Two quotes to ponder today, from the infamous Republican political operative whose campaign tactics of divisiveness, smears and racist appeals set the tone for our political discourse long before Karl Rove became a household word, Lee Atwater:
Number 1 (in response to complaints that he had run a negative and empty campaign against Michael Dukakis in 1988)
“We had only one goal in the campaign: to help elect George Bush. That’s the purpose of any political campaign. What other function should a campaign have?”
Number 2 (after learning of the brain tumor that would take his life and feeling remorse for his past actions)
My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The ’80s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn’t I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn’t I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don’t know who will lead us through the ’90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.
Lee Atwater was a ruthless political operative who would do anything, say anything, hurt anyone, to win. He lied, he cheated, he distorted the truth, he played the race card, the fear card, whatever it took — to win. He only learned the value of other people after he was dying from brain cancer. I’m glad for him that he repented of his life’s misdeeds before he died.
Sadly, we are still faced with that “spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society” of which he spoke. Indeed, that vacuum has only increased in intensity over the last two decades, as we have become an even more ruthless, more ambitious society, greedy, barbarous and cruel (to borrow a phrase if I may). The question we all should be asking ourselves today, and for the rest of our lives is what we can do to fill up that emptiness with something more powerful than our own self interest.
We should also be asking that same question of those whom we would elect to higher office. In the world of politics, means implies ends. So I say to you, examine the means employed by those who seek your vote and your support, what they do not just what they say, and you will better understand the true goals they have set for themselves and for this country which they seek to serve. Lee Atwater was all about winning for his political clients and for himself. We need a larger goal than that if we hope to change the direction of this country.
“We need a larger goal than that if we hope to change the direction of this country.”
Good luck with that one, but do yourself a favor and don’t hold your breath.
The older I get, the more I find myself rediscovering the idealism that I thought I had lost when I reached 30. We have been cynical too long in this country. Certainly I have. I won’t hold my breath, but I won’t stop appealing for something more from our political life. The only other option is to sink into apathy and abandon hope that we can make a difference here.
I’ve taken that road, and it’s not one I wish to travel down anymore.
I’m almost 40 and I don’t know what this “idealism” is you speak of.
I won’t stop appealing for something more from our political life.
Well neither will I, but more for the sheer pleasure of annoying assholes like Arlen Specter and Jay Rockefeller with harassing phone calls than any real hope of change.
There is no hope and expecting that voting for this candidate or the other will bring about that long-awaited “change” is setting oneself up for a big disappointment.
The Fourth Amendment goes up in smoke next week (this week?). I’m really not that excited about which non-progressive democrat becomes president.
Neither am I. My only feeble hope is that Obama will turn out to be a candidate who ran, like FDR in 1932, as a centrist, and then governed like a socialist.
Ps, I got over 10 years on you Brendan, so there’s still time for you to come back from the dark side. 😉
hey, hey! It’s not like I’ve become a republican. THAT’S turning over to the dark side.
I’m what you call “disaffected”. Or as Eddie Murphy once said, “what have you done for me lately?”
The answer to that is “not much”.
You sound like a Top of the line SPINNER Steven. The O man lost in the eyes of the public. The O man is fighting the “Good Fight” and the effing public wants a reality show. The bitch played dirty and she discovered that playing dirty is what appears to be the way the public wants it.
The big winner last night was the god damned media. They wanted to keep the ratings up and now, they got what they want.
This country is in the toilet Steven. And, if you or anybody thinks that it is ready to to have a “LEADER” they are out of their mind.
Just listen to the chimps performance yesterday and you will see what they want! I don’t give a shit about the “low ratings” of the piece of garbage. They people love it. It is ENTERTAINMENT! And the media is the winner.
When you refer to Hillary Clinton as “the bitch” it appears hugely misogynistic. Just so you know.
It doesn’t appear misogynistic. It is mysogynistic. I see other comments on the site calling for the bitch to be put in her place. What is a bitch’s place, anyway?
I did see Booman calling someone out for it yesterday, in no uncertain terms.
Supersoling, I have the feeling we’re hoping for different outcomes, but I’ve always admired your integrity. I hope all is well with you.
That was me. In my angry state I used a word that was inappropriate. It happens to all of us, doesn’t it? Retract the word and move on. Billjpa is not any more a bad person than I or anyone else here. Let’s all be nice.
Thank you, Tehanu, that means a lot to me. And the feeling is mutual.
I think that our hopes are the same, though we might differ in how or who could get us there. It might appear that I support Clinton, but I do not. I don’t support either. And that’s a sorry place to find myself.
Take care
I think SNL said “bitch” was okay now, but not booman. I don’t recall anyone saying “put her in her place” but maybe someone wanted her to return to finish out her term in the Senate instead of destroying the Democratic Party.
