Into the Echo Chamber: Strength and Honor

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Matt -- 

I've had the strangest feeling all day, and I just could not place it.  Not for the life of me.  Finally, at the end of the day, somewhere on the drive home, it hit me: I am nervous as hell.

You and I have some things in common, obviously.  One of the things I know you pride yourself on is your even-keel sensibility.  You rarely get rattled or nervous -- at least not often in the time I've known you.  

I didn't used to get nervous.  

Then I had kids.  

I don't so much get nervous for myself anymore.  I get nervous for them.  What does the future hold?  What will our country be like when they're ready for school?  For college?  For a career, for marriage, for kids of their own?  

For when they have to take care of their aging parents?

What will life be like in that America?  

One thing we know for sure is it will be different than it is today, and most of that will have little to do with politics and government.  But it will have some.  Politics -- the campaigns we run -- and the government we choose for ourselves matters.  It matters because in the larger scheme of things, it is really one of the few things we can control.

And the laws and the policies we choose for ourselves, as you know, aren't ever really for ourselves.  They are for our children.  All our children. 

Yes, I think about the future for my children and I freak out a little bit.  Okay, fine: a lot.

But I think about a future for my children in a world where Barack Obama has served two terms, and I freak out just a little less.

You say he's got to re-sell himself.

I say he's got to sell us the world.  Which is really just another way of saying he's got to sell us on ourselves.  

Deep breath...

BJK

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Friday, September 7, 2012

Ben -

 

It is interesting that you were nervous yesterday.  I get it.  I think that this whole election cycle has left me with a sense of unease.  If I'm being totally honest, it probably goes back quite a few years for me - perhaps all the way back to Iowa in the Fall of 2003.  There's lots of empty road - and corn fields - between Maquoketa and Muscatine, which gave me quite a bit of time to reflect on the process in which I was participating, and the people who I was trying to persuade.  Long stories for another time.  The best summary is probably the old joke; the problem with democracy is that everybody's vote counts the same... 

 

As you have pointed out so very often in this space - there are some terrifying beliefs and attitudes among the politically active in our nation.  From peanut throwing to Nazi references, it has not been a stellar fortnight for sanity in politics.  And it will only get worse over the next sixty days.  From granny killers to cronyism, from socialists to criminals, our nominees have had quite a few outlandish accusations thrown at them.  Public service should not look like this.  It shouldn't.  A presidential candidate should not have to undergo a public colonoscopy and challenges to everything from their birthright to their lack of soul (not the Barry White kind, either) to serve the people of this great nation.  But that is where we find ourselves. 

 

All of this is what made hope and change so appealing in 2008.  Why a community organizer with a background that included both Harvard and Indonesia was so exciting.  He could be different.  Hell, maybe even our politics could be different.  He might even be, gasp, post-partisan.  Um, nope.  Our system would not tolerate it.  The politics of the times and the culture of Washington D.C did not permit it.  Have you heard even a single mention of the phrase "post-partisan" since 2009?  I sure don't recall any. 

 

I have to be honest and say I was disappointed in the President's speech last night. I wanted to have that - call it naive if you want - hope again.  Instead, to quote @BuzzfeedBen, I got "Oba-meh".  A compilation of hundreds of other speeches we have heard over the past few years, a well delivered speech that was somehow very small.  And I'm not alone.  Here are some of the words I have seen from reporters and pundits across the ideological spectrum in reference to POTUS's effort last night:

modest. humble. normalcy. carefully modulated. workmanlike. distant. cursory. reserved. familiar. dull. pedestrian.

And those were the nice ones.  More often, I saw things like "exceptionally weak", "a decent wrap-up", "running out the clock", etc.  Many compared it - unfavorably - to a State of the Union (as I suggested yesterday.)  The most common theme was that it was safe.  A safe speech from a guy whose internal polling told him not to rock the boat, not to go big, not to be bold.  To do that would invite the possibility of upsetting the slow, dull march to probable electoral success. 

 

That is not what I am looking for from my Commander-in-Chief, from the Leader of the Free World, from Barack Obama.

 

Now, so as to be totally honest about my hypocrisy, I said just yesterday that Americans were not looking for soaring rhetoric.  I guess that is what I thought - and still do to some extent.  But it isn't what I feel. 

 

I want to know that I shouldn't have to worry about the $50,000 share that each of my boys have of the National Debt.  Trade deficit.  Foreign oil.  Fossil fuels.  Persistent and pervasive poverty and dependence.  School (un)readiness.  Global academic competitiveness.  There are plenty of things that can make me worry.  I don't want to.  I want to trust my nation's leadership to worry about those things so that I can worry about my family.  So that I can worry about how I'm going to feed and clothe and educate my boys, raising them to be men of character and honor and service. 

 

But I do not trust the people who run our country to worry about those other things for me.  And that is the crux of the problem.  It goes back to our generational conversation.  I do not trust the boomer generation to take care of anyone other than themselves.  I wish it were not true, but it is.

 

Maybe it is too much to ask of a convention speech or even a campaign, but I want to hear that there is a plan.  Not just some lofty projections.  An actual plan.  Concrete actions that can take place which will alleviate my concerns.  Don't tell me we are going to hire a million math and science teachers.  Tell me HOW we are going to get people with aptitude for those subjects to choose public schools over Dow Chemical and $40,000 over $90,000. 

