~ A friend noted that I’d yet to offer my take on Ron Paul, so for the record: he’s an irrelevant kook with ties to the xenophobic paleo-right, and he’s stated that he doesn’t accept the theory of evolution. (Like others similarly ignorant of science, Paul seems to think that the word “theory” is synonymous with “wild guess.”) And yet Paul, though he opposes social-democratic ideals to his core and wants to abolish the Department of Education, has managed to capture the hearts and minds of many who consider themselves progressive. Point to James Kirchick’s much-discussed TNR piece on the racist content of Ron Paul’s political literature over the years and you’ll get angry responses with people directing you to … who? Lew Rockwell, the nativist arch-reactionary who apparently wrote the racist swill in the first place.
~ It will be highly entertaining in the months to come to watch both Bush bitter-enders and Rockwell-esque paleos attempt to tear their nominee John McCain to ribbons. Knock yourselves out, folks. Rockwell, noting that McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone (true), has plumbed new depths and argued that McCain is a foreigner and not eligible to be president.
~ Feminist author Robin Morgan has unleashed a vehement, widely forwarded defense of Hillary Clinton, arguing that a vote for HRC is somehow a radical gesture. Is there a sexist backlash against Hillary? Of course. It’s been around for years, and if she’s the nominee it’ll grow unimaginably. Morgan is right to decry the abuse, and her analysis of the race/gender dynamic at the heart of this campaign is well worth considering.
Does it add up to a reason to favor Clinton over Obama? Um, no. “I support her because she knows how to get us out of Iraq,” notes Morgan, failing to mention that HRC helped get us into Iraq. And while Hillary is not Bill, and not wholly responsible for her husband’s record, she has proudly campaigned on the Clinton legacy, which, let’s face it, includes Dick Morris, the Marc Rich pardon and all the rest. HRC is no radical, she’s the Democratic machine candidate.
Morgan’s implication, that male voters who choose Obama are somehow holding back the progressive tide, is pretty hard to take. I was on the street protesting outside Radio City Music Hall when Bill Clinton appeared there in 1996, soon after he signed the Republican welfare reform bill, the fruit of a demonization campaign against poor single mothers. Maya Angelou was inside, reading the president poetry. Where was Morgan?
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