Jay Lake: Writer

[politics] I’d call it disillusionment, but I was already cynical before

Geithner and his little tax problem. Daschle and his slightly larger tax problem. Killefer and her very stupid tax problem..

Come on Democrats, you guys are supposed to be better than Republicans. I don’t have, as the_flea_king once put it, a hate-on for conservatives. I have a hate-on for hypocrites. Hypocrisy, intellectual dishonesty and sheer old fashion self-delusion have been the stock in trade of the GOP all my adult life. (I came of age, politically, during the Moral Majority’s ascendancy, and watched Ronald Reagan run up the then-largest deficits in history while claiming the mantle of fiscal responsibility. ’nuff said there.)

Apparently my quite tepid faith in the Democrats is being repaid with destructive silliness in the vein of the entitlements of wealth. “Only little people pay taxes” seems to apply to the party which is not my party of choice, but my party of default. You don’t match greed with greed, and you don’t match hypocrisy with hypocrisy.

Confidential to Democrats in America: We didn’t throw the bums out just for the sake of having a new set of bums.

Tags: Politics

Posted: 9:15 pm Tue February 03 2009 | Comments(8) |

[politics] The Inauguration viewed after all

As it happens, I did get to watch the most important bits of the Inauguration yesterday, rather to my surprise. Roughly from the homophobic bigot’s self-abnegating invocation, which was the only false note, through the end of President Obama’s inaugural speech.

Three of of the sweetest words in the English language: “Former President Bush.”

Three even sweeter words: “President Barack Obama.”

Congratulations, America.

Tags: Politics

Posted: 2:58 am Wed January 21 2009 | Comments(0) |

[politics] Happy Inauguration Day

Happy Inauguration Day, everyone. I’ll be at the Day Jobbe and so not watching or listening to Obama’s speech. For those of you who are doing so, enjoy it for me.

I find myself wondering if the incoming Obama administration will follow recent tradition and spread a bunch of bizarre lies about the previous administration prying the “O” keys off the White House computers and so forth. It’s a lovely political rite which our moral compassholders in the GOP trailblazed for us.

Also, conservatives: this is important. At 12:01 Eastern time today you’ll be required to surrender all your guns, gay-marry the nearest librul and join your local mosque. At least, that’s what I heard on talk radio, so it must be true.

Welcome to a new day, America. Let’s clean up the reeking mess Bush made of the country and the world.

Tags: Politics

Posted: 4:14 am Tue January 20 2009 | Comments(0) |

[politics] What has conservatism gotten right?

This has cropped up in conversation several times in the past few weeks, so I am finally getting around to laying it down on the blog here. A fairly simple question, one I’m very curious about answers to all across the political spectrum.

What has conservatism gotten right?

Even the most casual accounting will show that conservatives have been wrong, usually destructively so, on a whole range of now-settled issues throughout American history. For example, slavery, Jim Crow, interracial marriage and Civil Rights. Female suffrage, no-fault divorce, and women’s rights. Child labor, wage-and-hour rules, the forty-hour work week, workplace safety and every minimum wage increase ever passed. Environmental quality, pollution control, energy conservation, automobile safety and efficiency. Conservatives opposed our entry into WWII, conservative economic and de-regulation policies brought about the Great Depression, gave us the laughable fraud of supply-side economics and may have brought about the Bush Depression. Conservatives brought us Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. The list is nigh endless.

Things that conservatives are patently wrong about today which will almost certainly be judged harshly by history include global warming, stem cell research, reproductive freedom, Creationism/ID in education, the Iraq War, gay marriage, and Bush-era science policy, Civil Liberties practices and terrorism policy.

I’ve long averred that conservatism is fundamentally a philosophy of fear — fear of change, fear of inequity, fear that someone somewhere might be benefiting unjustly, fear that Bad People will come to your door and take away what you love most. Looking at the above list, you can see where I get that idea from. So what has the conservative movement gotten right? And why is it trusted by millions of Americans today?

Tags: Politics

Posted: 6:04 am Mon December 08 2008 | Comments(9) |

[politics] The guy you’d rather have a beer with

I was thinking on my walk this morning. Dangerous, that. About President-Elect Obama, and what he represents to me. A lot of things I’ve talked about before here, and many others have touched on as well. Hope, change, trust. A belief that the government can be good again, and govern with the interests of the American people and the world at heart, instead of cynical power-mongering and ideological blindness. I may be wrong, dead wrong, and if I am, I’ll fight this administration just as I’ve fought the last, but right now I feel pretty good.

One thing I never did understand about Bush the Younger was the “guy you’d want to have a beer with” meme. That was a big one in the 2000 election, and got some play in 2004. I was living in Texas when he became governor there, and there was nothing about the man I found likable. Incuriosity, petulance and smug entitlement are qualities I associate with University of Texas frat boys, and I never wanted to have a beer with them. Why would I want to have a beer with a candidate who radiates those same characteristics as if they were virtues? Besides, I don’t like beer.

