Politics and the mixing of concerns (was: Bush's inarticulateness)

Russell Turpin deafbox@hotmail.com
Sat, 22 Mar 2003 22:57:08 +0000

Jeff Bone:
>Let's be careful to separate concerns, 'k?

Stray thought.

This may be why rational citizens are doomed
to some frustration with democratic politics.
Parties and coalition building are all about
the combination of concerns. The Republicans
are riding large now because of they bake
business favoritism, homophobia, religiosity,
and jingoism into a cake heavily iced with
family values. It's not nutritious, but is
delicious sin to the thirty year-old professional
couples with young kids. Even the ones who don't
like the icing or the nuts just sort of push
those aside what they don't like, and eat the
rest with gusto.

Similarly, I suspect the peace movement's appeal
has less to do with rational policy than a
package of open air protests, opposition to the
treackly sweet cake above, naked college chicks,
and leftist euphoria, which for its older members
comes well-laced with the soft-focus memories of
VW vans, bongs, and getting laid in a tent to the
background chant of "hey, hey, L-B-J." Instead of
white angel cake with white icing, this one is an
oatmeal cake with allspice, cinnamon, and dates.

Democratic politics is all about mixing concerns.
Yeah, that kind of sucks for we independents.

>It's tough, I'm having a tough time of it myself --- things are quite 
>ideologically / pragmatically / causally messy these days.

If it's tough for you, imagine what it's like for
someone whose mind is not so quick as yours. It's
so much easier to buy one of the pre-made cake
mixes, than to make your own from scratch.
