HELL JUST FROZE OVER
My friend Robby. We love each other; call each other "big sister" and "little brother," and I adore his little FDR-Democrat mama and his two beautiful children.
But Robby is, in his own words, "So right-wing that I could reach around and touch your left hand."
So right-wing, in fact, that on his MySpace page, his photo is looking straight up the business end of a double-barrell shotgun with his fierce face glowering down. Did I mention he's a card-carrying member of the NRA?
Robby and I had a few tense moments back during the Clinton Crucifixion, and because, as he says, "I love George W. Bush," we sniped back and forth a time or two during the two previous elections.
But all that began to change during the Iraq war, when my son deployed with the Marines.
Robby had called me up that week in November of '04, just to see how I was doing. Although we didn't know it for sure at the time, Dustin's unit had deployed specifically for the ferocious Battle of Fallujah. Dustin had known that "something big is about to happen," and had called his dad and warned him to "keep Mama away from the T.V. news," although his dad pointed out that he'd have to lock me in a (padded) room in order to pull that feat off.
But moms know stuff, you know? I didn't need to see the battle plans drawn up to understand that my son was in Fallujah, where the insurgency was raging, and that his life was in danger every moment of every day. I even had a vivid dream where I was sitting in on a tactics session with Marine Corps and army officers, and one said, "We call them 'Ghost Soldiers,' because as soon as you see them, they disappear, blend in with the innocents. You can't tell who the enemy is."
So, when Dustin made one brief call home before the battle, I said, "Watch out for ghosts."
So Robby had called that week, and as I was saying how hard it had been to remain cheerful during a chat with my son that could have been the last we ever had, I suddenly burst into tears. We'd known one another for 20 years by then and he had never seen me cry.
After that, Robby called every single week of Dustin's deployments--both of them. He sent care packages, and once sent Dustin a Texas flag that he folded up tightly and carried with him everywhere he went in the bottom of his rucksack. After the battle, Dustin and his buddies from Texas posed in front of the infamous Blackwater Bridge, which they had reclaimed from insurgents, with the Texas flag. That photograph is one of Robby's most prized possessions.
Robby put up with a lot of rage from me during those deployments. I had been opposed to the Iraq war before my son even enlisted, and the attitudes of the Bush administration, all the happy-talk and Rumsfeldian mindlessness, combined with daily terrified anxiety over my son and his buddies, was driving me to the brink of madness.
I daresay I crossed over that line from time to time. I know I sure felt crazy.
But I think our talks during that time gave my friend Robby pause as to just what was going on over there, and he developed a much more reasonable mindset toward it than the people he listened to daily on conservative talk-radio.
At the same time, I appreciated the fact that, politics or no politics, he never forgot that my son was in harm's way. You'd be surprised how many people did. And how badly that hurt.
Because Robby's job entails a great deal of driving, he listens to conservative talk-radio all the time.
Which is what made today's phone call such a hell-froze-over moment.
"I don't know who else to talk to about this," he said, "but I just turned off the radio."
This was stunning news indeed.
"I mean for God's sake, what is WRONG with these people?" he raged. "I keep hearing people that I would otherwise consider intelligent, thoughtful people, and they keep saying this CRAP, and I think WHAT KOOL-AID ARE YOU DRINKING?"
I told him I had the same thoughts sometimes, from people on the far left who sound as wacko in their ways as people on the far right. It seemed like the right thing to say, rather than screaming, WHAT HAVE I BEEN TELLING YOU ALL THESE YEARS???
Robby's never going to change his political persuasion, and neither am I, but what we both hope and pray to see one day is two entire SETS of people--Republican and Democratic--who can talk to one another with the mutual respect that Robby and I have been able to show one another all these years.
After all, we've seen what 20 years or so of partisan gridlock have accomplished.