Larger point: After the last two weeks it’s pretty clear that the low road is the only way that H. Clinton will take it to the convention. The number of attacks on Obama makes it pretty clear he isn’t the chosen one for the oligarchy. Clinton is favored because they can beat her, or if she wins they can work with her.
And speaking of the media, BBC overnight said that although Obama “may” have more delegates the race is “wide open.” So, yes, even the media abroad is going to advance Hillary unduly for their own interests.
Hey, it’s the “new black.”
Bob in Pacifica, You’re right. The BBC world service drooled all over her yesterday and today. I posted the following on an earlier comment board:
Yesterday (Tuesday), on the BBC World Service, a presenter interviewed the chief editor of Time (?) (I didn’t catch his name) about the derogatory references to Obama’s middle name. The presenter tried to elicit the Time man’s opinion on the matter: you know, is it sensible, intelligent to make a point of the name…? He refused to be drawn and remained ‘fair and balanced’.Then the presenter intentionally said Osama instead of Obama, as a smart joke, quickly correcting himself. The two chortled self-satisfied at the in-crowd witticism. I could have gone through the roof. There is not so much sympathy for Obama in much of the media establishment. They say he’s ’empty’, while never saying what it is precisely that the Clintons are full of.
There is obviously a media effort to take Obama down. Evidently he’s too ‘radical’, ‘nonconformist’, ‘scary unknown’ and the known always appears easier to deal with even when it’s as horrific as what we now have. I read on a blog today that Mrs. Clinton said in her speech that ‘we will win in Iraq and Afghanistan’. Did she really say that? If so, she’s not ‘a nice woman’ (to paraphrase a very nice woman who said in 2003 that John Kerry is not a very nice man). There seems to be no way out.
I think the person you’re quoting is Richard Stengel, National Editor of Time.
I really don’t know. It could be. Maybe he wasn’t even chief-editor. Anyway he was a Time big shot.
Don’t be such an optimist Bill. 😉
But to answer your point more directly, this isn’t about spin for the O man. I considered a lot of different quotes today, and then I stumbled across what Lee Atwater had said before he died, how he regretted the things he had done, how he felt his life had been empty.
That struck a chord with me, I suppose. And I would want all of us to examine why we support the candidates we do. What is our motivation? For the candidates we have left in this race are only a reflection of the society in which we live. We can choose based on identity politics, we can choose based on who we think will do the best for us, or we can choose based on who we believe will truly serve the interests of everyone.
Clausewitz once famously said that war is the continuation politics by other means. Well, I believe that politics can be like war, or they can be something else, something higher and more noble: a means to connect human beings one to the other into a real society, a real community of brothers and sisters. It is up to us to determine how we want our politics to play out.
FDR was the happy warrior, but he fought no wars. What he did was inspire hope and resist the tyranny of narrow self interest. He created much of the nation in which we live today, the nation that the Conservative movement has been trying to eradicate ever since Reagan’s election in 1980. He fought by appealing to our better nature, not our basest instincts. That is why I chose these quotes from Atwater today.
For there can be no change merely because a leader appears on the scene. All of us must make the decision as to whether that leader speaks for us, for our ideals and principles, for the type of society we wish to create. And we must also decide whether to, in the language of poker, go all in, by deciding that this larger goal is as important or more important than our petty differences and self interests. And then we must match our conviction with deeds.
No leader can change the country by himself or herself. It takes a movement. And before we make that commitment to join, to follow, to support the leader who asks for our help, we had better be sure that what that leader wants and what that leader plans to do, is what is best for our country, now and in the future.
I’m assuming this applies to you too.
Bill, on the bitch issue, I think a retraction would help immensely keep the discourse civil here on this thread. I understand that we all say or write things in haste, but I would ask that you please respond in a positive manner to the criticism of your choice of words, and offer an apology.
Thanks, Steve
Steven- I posted an appology about an hour ago and thought it was posted. I don’t see it up so I will do it again.It was a stupid remark said in anger and I appologize to all.
Anger rules after last nights horror sho but that is no excuse. Channeling anger is a much more appropriate response. Again- Sorry for the choice of the word.
in that people have studied his techniques very successfully and haven’t cared a whit for his deathbed conversion. These folks who have followed on – Rove, Cheney etc. are really very shallow folk who haven’t the capacity for conversion. They only have one goal – power – and no amount of power will satisfy their hunger. That they have been successful is an indictment of us and our unrelenting greed and desire to better ourselves over others in the past few decades.
In fact, I find the this man’s deathbed disavowal of his earlier behavior another peace of cynical, hypocritcal manipulation on his part. ‘Look, after all, I’m nice despite the the damage I have done.’ Thinking to himself: ‘And who know, maybe a vindicative deity does exist after all and (s)he will send me to hell.’ Obviously he knew all along that his way of doing politics was execrable. Let the dead bury the dead. No, instead his twisted soul lives on today in the politics we see all around us every minute of every day.
