The Rules are Different There

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he
Matthew 15:10
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Seattle's alternative paper, The Stranger (Seattle), ran a piece last Thursday entitled, Hell house, outing those homes on Seattle's Eastside who were so unsaavy as to place McCain signs in their yard (via Lt Nixon.) Claiming to spoof Christmas articles which list homes with the best lighting displays, the editors allowed the article to run the addresses of the homes that dared to earn their ire.

Seem like a slightly off-base foray into ridicule? A poor attempt at Saturday Night Live level humor? Really, it is not-too-shy of Brownshirt strong-arm tactics. The Left seems every bit as deranged as their hardcore Right brethren. This was not an invitation to friendly ribbing. The readership of this paper is skewed hard Left. Running the addresses says, "These people are Other; they are the enemy."

Problem is, in a democracy, no one who participates freely and fairly in the electoral process is the enemy.

The Doonesbury comic strip this weekend ran a bit from their "correspondent" in Kenya who warns, "There will be rioting in the streets if Obama wins" or if he loses; "It could turn ugly." Thinly veiled warning?

In our neck of the woods, people are getting Obama yard signs to place out as precaution. Enough of the slams against the madness of the Right, and their very real insanity. The Left press has whipped up enough of its own to make things scary. The whispers have been circulating for months: Obama is the second coming of RFK, JFK, MLK. Will he be assassinated, preempting our second shot at Camelot?

If you say something often enough, it becomes true, at least to you. The biggest fan base for Obama does not seem to be swirling around the message of conciliation or harmony, or any of that One World stuff. The biggest thread drawing them together is their neo-conspiracy theorizing.

Whenever people rally around a savior there will be trouble. The message should be larger than the man, for mortality is the guarantee in life, and any number of similarly aligned people should be able and groomed to take over the reigns as necessary. Instead, we see a cult of personality surrounding Obama, an almost angry challenge to start a fight.

As mentioned in the previous piece, racial discord is the overriding misery in our society. The anger surrounding the candidacy of Obama symbolizes the unresolved anger simmering under the fractured surface.

Death Wish?

Too much time on my hands,
it's ticking away with my sanity
I've got too much time on my hands,
it's hard to believe such a calamity
--Too Much Time on My Hands, Styx
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A recent emergent trend from within the liberal community vis-a-vis candidate Obama disturbs me -- it is chatter about an imagined assassination plot.

The macabre nostalgic jag seems to emerge from a wistfulness and a longing to resurrect Camelot 1960, hence all things attendant to that time. Some MSM commentators are feeding this frenzy, likening Obama to a latter-day JFK -- someone at the WaPo described him as long and lanky and young, "like JFK, not RFK." How that matters, I don't know.

It is like witnessing NASCAR fanatics who secretly hope for a mashup, and the subsequent martyrdom of the victim. Our own Dale Earnhardt or Benazir Bhutto? Is this persecution complex-via-affiliation what it takes to light a fire under people?

Obama's platform simply is not revolutionary. Is it his coloration? He is within the same tonal value as Colin Powell, and George W. Bush and Company accepted him as Secretary of State. Ditto Condoleeza Rice, though she is even darker.

One could argue Ms. Rice's acceptability rides simply on the basis of a latent desire for minstrelsy in the power elite -- she plays the piano, and is President Bush's good friend. But that would be unkind.

The country seems far more ready to accept a well-connected mulatto male than a female, which would actually be the more daring choice for America. After all, Obama is still a Man in a Grey Flannel Suit, and can play ball with the boys.

Tom Toles cartoon today in the WaPo says it all: Hillary Clinton is damned if she does, and damned if she doesn't. She is a calculating, heartless castrating woman, or an hysterical female. In this race, the real bile is launched at the uppity bitch in the pant suit. (At least pretty little Nancy Pelosi has the good graces to wear tailored skirt suits, above the knee, at that.)

The crone's power is unharnessed by any man, and therefore, untenable to the misogynist. Clinton's opponents have not forgotten her dismissive stance vis-a-vis Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man."

For the bigot, the threat it is six of one, half a dozen of another. You might say the intelligent woman is the larger threat, as he still nurtures the "field negro" type -- easily manipulated by his controllers. If those sorts emerge from their dens, I wouldn't want to call which of those two candidates would rile them the most. But if theirs were such a sizable bloc, Edwards would be making a better showing.

From the British press, "(n)o wonder the clichéd word change works like magic for Obama," for in this way, "it is better to be black. To put it bluntly, for a large, frequently inattentive electorate, there could be no more potent symbol of his differentness" than his blackness (Black is Electable.)

Robert Samuelson in the WaPo today addresses the sad fact that most of the candidates lead with a clarion call about a bright future, but fail to address the lack of funds with which to create it. Specifically no one is addressing Social Security and Medicare in a meaningful way, which would be a real change. These are real issues which will cast a real pall upon any pretty rhetoric in the very near future.

They pay lip service to children but ignore the actual programs that will shape their future. The hypocrisy is especially striking Obama. He courts the young, promises "straight talk" and offers himself as the agent of "change." But his conspicuous omissions constitute "crooked talk" and silently endorse the status quo (Promises They Can't Keep.)

Speculations are running riot about Obama's possible targeting. It is wistful and perverse paranoia. However, I can see from whence it springs. We are being spied upon by our own government, and our pride on the world's stage has been squashed. But we need not pull in like a bunch of Middle Ages rune-casters, prophesying death as though that were the only thing to animate us.

These assassination forecasters speak as though they will coalesce into a militant uprising upon such an anticipated eventuality. What will they do then, that they are not doing or can not do now?

Obama is not a revolutionary. He is a party man who talks nice, and is easy on the eyes. This conspiracy theorizing would be a happy distraction on our part for the republican party, I am certain.

The only thing for a thinking citizen to do is study the platforms and politick and vote accordingly. None of the leading candidates is a magic bullet to the heavy problems that ail us. Whiter shade of pale or not. Saying you'll bring a new day doesn't amount to a whole hill of beans.

Any of us can get shot up at the local mall by a deranged kid with a gun. The full Warren Commission report on the Kennedy assassination remains sealed until 2017, and most people who cared will be dead by the time it is fully declassified. That bit of legal obfuscation occurred in the 1960's -- the most revolutionary of modern times.

Do you really think you are any more organized today? That is reality.

We can remain above the fray by not engaging in a theatre of the macabre.