From the beginning, Robby has been very respectful of my candidate, Barack Obama. Maybe, in part, because I was aligned against Hillary in the primaries, which made his little conservative heart glow. Or maybe just because of the kind of man Obama is. But Robby has told me several times that, if Obama were to be elected, "I would not be devastated. I don't agree with most of his policies, but he seems like a reasonable, intelligent man who would at least listen to our side, and consider our concerns."
And it seems that, more and more, Robby is not alone.
Since Dustin's first deployment, I've made it a habit to read conservative columnists and op-ed writers as much as progressive ones, because I consider it a barometer on which way the thinkers in the Republican party are leaning. At first, I was in a rage every time I read one of them, because especially where the war was concerned, it was All Kool-Aid, All the Time.
But over time, all but the most dogmatic of them began to give more serious considerations to what the thinkers on the left had long been saying where the war was concerned, but especially toward Bush's fiscal policies.
None of them, of course, liked John McCain, but they did their best to support the ticket.
The first serious cracks began to appear during the Republican convention, when John McCain suspended the first day of the convention in order to race off to the Gulf states and pretend to be presidential as Hurricane Ike threatened.
They knew that was bullshit and most of them said so.
Then came Sarah Palin.
Some of them, like David Brooks--at least in the beginning--tried to get on board the Straight-Talk Express and back Palin as fresh and energetic and a great way to revitalize a demoralized base. They liked her convention speech, for the most part.
Then came the Charles Gibson-ABC News interview with Palin.
And they were horrified. Some of the loudest protests I read came from conservatives.
The thinking ones knew, right then, that this was someone chosen as an impulsive campaign gimmik, and that she was sadly underprepared for such a high office. The Katie Couric interviews only confirmed that opinion for most of them.
Then came the economic meltdown, followed swiftly by the McCain Meltdown. The so-called suspension of his campaign, his racing back to Washington and subsequent disastrous derailing of discussions, followed by the refusal of even the party caucus to go along with his vote...and overshadowed, completely, by the calm and measured approach of Barack Obama to the crises, convinced all but the most ridiculous Kool-Aid drinkers that Serious Times Called for Serious Measures, and that John McCain Was Not Serious.
After the first debate, other conservative thinkers weighed in that Obama had passed the test of "looking presidential." He had held his own, even on foreign policy, and he had done it with grace, dignity, and intelligence, while McCain couldn't even force himself to look at his opponent.
I think most conservative thinkers were willing to give McCain the benefit of the doubt and to think that he'd just had a bad night, just as they gave Sarah Palin a small measure of credit because her head didn't explode during the Biden debate. But they were not reassured, and some, like Kathleen Parker, came right out and said so.
As most of us know by now, she paid for her honesty with death threats from nutcases within her own party, provoking her to make the wry comment, "Dixie Chicks, I hear ya."
But this most recent debate, capping, as it has, a McCain campaign so vicious and mean-spirited and blatantly false--not to mention out of touch with real voter concerns--seems to have finally tipped the balance of careful conservative thought away from their own party standard-bearer.
George Will, in a piece called, "McCain in a Bear Market," for the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/08/AR2008100802926.html
wrote:
"Time was, the Baltimore Orioles' manager was Earl Weaver, a short, irascible, Napoleonic figure who, when cranky, as he frequently was, would shout at an umpire, 'Are you going to get any better or is this it?' With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign.
"In the closing days of his 10-year quest for the presidency, McCain finds it galling that Barack Obama is winning the first serious campaign he has ever run against a Republican. Before Tuesday night's uneventful event, gall was fueling what might be the McCain-Palin campaign's closing argument. It is less that Obama has bad ideas than that Obama is a bad person.
"This, McCain and his female Sancho Panza say, is demonstrated by bad associations Obama had in Chicago, such as with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist. But the McCain-Palin charges have come just as the Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts -- telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans' accounts have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign's attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama's Chicago associations seems surreal -- or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, 'like being savaged by a dead sheep.'"
And it's not just George Will and Kathleen Parker who are fed up.
