It was close to impossible for me to watch the Democratic National Convention last night. Like I care about the Clintons, who care more about Hillary not being able to run for president again than the health of the party and the nation, and what Wolf Blitzer, Keith Olbermann or some peroxide piranha on Fox News thinks of anything (to the point where even Stewart and Colbert ripping on them meant I had to watch and even that was too much). Like I give a crap about overpriced pantsuits when calculating what irreplaceable Indian clothes to take if and when we evacuate.
I do care about the delegations and bloggers, though. These are ordinary people who sacrificed money and time to represent their state or site, for their hopes and our future. This is why I jumped over to CSpan2 to watch the presidential nominations come in and was riveted to the screen for a while thanks to DNC Secretary Alice Travis Germond’s peculiar torture of her own voice and the fact that Illinois, state of Barack Obama, passed. Why?! Still, my foray into the land beyond Gustav and the Katrina Anniversary ended with a *grrr* and a *click.* Between conventions and other love fests, the politicians of America and many of their diehard supporters just don’t get their own irrelevance.
This morning’s ride to work took us past the Convention Center. D remarked, “Three years ago today, this is what the building looked like. Just days later, it was packed with those seeking refuge.” Imagining the old, young, disabled and weak thronging in the heat on that sidewalk thanks to Bush, FEMA, the ACoE, Blanco, Nagin and three-martini levee inspections, all I could muster was “Worst response ever.” Gambit Weekly’s Kevin Allman is currently a guest blogger over at Matt Davis Opens His Mouth, where he teachifies the Pacific Northwest on aforementioned irrelevance and disgust:
Any attempts to make cheap points or political hay out of this situation will be scoffed at by people who are actually affected by this thing. After the last storm, the citizenry was failed equally by Democrats at the local and state levels and Republicans at the national level. There is widespread bipartisan disgust down here. We’re way behind on many things, but on this one, trust me: we’re way ahead of you.
Then, friend Stacey sent me an article about a nine-year-old kid in Connceticut who has been barred from his baseball league for “pitching too well.” What the? Stacey’s commentary: “Parents of the current generation of children are doing all they can to remove competition from athletics (and everything else), but at the same time, skewing the system so that it benefits their own children … If you don’t want your kid to compete in team sports, buy him/her a Wii Fit to avoid total vegetation and call it a day.”
Is institutionalized mediocrity what most Americans want for themselves and their children? It would explain our educational failure as viewed from a global perspective and what we are willing to settle for as a nation. One group extols the virtues of keeping kids’ individuality and excellence down for the sake of the collective, while the the other are parents who will keep talented and untalented children from the middle class and poor down so that their idiot kid can move up the ladder (to get closer to God, who created the world in seven days, I’m sure). One group recommends redistributing wealth in the interest of “fairness” while the other makes sure the middle class and poor as groups cannot participate in (what is really a very shaky definition of) success. The socialism of the masses vs. the socialism of the corporations. Both tactics stack the deck towards PURE FAIL. God Bless America Rah Rah Pffft.
Screw the politics of Hurricane Gustav. Screw greening the garish and overly-lit 2008 Democratic convention. Screw whom McCain picks as Veep and when. What the hell of value are we good at as a country? How do we get ourselves out of this mental and physical breakdown, this hole, this gigantic vacuum of insipidity without more back-patting and backstabbing?
Talk amongst yourselves while I try to get Microsoft Powerpoint to do something useful.
