The recent dustup between Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama over the appropriateness of using diplomacy to engage tyrants demonstrates that party politics is an exercise in political theatre, no matter what the party. The Democrats, outclassed for years by an accomplished political machine that lacks any class whatsoever, may have finally learned its lesson from the political assassination of Bill Clinton, the hatchet job done on John Kerry and numerous other assaults. Political attacks, whatever their source or efficacy, must be responded to quickly and with equal ferocity. The Democrats have learned to practice on each other. But have they learned enough?
Make no mistake about it, the Dems smell blood in the water from a weakened president. They are riding high on the tailwinds of last year's Congressional victory. Yet, somewhat like Hamlet, they have been so pre-occupied with the crimes of those who usurped the throne that they are unable to recognize their own delusions. As the Hilary/Obama story plays to audiences all over the country, it shows that the actors on this particular stage lack any real concern about the larger audience. At this point, in playing for the nomination, they are playing for their family sitting in the reserved seats.
The problem with primaries is that they are inherently incestuous — people of the same political DNA unhealthily sharing policy intimacies and talking to their related constituencies. In the case of the presidential election to come, Democrats have deluded themselves into thinking that because there is widespread opposition to the Iraq war and weariness of the Bush administration's ineptitude, because the party was able to win both houses of Congress by the slimmest of majorities, that the country as a whole will continue to gravitate to the Democrats and embrace their political ideals.
Delusions are fed by denial, and there is a fundamental concept that far too many in the Democratic party are currently denying: that is, no matter how much Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama may agree or disagree on certain principles of governing, no matter how much they might reflect the hopes and dreams of the Democratic party and its base, there is simply no evidence to indicate that either of them will be able to vicerally connect with the majority of American voters they need to get elected. Anyone who thinks that either candidate will actually win the presidency is attributing to the American electorate a level of political sophistication it simply does not have. Those who believe that either Clinton or Obama can get elected assume that the majority of voters in America will be willing to take a revolutionary leap across the vast barriers of gender and race that still circumscribe our culture just because they are disgusted with George Bush.
Primary voters do not elect presidents – they elect presidential candidates. In electing a president, we have proven time and again that we as a nation subscribe to what one might call The Grand Delusion: we vote for appearances and acting ability as much as for principles and policies; we choose style over substance; we eschew those who articulate complex ideas in order to select comfortable personalities who we think can appear convincing in wielding the sword of American power; in America, the governed give their consent to those who will make them believe the nation remains paramount, prosperous and safe in an increasingly complex and dangerous world.
The Democratic Party seems at times to have little understanding of the degree to which America was truly traumatized by the events of September 11, and how much those events have reinforced the Grand Delusion. Rudolph Giuliani - who without 9/11 would have had no political appeal beyond New York City - has led the Republican pack since the start of the race. Mr. Giuliani hardly fits the image of a Republican presidential contender: he is a balding, Italian politician from a northern state who has had multiple marriages and has, at various times, expressed support for gay rights and reproductive choice for women. Yet, Republicans clearly believe it is the image of the former mayor standing atop the pile of rubble that was the World Trade Center that can resurrect the party's fortunes from the detritus of the Bush presidency.
The entry of a viable female candidate and a visionary Black man into the race for the White House is a welcome change in American politics and "change" will become the operative term for the Democratic Party for the next year. Yet we must not forget that America remains a largely conservative country, convinced that it is under unremitting threat from an unseen and fanatic enemy. The country has already demonstrated that it is willing to tolerate an unprecedented diminution of its fundamental traditions of civil liberties in exchange for the assumption that the government of George Bush will be capable of protecting it against another attack - therein should lie the sobering lesson for the Democrats.
More than anything, the confrontation between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama was about how the leader of the most powerful nation on earth should judiciously wield the sword, how that person should best portray America's macho posture on the world stage. It is an unfortunate fact that it would take one more simple act of domestic terrorism for the majority of American voters to stampede in the direction of the most credible sounding, tough talking whire male available.
Make no mistake about it, the Dems smell blood in the water from a weakened president. They are riding high on the tailwinds of last year's Congressional victory. Yet, somewhat like Hamlet, they have been so pre-occupied with the crimes of those who usurped the throne that they are unable to recognize their own delusions. As the Hilary/Obama story plays to audiences all over the country, it shows that the actors on this particular stage lack any real concern about the larger audience. At this point, in playing for the nomination, they are playing for their family sitting in the reserved seats.
The problem with primaries is that they are inherently incestuous — people of the same political DNA unhealthily sharing policy intimacies and talking to their related constituencies. In the case of the presidential election to come, Democrats have deluded themselves into thinking that because there is widespread opposition to the Iraq war and weariness of the Bush administration's ineptitude, because the party was able to win both houses of Congress by the slimmest of majorities, that the country as a whole will continue to gravitate to the Democrats and embrace their political ideals.
Delusions are fed by denial, and there is a fundamental concept that far too many in the Democratic party are currently denying: that is, no matter how much Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama may agree or disagree on certain principles of governing, no matter how much they might reflect the hopes and dreams of the Democratic party and its base, there is simply no evidence to indicate that either of them will be able to vicerally connect with the majority of American voters they need to get elected. Anyone who thinks that either candidate will actually win the presidency is attributing to the American electorate a level of political sophistication it simply does not have. Those who believe that either Clinton or Obama can get elected assume that the majority of voters in America will be willing to take a revolutionary leap across the vast barriers of gender and race that still circumscribe our culture just because they are disgusted with George Bush.
Primary voters do not elect presidents – they elect presidential candidates. In electing a president, we have proven time and again that we as a nation subscribe to what one might call The Grand Delusion: we vote for appearances and acting ability as much as for principles and policies; we choose style over substance; we eschew those who articulate complex ideas in order to select comfortable personalities who we think can appear convincing in wielding the sword of American power; in America, the governed give their consent to those who will make them believe the nation remains paramount, prosperous and safe in an increasingly complex and dangerous world.
The Democratic Party seems at times to have little understanding of the degree to which America was truly traumatized by the events of September 11, and how much those events have reinforced the Grand Delusion. Rudolph Giuliani - who without 9/11 would have had no political appeal beyond New York City - has led the Republican pack since the start of the race. Mr. Giuliani hardly fits the image of a Republican presidential contender: he is a balding, Italian politician from a northern state who has had multiple marriages and has, at various times, expressed support for gay rights and reproductive choice for women. Yet, Republicans clearly believe it is the image of the former mayor standing atop the pile of rubble that was the World Trade Center that can resurrect the party's fortunes from the detritus of the Bush presidency.
The entry of a viable female candidate and a visionary Black man into the race for the White House is a welcome change in American politics and "change" will become the operative term for the Democratic Party for the next year. Yet we must not forget that America remains a largely conservative country, convinced that it is under unremitting threat from an unseen and fanatic enemy. The country has already demonstrated that it is willing to tolerate an unprecedented diminution of its fundamental traditions of civil liberties in exchange for the assumption that the government of George Bush will be capable of protecting it against another attack - therein should lie the sobering lesson for the Democrats.
More than anything, the confrontation between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama was about how the leader of the most powerful nation on earth should judiciously wield the sword, how that person should best portray America's macho posture on the world stage. It is an unfortunate fact that it would take one more simple act of domestic terrorism for the majority of American voters to stampede in the direction of the most credible sounding, tough talking whire male available.
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