Also in the Post, Howard Kurtz chronicles a common conservative complaint in his op-ed, "Slipping Away?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/10/09/BL2008100901175_pf.html
He writes:
"After watching Barack Obama hit his stride at a boisterous Indiana rally Wednesday, I fired up the old laptop and came to a realization.
"There is a growing acceptance among conservatives that Obama will probably be the next president of the United States.
"You know how it goes after a big debate: Each side praises their guy and picks apart the other candidate. But if there's anyone seriously arguing that John McCain won the second debate in Nashville, I missed it.
"Some pundits say McCain did well. Others challenged some of Obama's assertions. But many on the right were candid enough to say that Obama had won the evening."
(quoting the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hays):
"'John McCain had a very strong debate. It's too bad for him that it came on a night when Barack Obama was nearly flawless.
"'The debate began with questions on the economy and for thirty minutes Obama answered those questions with the kind of substance that I suspect anxious voters wanted to hear and with exactly the right tone -- empathic, aggravated, and determined. Most important, he spoke to voters in their own language.
"'Obama's test in the first debate was to present himself as a plausible president, as a guy who didn't seem out of place on stage at a presidential debate and wouldn't seem out of place delivering a State of the Union address. Much as I'd disagree with the policies in such a speech, it was clear that he passed that test. Tuesday night, his job was to persuade voters -- particularly independents -- not only that he could be president but that he should be president. I suspect polling in the next couple of days will provide evidence that he passed that test, too.'"
(quoting David Frum):
"'Those who press this Ayers line of attack are whipping Republicans and conservatives into a fury that is going to be very hard to calm after November. Is it really wise to send conservatives into opposition in a mood of disdain and fury for the next president, incidentally the first African-American president? Anger is a very bad political adviser. It can isolate us and push us to the extremes at exactly the moment when we ought to be rebuilding, rethinking, regrouping and recruiting.'"
David Brooks has seemed to be the classic conservative paradox. Writing for the New York Times, he has often said very flattering things about Obama, whom he considers very intelligent and thoughtful, but he has also tried very hard--especially after the vice-presidential debate, to be a Party loyalist.
But he got caught on-camera recently at a local New York event expressing how he REALLY feels:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/david-brooks-sarah-palin_n_133001.html
Brooks called Palin a "fatal cancer on the Republican party," and added that she is "absolutely not" ready to be vice-president.
Another conservative, whose name escapes me now, commented in some place I read today that, although he disagreed with most of Obama's policies, he was very impressed with the people Obama had surrounded himself with to deal with this economic crises. He made a comment along the lines of, "In a time of crises like this, these are just the kinds of minds I want thinking about how to handle it."
Sarah Palin has tapped into a frightening core of redneck hatred, racism, and fear-mongering that has led to the crowd frenzies we've witnessed in recent weeks, and John McCain seems to delight in it as well, even though he presumably knows better. So vicious have some of the shouted comments gotten that even the Secret Service has started to investigate. Joe Biden has stated--rightly so--that at this level of presidential politics, those who head the ticket have a responsibility to set the tone and discourage that kind of nastiness.
So it's easy to listen to the loudest voices on their side of the aisle--aided and abetted by right-wing talk radio, FOX news, and viral e-mails--and despair. It's easy to think that at least half of our country's population is just plain NUTS.
But my friend Robby lets me know that this is not the case.
My friend Robby TURNED OFF talk radio when even he knew it had reached the level of absolute idiocy.
This is why I keep referring to "thinking conservatives." Because for every thinking conservative who GETS what this election is really about, there are TEN moderate Republicans and Independents out there who get it as well.
I like to joke that there will be many "closeted conservatives" who will enter the voting booth, pull the curtain, glance around to make sure they are alone, and pull the lever or push the computer-screen button for Barack Obama for president. (And take the secret to their graves.)
These are people who do love their country, and they love their Party, and they know that, somewhere along the line (Karl Rove/George W. Bush), the values their party stands for got seriously derailed.
