Letters to the Editor
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@jkalos and nep
I think that this Floyd-anti-Floyd discussion is also what Matt Bai was exploring in his book, “The Day of the Netroots.” An Economist October 11 book review found that within the large Dem, far from unified, umbrella are many with impossible demands who do not deserve the credit they seek.
The Repug thugs have it so much easier in their black and white, any ends justifies any means world. Their unity and our disunity is a clear advantage. No amount of wailing or blaming puts pieces of straw in the haystack. There comes a time when we have to unify and use our collective power to keep building the haystack.
Once a Dem presidential candidate is chosen, we better not make the Nader mistake of giving any chance for the Repug thugs to have control of the executive and legislative branches. The larger the November 2008 Dem margin is, the greater the leverage to restore our republic.
For those interested here are two excerpts from the review and the link:
His book is engaging and painstakingly reported. Mr Bai sets out to uncover the forces shaping the Democratic Party behind the scenes, both within and outside the party hierarchy. He spends time with howling bloggers, billionaire donors and the politicians who try to accommodate their impossible demands. He is instinctively sympathetic to anyone on the anti-Bush team, but he can't help noticing what ghastly people some of them are.
All this leaves Mr Bai somewhat dispirited. The Democrats' stunning capture of Congress last year left nearly all the characters in his book claiming credit. But there was not much evidence that any of them deserved it. People had voted to punish the president and his party, not to endorse any big idea of the Democrats'—because, he concludes, they have not got one.
http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9941786
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@CloudDude
Is Floyd thinking that his passion equals general acceptance, or is he at the spot I hinted at, the one where we are driven back onto individual acts of conscience? Think about how Emerson and the Concord crowd reacted to the seizure of the runaway slave in Boston, who was returned down south by the authorities.The impassioned speeches Emerson gave--and the anti-slavery pieces Thoreau gave on other occasions--were not predicated I think on any hope of general consensus but on the need to speak out for the sake of individual conscience. Perhaps it is that you think the situation is not so dire that we are driven into the state of individual conscience. That would put those who feel the integrity of their life and soul threatened in ridiculous position of someone screaming the ship is sinking when it still safely floating at dock. But surely you can see their point? And it is not so clear to me that the ship is not sinking and it is time to make our peace, as it were, with the state of our souls. If the ship is sinking, then those who calmly ignore it would seem the most ridiculous of all. Me, I'm not sure: but we can try to figure it out I hope.
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Che's Jane Curtin routine
And Holly, it's probably best for you to just "walk on by" when you see a Chris Floyd post. Certainly no one -- least of all anyone here -- would want to interfere with your serious business of closely following the potential for a dust up in the Senate. -- Ché Pasa
Ché, you ignorant slut. A "potential dust up in the Senate" is the only thing that actually counts in governance -- in the creation of the laws which control our lives. In the end, we aren't actually governed by polemics.
... there are -- as you acknowledge -- many who appreciate Floyd's polemical efforts, which don't necessarily give you the level of detail you're after. The marketplace can accommodate both, don't you think, without diminishing or hampering either. -- Ché Pasa
I disagree, although not as well as another letter writer did above. The "marketplace" of ideas is a place where heat readily crowds out light -- they don't seem to co-exist on this plane.
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@RMP
Your point is well taken if the crucial premise is accepted that the Democrat elected offers a true alternative. I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you until the 2006 vote when the Dems came in and basically did what they did, which was nothing much. That has given credence in my mind to the argument that democrats and republicans are all basically a puppet show front for the corporations, etc.--you know the whole argument, I'm sure. That relates to my point of whether or not there is any real hope, or are we in the place where we are left to try to live a life of integrity no matter what and that is all we have left, because nothing we do via voting, etc. means anything. I'm not saying I know that is true: just that the behaviour of the democrats have make it a loomingly terrible possible truth to my mind. In any case I agree we must act with hope as a perennial possibility, because if I am certain of anything it is that I might be wrong. So act as if change is possible, but do not act in such a way as to violate personal integrity, I suppose. But maybe those getting shrill are not clutching at straws, as you put it, RMP, but are getting their souls in order before the ship goes down. I do not have it in my heart to knock them.
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Kudos, JKalos!
For your valiant effort at uniting the pro-Floyds and anti-Floyds. Clearly, many/most of us really do want the same things. And, in general, we even prefer the same means to our ends. We simply appreciate different styles. There's nothing wrong with that, either. I just think we haven't had enough of Floyd's style for some time (i.e., since-Bush, if not even before). A little inspiration really can increase the air quality for awhile.
just one of the pro-Floyds
p.s. Glenn, you should have warned us about how much more time your blog would require this week. Who among us really expected three or more posts each day? I know I didn't.