Spring Break
Drexel presidential debate gives little hope for change in American politics
Robert Zaller
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Ed-Op
- Page 1 of 3 next >
The signs are still up on campus, but the circus has left town.
Ever wonder why Harvard, Princeton and Yale never host presidential primary debates?
Maybe the Ivy League just has a better sense of smell.
No, I didn't go. Like most of us at Drexel, I slipped my way between the sound trucks and the high-on-hype supporters of this face or that, and got to my classes. Hopefully, my students and I exchanged something of value.
If we did, we had the candidates beat by a mile.
The debate, by all report, was a three-way boxing match. Edwards and Obama laid glancing blows on Clinton. Mascara flowed. Meanwhile, American democracy continued its march toward oblivion.
2007 is getting ready to go down as the "Year of Nothing Much." England and France got new leaders, but we did not. Iraq continued to burn, Afghanistan slipped further into chaos, and Pakistan began to come apart.
Lord Cheney, as Doonesbury has taken to calling him, plotted his legacy war with Iran with the usual go-ahead winks from the media.
Americans started getting thrown out of their homes as well as their medical plans, as Alan Greenspan's final gift to the economy, the mortgage crisis, wiped out the last stand of consumer equity. Global warming arrived a few decades ahead of schedule, but with George W. Bush bringing us every good thing in Texas from $100-a-barrel oil to a peek-a-boo government, why not its climate as well? All in all, a quiet year.
This was supposed to be the year we began to get our country back.
That never happened. No sooner had the Democrats taken control of congress than the new Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, announced that consideration of impeachment was "not on the table." Bush and Cheney needed to hear no more.
For Lord Cheney, nothing is ever off the table. Nuke Iran? Blitz London? Attack Mars? No problem: we have contingency plans for everything, justifications for anything.
So, when your opponent says she's taking her most important weapon off the table before a fight has even begun, you see the flag of surrender. And, if you are Lord Cheney, you are not wrong.
Ever wonder why Harvard, Princeton and Yale never host presidential primary debates?
Maybe the Ivy League just has a better sense of smell.
No, I didn't go. Like most of us at Drexel, I slipped my way between the sound trucks and the high-on-hype supporters of this face or that, and got to my classes. Hopefully, my students and I exchanged something of value.
If we did, we had the candidates beat by a mile.
The debate, by all report, was a three-way boxing match. Edwards and Obama laid glancing blows on Clinton. Mascara flowed. Meanwhile, American democracy continued its march toward oblivion.
2007 is getting ready to go down as the "Year of Nothing Much." England and France got new leaders, but we did not. Iraq continued to burn, Afghanistan slipped further into chaos, and Pakistan began to come apart.
Lord Cheney, as Doonesbury has taken to calling him, plotted his legacy war with Iran with the usual go-ahead winks from the media.
Americans started getting thrown out of their homes as well as their medical plans, as Alan Greenspan's final gift to the economy, the mortgage crisis, wiped out the last stand of consumer equity. Global warming arrived a few decades ahead of schedule, but with George W. Bush bringing us every good thing in Texas from $100-a-barrel oil to a peek-a-boo government, why not its climate as well? All in all, a quiet year.
This was supposed to be the year we began to get our country back.
That never happened. No sooner had the Democrats taken control of congress than the new Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, announced that consideration of impeachment was "not on the table." Bush and Cheney needed to hear no more.
For Lord Cheney, nothing is ever off the table. Nuke Iran? Blitz London? Attack Mars? No problem: we have contingency plans for everything, justifications for anything.
So, when your opponent says she's taking her most important weapon off the table before a fight has even begun, you see the flag of surrender. And, if you are Lord Cheney, you are not wrong.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
sam
posted 12/02/07 @ 10:48 PM EST
Diatribes like this remind me that not all Americans keep their eyes closed and their ears covered.
Jamie
posted 12/04/07 @ 8:53 PM EST
Brilliant. Thanks for a great read.
Post a Comment