As Robby put it to me, "We have plenty of principles on our side that we should be able to stand on proudly. We shouldn't HAVE to get into this bullshit about Obama being Muslim or hanging out with domestic terrorists or whatever crap it is. Most of us know that stuff's not true. We're better than this."
I do believe that the conservative movement, and the Republican Party overall, needs to enter into a serious phase of introspection. Some of their most cherished beliefs have proven to be disastrously wrong. Some have proven to be too idealistic to function in the Real World. Some need to be adjusted, not just to reality, but to voter's longings.
In other words, the days of Donald Rumsfeld are over. It's time for Bob Gates. I'm talking about a flexible realism about the world and this country that sheds much of the rigid ideological thinking that caused so many of these problems, and embraces more wide-ranging solutions.
As David Frum says, they need to rebuild, rethink, regroup, and recruit--not chase around after the first serious African-American presidential candidate in history with torches and lynching ropes.
There are plenty of conservatives who understand this, and are humble enough, and concerned enough, to admit it.
I believe that a Barack Obama administration would be willing to listen to what they have to say--and the smartest among them have said that they believe he would too.
This is where we start the healing of a country torn apart by war, economic disaster, and years of partisan attacks and counter-attacks.
My friend Robby, right-wing though he is, is a decent man. If he can turn away from the shrillest voices in his party, then I believe there are thousands more out there just like him. Maybe millions.
Like Robby, they may disagree with Obama on policy, but like Robby and other thinking conservatives, they, like the rest of us, are ready for some common sense.
Robby said something else that stuck in my mind. When I mentioned that McCain had embraced Karl Rove and his tactics in this election and that I thought Rove's time had passed, he said, "Karl Rove's time has passed the way Jesse Jackson's time has passed."
Clearly, it's time for a new era, a new generation of thinkers who have seen that hatred and fear just don't get the job done. Progressive and conservative, they're looking to a candidate who has that flexibility and common sense and who has not wasted a moment of his life on hatred, and his name is Barack Obama.
I think they will vote for him, and I believe he will be our next president.
Only then will the loudest voices realize that, at long last, no one is listening.
I hope that your son is doing well, and will stay safe and healthy, and I wish the same for all our Troops.
One thing I did want to mention: Rush Limbaugh and his ilk, keep attacking the Main Street Media.
What people never point out is: Rush Limbaugh has the largest radio audience in the country, for three hours a day, or fifteen hours each week. Name one other political, or news program, that can match that.
Isn't it time to starting calling Limbaugh the Main Stream Media, since he is it's biggest star.
October 9, 2008 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Brilliant observation.
October 9, 2008 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Deanie:
You have produced an insightful commentary that's excellently researched and written. I'm very impressed and hopeful for every other 'Robby' out there. I hope your son is safe at home now.
Highly Rec'd.
October 9, 2008 8:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Deanie,
It was also David Brooks who said this:
Same event where he called Ms. Sarah a cancer.
Hope that your son is safe.
October 9, 2008 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you. I wish everyone, on the right and the left, would take the time to sit down and read your post .. slowly, so their feelings can catch up. And so that maybe some new feelings and thoughts can start taking root. What you wrote is very important. So, thank you.
October 9, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good post, Ms Mills.
There are conspiracy theories out there that depict McCain as hellbent to destroy the Republican party. In terms of motive, such a goal seems very unlikely. But it might turn out that conspirators are accidentally intelligent.
October 9, 2008 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. Beautiful post thanks. I too hope that your son is safe and well.
I have to say that as soon as McCain agreed with the woman who said that our troops were stretched so thin that she didn't see how he could 'chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell' without reinstating the draft... I have been very concerned. It is one thing to choose to join the military and fight for our country and this is honorable but it his a completely different thing to force young people into the military to follow a leader they do not trust and to fight in wars that they do not believe in.
It is important for millions of reasons that we help Senator Obama win this election.
October 9, 2008 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent post. We really do need to heal some wounds in our country, and remember that we are ALL Americans, even when we disagree.
Eventually, we'll realize that we're all HUMANS, and maybe the era of endless war will finally end.