Lee Atwater was quite a piece of work. If there ever was a reason to believe in karma, he is it.
My understanding is that Republican “dirty tricks” did not begin with Atwater, or Karl Rove, or the Republican Lite Hillary Clinton for that matter, but with Thomas Jefferson. It seems to be a party tradition, and it can work even when borrowed, as seen by yesterday’s Democratic primary.
Memory Road: Murray Chotiner, the Pink Lady. Lucianne Goldberg (yeah, Jonah’s mother) and NANA. CREEP.
You can’t pin Republicanism as such on Jefferson, since the party didn’t exist until somewhere around 1854 if memory serves. However, you’re right, dirty tricks are almost as old as the Republic. One in particular I remember was pulled by supporters of Grover Cleveland’s opponent James Blaine. There were allegations that Cleveland had fathered a child out of wedlock (allegations that, a century before DNA testing, were never proven, though Cleveland did assume financial support for the child in question), so Blaine’s supporters would dog Cleveland, showing up at his speeches and chanting, “Ma! Ma! Where’s my pa??” This one has a turnaround ending, though; once Cleveland won the Presidency his supporters would taunt Blaine’s backers with, “Ma! Ma! Where’s my pa?? Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!!”
Smithsonian Magazine did a great article in a past Presidential election year on dirty tricks. I wish I’d saved it.
Thanks for the correction.
Jefferson’s Republican party was quite different from the 1854 variety, but, strangely enough, it is closer to today’s Republican party, with its “state’s rights” emphasis, than Lincoln’s party.
Oh mostly it was an excuse to tell the story about Cleveland, which I think is pretty funny. 🙂
I feel so apocalyptic about this, as though we have this one last time to appeal to the better angels of our nature and crass is winning.
I just want to go and feel warm dirt on my hands, plant seeds and nurture them into growth, because that may be the only joy and hope left.
I’ve read that during moments of despair during the war, Lincoln would read from the Book of Job, and that it gave him comfort. I find that heartening for some reason.
Is that the one where god killed 10 of Job’s children to test his faith? Heartwarming story, that is. :/
I appologise! Sincerely!!!!!!!
Thanks Bill.
A very good post, Steven D! I’m forwarding the link to some people I know.
I, too, am looking for inspiration this morning. It’s always, ultimately, about us, as brothers and sisters, as a group, as a community …
It’s because we lose faith in each other that the Lee Atwaters of this world can wreck mayhem around us. There will always be “Lee Atwaters”. How we respond to them is what matters. How do we respond? Is it by stepping in the cesspool with them? If not, what other option is there? I’m still searching … and time is running out.
Please post as a diary on Daily Kos. This is the best thing I’ve read today. There’s a lot of confusion and anger in the comments over at DKos this morning. Posting this as a diary might help people find some common ground over there before things get even uglier.
I’m sorry, but I doubt that would do anything at all to deal with the issues at Daily Kos. And I don’t believe in posting there unless I have a very good reason (i.e., a story that I feel hasn’t been covered adequately and needs to be), and then only rarely.
And frankly I have other issues with Kos that I don’t feel like getting into, but which soured me on him and his blog a while back.
I appreciate the compliment and your well intentioned response. I hope you can respect my decision not to repost this over there. Booman Tribune is my home. If people want to read what I write they know where to find me.
Not a problem. I visit here often but haven’t commented so far. I read and comment at Daily Kos on and off, even though I don’t always agree with Kos myself. Sometimes, though, there is more heat than light, like this morning, and I feel like giving that site a break for awhile.
Today really sucks for a lot of us, I think.
Bittersweet morning after a sleepless night of impossible results. The sun is creeping up, 2 bright and bold balloons have just lifted off in the valley below. Not enough coffee yet to encourage me to take Hillary off mute. But there it is, life goes on in the valley below. Email from friend:
Trying to heal a broken heart before it is ready is like trying to ripen a green banana in the oven.
Perhaps later in the day I’ll be ready for some Tom Hanks from ’04: “I’m a great believer in that horse ain’t dead yet”
I just finished reading Ben Smith at Politico on Obama’s campaign reaction. I must say that once again I am amazed at its resilience in face of adversity. See here and here.
I guess there IS a way to confront the Lee Atwaters without soiling oneself! The part I prefer is this from David Axelrod:
[As Captain Hook would say: “Smee, translate!”]
Gee, I wonder what he could possibly be referring to.
To All: Once again, I would like to appologize for my use of a descriptive term I employed in an earlier post It was uncalled for and was used in a fit of anger. Sorry to ALL!
I think we all saw it Bill, it’s just the screwy commenting system that might have led you to be concerned and repost it. But no worries, ok.