My friend said, 'If you say so.'
This is a true neanderthal, by the way. The ultra-right-wing vegetarian Jew, the most contrary motherfucker I've known in a lifetime collecting friendships with contrarians. He's also brilliant, driven, and family to me.
And no, Obama being elected won't do anything about me probably being upside down in my house if I had to sell. It won't put thousands of dollars back in my alarmingly shrunken IRA. It won't put gas in the tank, food on the table.
Yet I heard fully grown adults on NPR this morning saying things like their college tuition would go down because of Obama's election and I cringed. You're in for a world of hurt if you believe nonsense like that. I know he's a great salesman, I heard his pitch first hand and if he'd been selling Rainbow vacuum cleaners and I was 19, I'd be on the hook for about $1800.
If people are racist, so what? If you refuse to hire the most qualified guy because he's black, you'll pay when your competition picks him up. That's the 'market can do no wrong' theory, one I go along with pretty far. But if everyone actually acted in their own best interests, how come there are cigarette companies with willing customers? Or casinos, for that matter.
So on some levels, maybe as abstract as the value of beautiful art, it matters that a black man can be a failed President without regard to the color of his skin. And yes, he will be a failed President. They all are. What remains to be seen is if he pisses me off as badly as W. has in the process of failing.
There's nothing new under the sun, of course. Obama's stump speech is just a paraphrase of Jack Cade's rants in King Henry VI Part 2. That's Shakespeare for the uninitiated:
Cade: Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows
reformation. There shall be in England seven
halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped
pot; shall have ten hoops and I will make it felony
to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in
common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to
grass: and when I am king, as king I will be,--
All: God save your majesty!
Cade: I thank you, good people: there shall be no money;
all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will
apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree
like brothers and worship me their lord.
Dick: The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.
Cade: Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable
thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should
be made parchment? That parchment, being scribbled
o’er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings:
but I say, ‘tis the bee’s wax; for I did but seal
once to a thing, and I was never mine own man
since...
I can't find the link to what I wanted to show you. In the break room copy of USA Today, there was a county-by-county map showing how Obama did relative to Kerry in 04. Which is what this post was supposed to be about.
It had red for places he did much better than Kerry, pink for places he did a little better, and so on. Places he did worse than Kerry were green: light for only a little worse, dark for places he did 7% or more worse.
Arizona was mostly pastel green, which I guess suggests how many people believe geographical proximity is a qualifying factor. Almost as idiotic as basing the decision on race.
But the rest of the green map was an almost perfect topography of Appalachia. The further up the hills, the darker green the county.
Damn. Maybe they are just a bunch of ignorant rednecks.
Do you think having an obviously corrupt ward heeler from Chicago's Democratic Party machine in the White House will make these assheads any smarter? If so, go stand with the guy who thinks college is about to get cheaper and flirt with the girl who thinks she's actually about to get health insurance as good as members of Congress get. And have a martini: don't want to get charged with drinking small beer.
No comments:
Post a Comment