October 9, 2008 8:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Deanie for such a delightful, personal document.
Many blessings on your son and family, your friends and your community.
It is precisely this sort of dialog that needs to be expressed and examined. As I've been saying to friends and colleagues, there is nothing inherently wrong with conservatism. I view it as a logical, if self-centered political construct. As Robby rightly points out, there is no reason why a thoughtful, intelligent person could not argue for conservative principles without resorting to schoolyard taunts.
Unfortunately for Robby, the conservative brand has been badly bloodied and left for dead by those who claim most to support it. It will be up to folks like him to pick up the mantle and carry it forward on its merits. Maybe this is ultimately a good thing. Time will ultimately tell and it may be a while before we know for certain.
While political debate can be a dubious endeavor, there's no reason to assume it has to always end with blood and tears. I've often enjoyed sparring with friends or acquaintances who did not share my beliefs. Even when its gotten fairly heated I believe its more healthy than not to be able to participate in such discourse freely. Isn't that what our forebears fought and died for?
But that's not what's happening here. Its clear that the current McCain camp is not interested in even deliberate discourse given that their tactic is to win over those who are already suspicious through a volatile mix of racial fear and socioeconomic intimidation. And it is without a doubt behavior that should not be tolerated from a member of our United States Congress and it is definitely beyond the pale for the Presidency. No way, no how.
Stay open and alert. Responsive and respectful Don't shy away from the fight but take care not to provoke. Someone's got to lead by example don't they?
Highly rec'd as well.
October 9, 2008 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Glad to see your quick and well-deserved ascension on the Rec List, Deanie!
Thanks as ever.
October 9, 2008 10:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Deanie,
This a great article--beautifully written, with flawless analysis.
I wish I'd written it.
Wattree
October 9, 2008 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seconded.
In college writing workshops I was a member of, we all agreed the highest form of praise you could give another writer was (and still is): "I wish I'd have written that."
I wish I'd have written that. Great post.
October 10, 2008 9:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Btw, HIGHLY rec'd. Thanks Deanie.
October 10, 2008 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
This was just wonderfully composed. Deanie, your weaving of your personal story and that of your friend together with our recent history and with this historic moment we are living was masterful. I cannot congratulate you enough, and of course, I also do thank you so.
October 10, 2008 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for this hope-affirming post. I respect and applaud the conservative commentators like George Will and David Brooks who are writing with such unapologetic candor and accuracy about what's happening right now. There are conservatives out there who possess intelligence, honor, sincerity, and common decency. I suspect many of them are as horrified and sickened as we are by the embarrassing spectacle of McCain and his campaign. I hope they all vote.
October 9, 2008 10:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
". . . our side, and consider our concerns."
There's the problem: paranoia-driven egotistical division and self-centeredness.
As for the "left": ther is none--unless one believes the FALSE bullshit from the far-right.
The far-right--the fake "conservatives" you give undue credibility by calling "conservative movement". The so-called conservative movement, as is obvious to anyone in their right mind and watching, is stone anti-American.
It's about time we had a RUDE debate about the FACTS, and all the horseshit that passes not only for truth, but also as a politeness which is ultimately self-destructive.
Your buddy is a selfish ass who had to wait for matters to go way to far down the wrong road before finally finding a slim degreee of integrity and turn off the radio that should never have been turned on.
He was wrong all along; and NOW he admits that the crap he's been swallowing, and doubtless repeating, doubtless all while knowing it wasn't true, should be "turned off"?
I hate hating,, but I hate such prideful anti-Americans who will hate before they will admit they are wrong. And I hate those who defend them -- who present them as if respectworthy, when in fact all along they've been as reprehensible as the views and "values" and criminal thugs they've all along supported and defended. There is NOTHING of value on "the side" of those who voted for and supported and defended the Bushit criminal enterprise. And it's simply too late to trust a person who doubtless knew all along he was wrong, but to whom being wrong was more important than the health and survival of his own country.
