Toughen Up?
March 10th, 2008 Posted in Hillary, ObamaJames Wolcott and NYCweboy tell the Hillary haters to “toughen up”–politics is a rough game. The corollary here is that Clinton and Obama aren’t really different; they “both” played rough. It’s all the same.
Nonsense. Calling for decency and intellectual honesty in politics is not a matter of lack of toughness. If you don’t make that stand, then you get what you ask for–inane public discourse, a nasty political climate, and the kinds of panderers who can’t vote against war if there is the slightest breeze in the opposite direction.
It matters whether politicians are petty liars in the way they run their campaigns; it matters whether they are fear-mongers; it matters whether they can characterize their opponent’s position in an intellectually honest way; it matters whether they’re shrill, angry, sarcastic, and frankly hysterical.
If you can’t tell the difference between Clinton and Obama here, then you’re simply a bad judge of character.
The toughen up position is just the political version of “get over it.” We are supposed to remember that we sophisticated liberals are at bottom nihilists, and have no beliefs more profound than the valorization of society’s oppressed victims and the denigration of power in all its forms. Power is bad per se, so why should we expect that it can be fought for fairly? We are utilitarians; so why should we care whether politicians are essentially power-hungry and dishonest in the way they run their campaigns, as long as we get what we want?
That’s just politics. That’s just being tough. Don’t be a pussy, get on board. And if warrantless surveillance is a fact, get over it. That’s just legislation. And war? Get over it. That’s just foreign policy. And crimes by the Bush administration? Get over it. They’re all criminals. That’s just the way the world works. Shitty politicians, bad policies, infringement on civil liberties, un-checked and criminal abuse of power, and lots of dead people.
From the supporters of Clinton and politics as usual we here the same tired arguments of appeasement that got us war and waterboarding, and a Democratic congress that has done nothing to check Bush’s abuses of power.
Toughen up we are told. That’s life.
2 Responses to “Toughen Up?”
By weboy on Mar 13, 2008
There’s an awful lot going on here, and a lot of conclusions about what I might mean, at least by implication, in saying “toughen up” (I can’t speak for Wolcott, nor would I try). Just to be clear, I think you can find people on both sides to complain that the treatment their candidate gets is “intellectually dishonest” and done by “petty liars”. I don’t have a strong opinion one way or another. I think we’ve had some low shots all around, some less than stellar commentary, and some things, on both sides, that probably were regrettable. I don’t see a need to give chapter and/or verse.
What I do mean, and what I did say, is that if we want politics to be more than that, and better, then what we need to do is do it. Be more civil. Argue the issues. Take the high road. My problem with Barack Obama has to do with a lack of specifics from him on the issues, not some litany of ugly charges that some people think are floating out there about him. I think he’d make a fine candidate for President (and have said as much, repeatedly). I simply support the other person in the primaries. And I think we can have a primary process, even one that gets rough, and still come together at the end. That’s because I’m a Democrat, and the most important thing, it seems to me, is electing one. Because, despite what you suggest, all of those issues you mention matter to me. And I know the person who will make them worst, most, is John McCain. Let’s not lose sight of that. And let’s all work to elect a Democrat. Whoever he or she may be.
Best
NYC weboy
By Wes on Mar 14, 2008