[lbo-talk] the last word on American politics

W. Kiernan wkiernan at gmail.com
Wed Sep 3 15:28:53 PDT 2008


On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 12:41 PM, rayrena <rayrena at realtime.net> wrote:
>
>> [from The Note - not sure why this didn't come out in the
>> way he intended though]
>>
>> McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, in a quote that didn't
>> come out the way he intended: "This election is not
>> about issues," Davis said in a chat with Washington Post
>> reporters and editors. "This election is about a
>> composite view of what people take away from these
>> candidates."
>
> I think this is absolutely right. And I don't necessarily
> see it as a bad thing, or certainly not as some debasement
> of "real politics."

But Davis is not saying "this election is not one hundred per.cent about issues," he's saying "this election has nothing to do with issues, it's all about voters's teevee-driven impressions of candidates's personalities." He's probably correct as a matter of fact. Boy oh boy do I ever see this as a bad thing, and have done so for the last twenty-nine years.


> For one, thinking that politics is only
> about issues and policy is a decidedly masculinist way of
> looking at things, as if biography, bodies, and affect are
> somehow not political.

I don't understand what you mean by "bodies and affect" there.


> For another, since the actual policy differences between
> the two parties is so miniscule, why not, if you are going
> to bother following Washington politics and voting, try to
> find differences that might be substantive or actually
> relate to you.

For a start, the Republicans not only intend to put judges on the Supreme Court who will repeal Roe vs. Wade but also their platform includes a constitutional amendment banning abortion altogether from coast to coast. One does not need to be a starry-eyed Obama fanboy to enormously prefer him to McCain and that gang of horrible freaks he's fronting for.

yrs WDK



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