Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 172 Editor's Choice: 13
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The popular vote is not an angel
[Read the article: She's in it to spin it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The popular vote is neither angels on a pin nor trite. It is the expression of the majority of voters, and it has taken the back seat to inner-circle whiners and spin doctors for far too long. it's time to re-inject democracy into American politics, particularly the Democratic Party. We need to take the power back from the DNC and other questionable advocates of the people's will.
If Clinton accomplishes only this, then she will have provided an extraordinary service to the political process and the American people. By illustrating the distance between Obama's purported virtues (popular appeal, egalitarianism, inclusiveness) and the facts on the ground, she will at the very least school him and his disturbingly besotted media troops in some crucial electoral and ethical issues.
If she accomplishes more, then perhaps things like -- voting -- will begin to count again. This will dismay people like Donna Brazile and George Stephanopoulos. And that is an excellent thing.
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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
[Read the article: What's in John McCain's medical records?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]PTSD is a physiological syndrome, but there are social aspects to the disease as well. Trauma is often most unmanageable when it is not recognized and acknowledged by society -- when the psychic wounding is denied, as in the case of un-prosecuted crime, particularly child abuse. When public response to traumatic events is appropriate, the people directly affected by those events experience less trauma. Such was the case with survivors of 9/11: public support for the survivors literally helped mitigate (though not erase) much long-term psychological harm.
What does this have to do with John McCain? He may very well be right that his experiences have tempered him. He has experienced horrible trauma, but he also received appropriate support and honor as one consequence of what he suffered. Simply the fact that he sees his experience as having made him more "respected" indicates that the type of trauma associated with public denial of suffering are not an issue for him.
Since it is no longer 1963, I don't find the idea of having a president with fine-tuned sensitivities, traumatic experiences, and a short fuse particularly problematic. Anybody who can survive the budget process without calling several people unspeakable names ought to be suspected on other grounds.
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"Nothing less than successfully subvert[ing] American democracy"
[Read the article: The ugliest election]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And now for the sequel: Florida and Michigan, 2008.
Brought to you by Howard Dean and the DNC.
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Ah yes, another Obama aide-in-waiting
[Read the article: Look homeward, Obama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Is Salon capable of embarrassment? One wistful bedtime story after another, in which the princely candidate bends down his ear and listens, listens(!) to the earnest young journalist entreating him to change affirmative action, or speak to the little people, or "Look Homeward, Angel," cause if only the cynics could see how really good, how smart and fabulous he is, well, they'd be cynics no more!
Actually, Look Homeward Angel is a clunky story about a self-centered, pouty young man who cannot learn the lessons of the common people of his hometown, but hey, who reads anymore?
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Are there ever many literary critics speaking the public argot?
[Read the article: Who killed the literary critic?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The memorable critics mentioned here have always been a very rare breed. And with Helen Vendler covering poetry, and several competent people covering prose, I don't feel any loss, particularly when you consider the wretched path taken by criticism two decades ago, which is thankfully dying or on tenure-sponsored life support. The internet has opened up space for a few good book sections, including this one.
What has been lost, I think, is the second-tier who populated newspaper book sections. The New York Times chopped down its book section to the point that it ceases to be serious -- People magazine, with the inherent implication, publishes longer articles. Regional dailies eviscerated their book sections. Some of the historically significant book reviews in southern newspapers -- in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the St. Petersburg Times, some Alabama papers -- which used to offer brilliant context for a place-identified reading public, are no more. This is part of a larger financial crisis for newspapers.
And so what if, say, The New York Review of Books has lost its cultural cachet? They deserved to lose it, having made so many bone-headed political stands over the years. Far better that they concentrate on the task of writing and reading, preferably with no sharp items in their reach.
Meanwhile, not enough bad things can be said about the terrible quality of academic writing. We have decimated a generation of minds, or they decimated themselves. In any case, the splatter will take a long, long time to fade from view.