Letters to the Editor
DCLaw1
Published Letters: 996 Editor's Choice: 2
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Military Patriot
[Read the article: Rudy Giuliani's messianic paranoia]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You guys are sounding more fearful than cautious. I hope you’re not partially succumbing to their fear tactics. They’re idiots and cowards. We’re stronger and much superior in all ways. Let’s not forget that.
I've never succumbed to fear in my entire life. You may be right that "we're stronger and much superior," in a very general sense, but there's one thing we could learn from the conservative movement from the 1990s to today.
One big reason why the media tends to internalize so many GOP talking points and canards is because Republicans tend to fight much harder for what they believe in. They do so to the point of actually talking out of both sides of their mouths, but one can hardly overestimate the power of raw conviction to win people over.
While liberals, true libertarians, and all other natural enemies of neoconservatism may be more "good" or "right" in the end, this makes not one iota of difference if we do not defend our principles aggressively, both in and out of office.
In that respect, I have not a fearful fiber in my soul.
I'm off to the movies...
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cuteness is Seriousness
[Read the article: The Tom Friedman of 2002 has not gone anywhere]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Friedman is one of a long line of officially sanctioned Serious pundits who have made a cottage industry of making cute, "unconventional," yet facile observations about politics and politicians.
Within these sanctioned circles, there is a great competition to see who can come up with the most clever and novel premise to explain or predict politics. It's all done with a breathtaking smugness, cuteness, and know-it-all gamesmanship -- an overarching, reflexive need to "buck the conventional wisdom" while still depending exclusively on cliche and the laziest of stereotypes.
Also, I find it remarkably, disgustingly telling that a juvenile like Dowd, with her recent column comparing the likely Democratic presidential nominee to a dominatrix, gets invited as a Serious pundit onto Serious shows like Meet the Press, while the unwashed bloggers are repeatedly admonished not to be so "shrill" and "uncivil." Dowd is the living embodiment of "too clever by half," fancying herself some ingenious iconoclast and gadfly when in fact she is abjectly infantile, unoriginal, and worst of all, highly useful to the most corrosive elements of our society.
Is there any better example of the myth of American meritocracy than the fact that these people sit atop the compost heap of our mass discourse? What a bunch of utterly incorrigible hypocrites and idiots.
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diplomacy
[Read the article: The Tom Friedman of 2002 has not gone anywhere]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The point of that para, is that people cannot be swayed from what beliefs they hold, by pop pyschology as diplomacy.
And the point of diplomacy, to say nothing of "pop psychology," is not to sway one's adversary's beliefs, but to convince them that it is in their best interest to modify their political or military behavior. This can often be accomplished by use of something called soft power, not just hard, military power.
Then again, if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, doesn't it?
We'll leave the fool's errand of attempting to convert others' fundamental beliefs up to those day-dreamy neoconservatives.
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no matter where you go, there you are
[Read the article: The Tom Friedman of 2002 has not gone anywhere]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think Buckaroo Banzai put it better: No matter where you go, there you are.
Thank you! In a friendly conversation with my adult son I quoted that (true) observation to him, and he wanted to know the source, which I could not recall. Now I can attribute without adding it to my "to do" list (googling).
I think it's also mentioned in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. One of my favorite catch phrases too.
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Friedman
[Read the article: Tom Friedman and Rudy Giuliani on 9/11]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]is clearly a man who impresses none more than himself. It's all over his body language. He looks like a teenager hunched over one of his dad's Hustlers, only there's nothing there except his own prattling.
It's breathtaking to think how many of our greatest problems today have uncontrolled ego at their root.
The only thing worse than an idiot is an idiot disguised as a genius.
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on automatic
[Read the article: Brian Williams: "Marriage is under attack"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Messianic Paranoia"
We're under attack! we're under attack!
Please, get over yourselves.
This is clearly the product of an automatic right-wing rant generator. Just plug in the root word: "attack," and the software creates a pseudo-coherent blurb. Doesn't have to actually say or mean anything, that's beside the point.
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In re: Update IV
[Read the article: Demand answers from Time magazine]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thus, the path of least resistance for media outlets is to do what Joe Klein does -- loyally pass on GOP-fed smears of Democrats, because they know that conservatives will pat them on the head for it, while Congressional Democrats not named "Rush Holt" will remain passive and silent, all in the hope that by doing so, the press will like them more and treat them better next time. That's why Rep. Holt's aggressive response to Time's falsehoods today was so impressive, and so rare.
Amazing that, among an entire party of "leaders," this most basic leadership principle is nowhere to be found. Politics is people, and people are beholden to perceptions, so confidence and unequivocation defines political reality.
Don't play by the terms defined by your enemies. Create your own terms.
Oh, why do I bother -- the people that need to read this most are too busy searching the glossy pages of Time for the way forward.
Give 'em hell, Glenn.