I'm not a child. But I'm done with having patience with fools who prefer to be enemies of my country than to be upstanding, responsible citizens who denonunce when it matters, instead of when it's nearly too late.
October 9, 2008 11:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I welcome everyone who reaches a hand across the aisle, however late. But an honest hand it must be.
October 10, 2008 5:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great post, Deanie. After seeing a couple of conservative Republicans vent their spleens on McCain and Palin at a campaign rally today, it's plain to see that this party's base has forgotten McCain's campaign motto, "country first." I heard them encouraging McCain to win at all costs, even if it ends with his own political self-destruction. I actually kinda felt sorry for Old Man McCain .... karma is bitch.
It's encouraging to hear some intellectual conservatives expressing common sense and a willingness to embrace the idea of Obama as President of the United States.
October 9, 2008 11:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the article which is refreshing for its optimistic tone and lack of snark.
I feel a growing confidence that Obama may actually win this thing and wonder whether it is just me or if his campaign has simply devolved into, essentially, a lowest common denominiator / win at any cost effort.
If so, then I hope he loses as much, if not more, than I hope Obama wins. It is time that one of our political leaders can look straight into the camera and be honest with us and we can respect.
I think W's Dad was the last one we can all say that about and while his 4 years may not have enthused all of us on the left I don't hear so many negative comments about his 4 years as we have for the next two occupants from both sides of the aisle. Maybe because W was part of the last generation of politicians who knew how, when and what to fight about and knew that at the end of the day we were all in this together.
Speaking of Obama being candid - and I think he is for the most part - does anyone take issue with what I feel is non-productive pandering to our self-interest by saying 95% of Americans will get a tax cut? In these days and times why not level with us and explain why no one is getting a tax cut, some of us are getting a tax hike and in time we will hopefully have a more vibrant economy which will allow more Americans to earn higher wages so that the issue of taxes - which is a necessity if we are to have a strong national defense, improved public education, a clean environment, etc... - becomes secondary as all Americans are more able to contribute towards running the country, paying down our national debt and ensuring a stable country for ouurselves and those that will come after we are long gone.
Looking forward to seeing how this all pans out over the next 3 plus weeks and secure in the knowledge that if we appear to have nearly made it through 8 years of W that even if the Maverick somehow comes out on top (please no!) that we will, neverthless, be better off than we have been for a generation!
October 9, 2008 11:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Beautiful words, Kevin. I'm with you. And my fond hope is that during this half hour of air-time that the Obama campaign has purchased the week after the last debate, that Obama will give a major speech, very presidential, calming things down and laying what we need to do, sacrifices we all need to make. Day by day our retirement savings are depleted. And we must soon tap into them, but many, many people will be withdrawing less and our government will, I believe, have fewer resources - and thus a need to pass the hat around to all of us. And as patriots, we need to accept that and dig deeper.
These are dark, dark days in our history. We have much to do to redeem ourselves, in our own eyes and in the eyes of the world.
October 10, 2008 5:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. A little more specificity would not be a bad thing.
Obama is on track to a landslide victory. However if he doesn't get a little more specific the Republicans will claim afterward that "he has no mandate because he didn't run on that". "That" being the issue of the moment.
In other words, he could consider sacrifice a few polling points now in the interest of making governing a little easier later.
October 10, 2008 8:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Deanie
Semper Fi
To add to your list of Republicans who have abandoned McCain ... Ed Rollins ( Reagan's campaign manager ) on AC360 tonight.
October 10, 2008 1:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wonderful post. Thank you. I must admit I skimmed toward the end, because it's very late at night now, but what you said about wanting people on both sides of the aisle to be able to sit down and be civil to each other--I've heard it a lot, and I've said it myself, but never so eloquently.
I hope you're right about how your right-wing friends will vote, and thinking conservatives in general.
October 10, 2008 2:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Beautifully written. Thank you, and my thoughts go out to you and your son. May we all be safer soon.