Barack Obama is the first presidential candidate I would actually want to sit down with over dinner and shoot the shit. Even candidates I’ve supported in the past didn’t resonate with me personally the way Obama has. Neither Hillary Clinton nor John Edwards raised any sympatico in me during this election cycle. But Obama? Different. I’m not sure why, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter in the larger scheme of things, but if he’s ever in Portland with an hour to kill, I’d be happy to buy him a basket of Cajunized tater tots and talk about life. I’ve never before been moved to say that about a political leader.

But I’m having limeade, not beer.

Tags: Personal, Politics

Posted: 6:48 am Fri November 07 2008 | Comments(5) |

[politics] One more brief outburst

slithytove talks about how his guy lost. An intelligent, melancholy reflection, wherein he speaks of the dangers complete Democratic control. In his comments section, I said the following, which I think bears repeating:

Without a supermajority in the Senate, the Democrats are not in complete control of the legislative branch. And I seriously doubt you’ll see Reid and Pelosi using the kind of tactics the Permanent Majority employed against the minority — they certainly haven’t the last two years.

Centrists and progressives are far more inclusive than conservatives, pretty much by definition. Which is my way of saying that a Democratic-dominated government is much friendlier to conservatives than a Republican-dominated government is to liberal-progressives. The political history of this country since at least 1968 would seem to bear me out on that.

Tags: Politics

Posted: 7:21 am Wed November 05 2008 | Comments(1) |

[politics] The day after yesterday

Last night I watched the returns with karindira and some of her friends and family. Even going into the evening, I didn’t trust in the outcome. I agree with statements that the election was Obama’s to lose, but there were so many ways to lose it. The Bradley effect is very real, voting manipulation (per Ohio 2004 and Florida 2000) is very real, GOP voter suppression efforts have been quite effective historically (though apparently not this time), anything like a close vote would have gone to an even more conservative than 2000 Supreme Court, Bush v. Gore style; plus, as always, the marrow-deep ability of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as they have time and again

Obama pulled it off. A black man won, in places like Virginia and Florida. He won big, much bigger than Bush’s “mandate” re-election of 2004. He won big enough to trump cynical legal strategies and smokescreen rhetoric about voter registration fraud. And he did it not by being black, or being clever, or being meaner, or being anything but an excellent candidate. The best candidate won.

And his acceptance speech, afterward. I’ll give big props to McCain for his concession prior to Obama coming out. It’s the first time in years I’ve seen McCain be neither smug nor angry, and he genuinely seemed to accept Obama’s victory in a gracious and patriotic manner. (Something which had quite frankly worried me a lot.) He lofted the rhetorical ball for Obama to spike it over the net with an acceptance speech which will quite likely become the defining political moment of this decade.

What does an Obama presidency mean? Hell if I know. And frankly, I don’t care so much right now. For the first time in years, America voted for hope instead of fear, for an outward face instead of a turning in, for change instead of stasis, for anticipation instead of nostalgia, for acceptance instead of rejection, for openness instead of resentment, for engagement instead of isolation.

We voted, and we voted big, for the future, instead of another encystment in the bitterness of past wars and spent ideologies.

I don’t know what Obama’s presidency means, but for the first time in my life, I trust a president.

Plus, a few bonus links in this vein:

Truman Defeats Dewey — Scrivener’s Error on the election, with a take I agree with.

Reality Check — Scalzi on the election. Better put than I would have.

What’s with all the ideology? — Freakonomics responds to an Australian reader’s question about American political extremism.

Diagnosing Sarah Palin — One last shot at a seriously unlamented political figure. Though I’m fairly certain she’ll be back in a big way. (Nicked from a locked post on my flist.)

Tags: Links, Politics

Posted: 6:47 am Wed November 05 2008 | Comments(0) |

[politics] McCain’s concession

Much like Al Gore in 2000, the best speech McCain gave in his campaign was his concession.

At the end, he finally showed some class. He might have had a chance if he’d tried that earlier.

Tags: Politics

Posted: 9:28 pm Tue November 04 2008 | Comments(3) |

[politics] MSNBC just called it for Obama

Wow.

Our long national nightmare is over.

Tags: Politics

Posted: 9:01 pm Tue November 04 2008 | Comments(3) |

[politics] The United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion

As the Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the law, religion or tranquility of Musselmen

    — Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary

A treaty written by the Founders in the time of the Founders. Not that this will affect Dominionist fantasies at all, but it’s definitely worth noting. (Thanks to AH.)

Tags: politicis, Religion

Posted: 7:28 pm Tue November 04 2008 | Comments(1) |