspective. Do you honestly think that large governments arose out of pure maliciousness?
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@ Poco
[Read the article: The Politico's John Harris replies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You'd prefer that the tender mercies of corporate capitalism go unopposed? At least with government as a separate center of power, you get a vote. When they're both in bed together, you can pretty much kiss your ass goodbye.
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A salute
[Read the article: Neoconservative radicalism has reshaped our political spectrum]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Major Freemon,
I'd be proud to serve in any army/air force/navy if only Congress had the wisdom to appoint men like you to lead it.
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Eventually
[Read the article: Presidential candidates and "substance"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Iokanaan says that eventually they'll have to take notice. I agree with him, although men of good will may differ about what eventually means. The key to shortening this eventually isn't money alone, or turning the media machine, or even popular insurgent candidates, although all are elements in developing policy alternatives and keeping them in the public eye. The key is steadfastness, persistence, and good communications among the insurgent parts of the electorate.
Whatever Howard Dean was, or was not, the thing he's most likely to be remembered for, in my opinion, is that when he realized that an insurgent candidate was never going to win the presidency, not as matters then stood, it didn't take him long to realize also that an insurgent candidate could take over the DNC. To me, that was the measure not only of his political astuteness, but also of his seriousness.
His fifty-state strategy, and the vicious attacks agains it by the Carvilles and McAuliffes gave us -- the dissident Democrats -- a much larger strategic victory than many of us realized at the time, and is only now beginning to bear fruit at lower levels of the party, particularly in the red states. To me, the worst consequence of seeing Hillary win the nomination is that the machers will be back in the saddle again, whether or not she wins in 2008, and frankly, I don't think even Kos can stop her if the people do not.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think Hillary is the devil. Absent the machinery her husband bequeathed to her (foisted off on her might be a better description) I think she could make a decent candidate. Still, if all the smart people around you all think that politics is a game, and they've got the biggest rolodexes, and pants stuffed with cash, well...who has time to build the party anyway, eh?
So...I say we keep on keepin' on, making allies where we can, replacing the national narrative of both parties piece-by-piece with what we ourselves believe in, and above all making sure that our money goes to people we trust. It ain't much, this money, but why count it out dollar by dollar into Terry McAuliffe's glad hand?
Anyway, that's all for me today. I've got work in the kitchen, and later, glasses to raise. Here's to all, and may eventually arrive earlier than we expect.....
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Mmm....
[Read the article: Presidential candidates and "substance"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Work done, and guests departed, I've been catching up a bit. Good stuff today, but I have to disagree with whoever it was who opined that dissident Democrat is an oxymoron.
Tell it to the ghost of LBJ.
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It's not their ignorance of the Constitution and the law,
[Read the article: Your modern-day Republican Party]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]but their total lack of American instincts which can still sometimes astonish me. I suspect that's why I found Glenn's crack about nationalizing industries to be so unintentially funny. The truth of the matter is that industry has nationalized us, including the idiots who now claim the right to represent us.