October 10, 2008 3:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you for writing this article. May your son be well. Mine is also serving, albeit in a much safer capacity. My heart goes out to you & yours. May all of our troops come home, safe.
October 10, 2008 6:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is quite simply the best thing I have ever read on this site. Thank you, Deanie.
October 10, 2008 8:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't usually make it all the way through long posts, but this one was so well written, filled with insight, that I couldn't stop reading.
Thanks so much.
October 10, 2008 10:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Same here. I normally apply strict marginal utility theory to the time I dedicate to reading anything, but this had me glued.
October 10, 2008 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Extremism, regardless of where it comes from, is always a bad thing.
October 10, 2008 10:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Morning edition on NPR has an audience that dwarfs Limbaugh's In fact, Morning edition is by far the number one source of daily news in the
U. S. Much bigger than any television or other radio show, or any print or internet source.
October 10, 2008 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obama has illustrated very clearly that he plans to be a president to all Americans, not only to Democrats. There won't be any namecalling or labeling under an Obama presidency, (please remember that Bush called us all the "angry-left" as recently as the RNC).
Two days ago, Sarah Palin said that Obama would destroy the dignity of the office of President.
As Deanie points out so eloquently, all thinking Conservatives (and Liberals) know that the opposite is true: Obama will restore dignity to the office of President and will restore our reputation and position in the world.
I think a lot of Conservatives, thinking or otherwise, are upset by the impulsive way McCain ran this campaign and that he really had no platform. There wasn't anything to believe in or grasp onto.
McCain "could have been a contender", but now he's "just a bum."
October 10, 2008 11:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Deanie,
You are one hell of a writer. If Obama gets elected, don't disappear. Please keep lending your thoughtful eye to the proceedings.
My best to your son and all his mates.
October 10, 2008 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
beautifully written
October 10, 2008 12:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't say enough in praise of your piece, Deanie. Thanks for putting it up. It makes me feel that there really is light at the end of this awful tunnel, and that things can again get back up into the middle of the road. Thoughtful and sensible people can frequently disagree but, by continuing to work for the best interests of the country and its citizens, issues can be resolved. You have provided a profound base on which we can begin yet again. We are almost through this darkness.
October 10, 2008 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
The comment about Obama surrounding him with the best people is also from David Brooks, from the same event that you mention, in New York this week.
October 10, 2008 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Real conservatives don't launch preemptive wars based on nonsense. Real conservatives don't cut taxes and spend like maniacs, running up monster deficits. Real conservatives don't impeach presidents because he lied about getting sex so his wife wouldn't find out.
These guys are not conservatives - they're RADICALS of the worst sort. The Republican party has been hijacked by a bunch of clowns who have run the country into the ground. They've damaged the Republican brand to the point that you couldn't get elected dogcatcher running as a Republican, but the real conservatives aided and abetted the fools in their effort, and as you sow, so shall ye reap. They'll get no sympathy from me.
October 10, 2008 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a great post. Rec!
October 10, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a fantastic post. Thank you for the wonderful insight.
Because of the negative campaigning going on and the accompanying rage directed towards Obama by many on the right (Hannity, Limbaugh etc.), keeping a level head and taking time to read and consider messages like your post is very difficult for many people.
Having said that, there is not a single person in our country that would not benefit from reading it. The politics of fear helped to elect and re-elect George Bush and the McCain campaign is doing its level best to make that gameplan work for them. I firmly believe that most Americans will see through it this time and vote for HOPE.
October 10, 2008 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, Deanie. Very well said. I agree whole heartily.
As a former Republican, who believed that my party had morals, I am sadden by what Karl Rove has done. More so what McCain has embraced. I came to recognize that I am, after all, American first and no party truly embraces that notion. I want what is best for all Americans. No party should divide us. We must be united in condemning McCain's attacks.
Obama is an American citizen just like you and me. Just because we don't agree with everything others believe, we should not lower ourselves to such hatred and vicious verbal attacks that may lead to violence. We are better than that. American is better than that!