 

You may say to me that many of these very topics were addressed last night.  Sure they were.  But I don't believe that much will be done. Do you?  That is why this ad is so devastating, and why the idea of giving yourself an "incomplete" doesn't cut it. 

 

Not that I think Mitt Romney has any answers.  His speech last week proved that he does not. 

 

And that is why I feel uneasy. 

 

...

 

Wow - that has to be the most depressing thing I have ever written.  You were right when you said that I am normally an even-keel guy.  I am.  I pride myself on it.  To top it off, I am also a laid back guy.  A flip flops, blue moon and an adirondack chair guy.  This unease doesn't sit well.  It isn't comfortable.  I like to be hopeful.  I like to be upbeat and happy.  I'll get back there soon.  The farther away we get from these conventions, the better. 

 

Have an awesome weekend with your family.  I'm going to a one year old's birthday party this weekend.  That is a place filled with hope and happiness - exactly the salve I need (well, that and balmex.)

 

Peace,

MBS

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Friday, September 7, 2012

If you wanna be a star on stage and scream 
Look out it's rough and mean 
It's a long way to the top 
If you wanna rock 'n' roll

-- AC/DC "It's a Long Way to the Top"

Matt -- 

Publisher's privilege: I won't close out our Into the Echo Chamber Convention Specials on such a sour note, Kenny Chesney video links excepted.  It was just too much fun.

Matt, I'm not actually going to disagree with you that much.  It was not a barnburner speech we got from Obama.  It was not in his top ten.  Maybe not even in the top twenty.  

I was going to give you a version of what I've already said in the Finally Friday post earlier this evening -- that this was the the speech of a community organizer.  That it was as much a practical call to action as a policy or political speech.  Like I said, he didn't really frame it in terms of him versus Romney/Ryan.  And like you said earlier, this was more like a State of the Union... without the detailed policy we need and expect in such a speech.

But you deserve better than that.  Our readers (the few dozen who have honored us by following along) deserve better.

I said the other day that there were only a couple of guys who could change the narrative: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  

Clinton put the R&R ticket back on the ropes with blow after sweet rhetorical blow.  Democrats will be mining that gold for days, maybe weeks to come.  

Obama did, too, but he did it in a different way.

Matt, I've been thinking a lot about the election of 2008, and what it really represented, at least for me.  I really didn't like George W. Bush.  For so, so many reasons, most of which have been chronicled on this blog.  

One of my biggest grievances against him was that he seemed to genuinely hate government and public service.  I realized they really bloomed during the John McCain/Sarah Palin campaign, but the tea party has its strongest roots in the Bush II Administration. [This is a paradox in so many ways, because Bush -- who many tea party weirdos actually disdain -- blew up the size of government during his tenure.]

I don't know if we ever really talked about it, but the big reason I didn't support Hillary Clinton -- my old boss -- for President wasn't because I was disloyal.  It broke my heart, and I struggled with it.  It was because she was too divisive, too political a figure.  What's more, I knew the scope and range of problems facing our country would take not just a gifted politician -- which she surely is -- but a well-seasoned, savvy bureaucrat.  

It would take a person who understood the workings of government, or at least understood how to learn about those workings, how to manipulate the levers of power to even begin to fix things.

I went with the Constitutional Law professor.  

Constitutional Law professor and community organizer, I should say.

I voted for Obama because I didn't need a guy with a full basket landing on a aircraft carrier with a bullshit "Mission Accomplished" sign behind him.  I needed the guy who knew how the aircaft carrier worked, how much it cost, and whether or not we actually needed the goddam thing.  

I need -- we need, we still need, I think -- not the CEO President, but the Organizer-in-Chief.  

All of that to say two things, Matt.  One, the guy is trying to fundamentally change the nature of not just politics but how we govern ourselves.  I really believe that.  And his speech last night was -- yes, poll-tested -- a reflection of that.  And a call to action.  A call to service.

It takes a lot of work -- and a long time -- to get the job done.

Hey, as Bon Scott sang, it's a long way to the top.  Look out.  It's rough and mean.  

Two, it's Friday night.  I know I gave you shit about Kenny Chesney (who I like well enough, for the record).  

Let's congratulate ourselves on a job well done -- I think we both know we're both egotistical enough to do just that -- sit back with our families, and toast our good health, good fortune, and good wishes for a good campaign in the next sixty days.  

Crank up the good stuff, Matt.  Loud.

Have a great weekend.  And thanks for this great idea.

BJK

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Welcome to a special Democratic Convention Edition of Into the Echo Chamber, the weekly electronic conversation of the 2012 presidential campaign as viewed from two Twitter feeds.  Matt Spence is monitoring the Twitterverse of the Romney Campaign, Republicans, and the "red" side of the aisle at @SpencerianRed.  I am monitoring the tweets of the Obama Team, Democrats and the blue team using @SpencerianBlue.  Our email-based back-and-forths are normally posted here on Thursdays.

For the week of the Democratic Convention, we will be attempting to post one exchange per day. Stay tuned.

You are, as always, invited to join the discussion, either in the comments below or by emailing Spencerian Red or Spencerian Blue.