When I was in high school, the President was impeached. Many of you have probably had similar experiences.
This came amidst night after night of the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw and my parents. Each night I would hear the Republicans beat up on Clinton, followed by my parents beating up on Clinton and me wondering what was so bad about the guy. Then I got up in the morning for AP Government (which I took in 10th grade thanks to a special quirk of the program I attended in high school).
My friends at the time were (and still are) more political than I am. So for all the Clinton-bashing I got at home, I sat among 15-year-olds who bashed Republicans at school. Long story short, I felt bad for the guy. How could anybody (whether you are talking about Clinton or his detractors) be as bad as they were saying? Clinton was the first president I really grew up with -- I have no memories of Reagan and only remember the 1988 election and Bush's inauguration in '89. So while most people follow the political viewpoints of their parents, I heard so much of my folks' opinion that I bounced in the other direction out of sympathy.
This loosely relates to what was going to be the original topic of this post: my much-maligned and all-too-frequent statement that "I don't care about the issues." I wish those months of my adolescence (not to mention my political ideology) hadn't been soured by the acrimony I saw on TV, at school and in my living room. Ever since then, save for the pause after Sept. 11, it's been nothing but screeching, howling and fingerpointing. I'm sick of it. It's why I've never ever had any desire for the Republican, Democrat, liberal or conservative labels. I initially thought Obama was finally a Democrat who was going to put America before the Democratic party; now, I'm not so convinced. More on "postpartisanship" and my always-changing views on Barack Obama some other time.
What started back in 10th grade and remains today is this: the problems I care about are more cultural, more psychological, more sociological than political. Policies, after all, come and go. We have to live in this culture every day.
7 comments:
you know what i'm going to say.
"Policies, after all, come and go. We have to live in this culture every day" ???
maybe it would help to think about people whose lives depend on certain "policies," like welfare, universal healthcare, funding for public education, preserving clean air and water, protecting reproductive rights, etc.
these aren't just fleeting notions, or random sections of a long, boring code of law, these are CRUCIAL to people's very existence!
I think the point I meant to make was that everyone lives in the culture, and (although we ought to care about those other people) most policies don't permeate the entire society the way the political culture does. It's not a particularly well-formed idea, but I think it makes sense. Ten years ago, there was no Iraq war; ten years from now, there probably won't be one either. 100 years ago, abortion was not part of the national political fabric. 100 years from now, one might conceive (no pun intended) birth control technology will have improved to the point that abortion is no longer an issue.
Then again, in 100 years we'll all be computers anyway.
You know I agree with you ben. We've had numerous discussions where we lament the qualty of political discourse. We've sat at ihop many a midnight being mutually offended by the spectacle of petty partisan prattle that our political communty has come to accept and produce.
The difference between us, it seems is that I participate in this community, take on the shameful label of liberal, and end up less discouraged and upset because I get to take an active role in the discussion, however intolerable the substance.
I think you'd be wise to take a look at the assumptions underling your discontent with contemporary politics. I don't think that politics has ever been friendly, civil, or any other happy adjective. Politics is the ambitious fighting for power, and has always been nasty. Thomas jefferson paid a pamphleteer to slander his rival Adams, for instance.
I guess what I'm saying is that some golden age of political discourse never existed, so we shouldn't mourn the loss of it. Fight for honest discourse, but don't lose sight of the point: effective governance.
I definitely see your point, Mike, but at the same time, I guess studying government and watching it unfold has left me without much faith in the government's ability to change things. So I gravitate to the thing that is most prevalent, and the thing that permeates my life the most, which is the discourse. Maybe the "golden age" never happened, but we shouldn't not mourn its absence just because it never existed.
ben, how can you possible say "studying government and watching it unfold has left me without much faith in the government's ability to change things"??
what about the GI bill, which allowed my grandfather to go to college? what about the civil rights act? what about the creation of unions and welfare programs? i know politics can seem like a bunch of mudslinging, but you can't forget all the incredible things American's have been able to accomplish through the government.
the dirtiness of politics is not in the conflict itself, it's in the people who work day and night to maintain the status quo. it's people who try to keep others down so they can profit. that's why i'm proud to fight for candidate i believe in -- because we need to fight for the right policies, and the right direction for this country.
You are a passionate individual, my friend. (How's that for a McCain impression?)
The problem with what you write is that all the things you mentioned happened more than 40 years ago. I don't deny that other great things have happened even in my lifetime (Reagan, for example, substantially raised pay and benefits for military active duty, which directly affected my family in the 80s). And maybe (OK, definitely) I'm looking at it through my narrow lens of partisanship being instantly despicable. There is very little I can point to in my life that has been affected by George Bush's policies (I would say the same about Clinton except I was 9 when he was inaugurated and 17 when he left office). It's a self-centered way to look at it, but so it is. My grandfather went to college on the GI Bill too. I can't deny that the biggest changes in the 20th century were all ginormous liberal social programs, and nearly all of it has done real good. But show me something on par with that in the last 20 years. Show me the climate it can be done in.
"Show me the climate it can be done in."
dude. it's called a working democratic majority in the senate, paired with a democratic president! all the "ginormous liberal social program" were made possible by filibuster-proof democrat-controlled governments.
honestly, the reason i fight for the democrats is because i believe the problem is not politics -- it's the republican party.
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