Let's find a common ground. There are solutions that should never resort to hatred and violence. This is not the direction I want my country to go. I hope we all can raise our voices in condemnation of McCain/Palin's tactics.
Thank you for your words. I am beginning to have faith that we, as a country, are going to be moving in the right direction.
October 10, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Behold the hypocrisy.
McCain Already Scheming to Play Bush-Style Politics
http://thetruthburns.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/mccain-already-scheming-to-play-bush-style-politics/
October 10, 2008 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
A couple of my cousins and a few other people I know well are a lot like "Robbie". They are the reason I can't completely give up on Conservatives. I mean, I think their political philosophy is completely ass-backwards and I wouldn't want to see them running the government, but I would never wish that they "go away".
I just wish that they were capable of wising up before their political leaders ran things into the ground.
October 10, 2008 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Give your son my thanks for his service. Well said, Deanie. Please, everyone who has a "Robby" in your life, send him or her this piece. Also send it to everyone you know who has a "Robby" in their life. Heck, send it to everyone. We can overcome, come together and that we've "Got Hope" is a good thing.
October 10, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dear Deanie:
Your post was the first thing I read on my first visit to TPM Cafe, and I was thoroughly impressed with your tone, thoughtfulness and balance. I can't say that I've read anything relative to this crazy, polarizing campaign that was more touching than your post.
I, too, pray for the safety of your son, and thank him for his service to our country.
I must say here that Obama is not the messiah--his support of FISA, among other things, worries me that he will pander as any politician does. I believe that he failed to show moral character in much the same way as virtually every member of Congress did during the McCarthy Era.
He is not perfect. His comments on tax cuts do not add up, and I feel a sense of, I don't know the right word, condecension (sp?) I feel as though I am being talked down to. I believe that tax cuts are not the solution to our economic problems.
I believe that both the Democrats and the Republicans have failed as caretakers of our economy, going back to the Carter years. I have never championed deregulation, as both parties have; the natural result of deregulation is, in essence, putting the fox in charge of the hen house. We are now experiencing the result.
BUT...Obama is "that (serious, thoughtful, intellectual, compassionate, charismatic, dynamic) one." His is a campaign of hope and optimism, not one filled with the hate emanating from the mob-mentality that seems to be guiding the McCain camp.
I cannot imagine anything that would rend the fabric of our "Great Society" more than a McCain victory. Given the current polling, a repeat of the apparent thievery of the 2000 (and 2004) presidential election results would not likely be tolerated, even if dressed up in the frippery of a Supreme Court opinion.
My wife expresses fear that the election results can be manipulated, given the past two elections. I have to trust--that we still maintain a democracy, that the will of the people cannot be ignored, and that as a unified country we can find the answers to the serious problems in these serious times.
One last thing--I listen to Rush Limbaugh. He is merely an entertainer. I believe he started out as a disc jockey in Sacramento, California, and turned to politics more as a joke, seeking to develop a wider listener base by tweaking the perception that California was governed by (gasp) liberals. I believe Rush knows, in his heart, that if he had started in rural Georgia, for example, he would be deriding the conservatives for standing in the way of progress. Rush, simply put, is a clown playing to an audience. I don't believe that an honest, thinking person can give credence to the hateful trash that comes out of his mouth.
I cannot imagine any scenario in which McCain-Palin would be good for this nation. And I don't plan on moving.
Finally, I believe that we must get out of Iraq immediately. Our investment in the future must go to education, infrastructure, progress in the arts and sciences--not a war in which the ground commander, General Petraeus (sp?) has enunciated a belief that victory is not possible in the conventional sense. (He must have read "On War" by Carl von Clausewitz--I have just started reading it. As I understand, von Clausewitz believed that war is political, and requires a complete commitment of national resources to a complete victory. Without a willingness to commit, no nation ought to go to war. I personally believe in diplomacy over deployment.)
Let hope reign over despair, ideas reign over ignorance, and unity reign over hatred and prejudice.
October 10, 2008 7:37 PM | Reply | Permalink