multiple beers lead to this

I enjoyed watching the Dems' presidential debate—thanks shephi for the youtube link. It wasn't so much a debate as a big informercial for the democrats, I thought. All these folks, they basically agree, they're all friends, and they're all fighting the same fight. They're all trying to impeach the president, they're all sick of him. They're all for universal healthcare, it's just a matter of how, they'll all withdraw from Iraq on day one, and ... well I don't remember what else. Even the Republian party is about ready to mutiny, from what I've read, and their debate promises to be especially hilarious. The dems have a monopoly on the opposition opinion, the existing Republican administration is universally despised--what's left? In what words can you disguise your platform, when it consists essentially of, "WE FAVOR CORPORATE GREED"?

Anyway, the guy who got my attention was Mike Gravel. Obama, Edwards—these guys are amateurs. I thought it was particularly endearing how Obama told us about how he planted trees on earth day and how he's teaching his kids to change light bulbs. As if light-bulb-changing were a teachable skill, and as if it's our kids who need to know about the light-bulb-changing and not ourselves, and that delightfully 1987 point of view that changing a light bulb can save the planet, not making a real sacrifice like giving up your hummer (but I digress). And Edwards pretending to be all contemplative and explaining how he looks to his Lord for guidance. It's all delightfully cliche politicking, as American as Apple Pie and all that. Hillary Clinton knows she's going to get the nomination, so she didn't even try; all her criticisms were for This Current President without a thing to contrast her from her colleagues. But skip to Mr. Mike Gravel, who doesn't mince words: Frankly I'm scared of some of these other guys! Obama, who are you going to nuke first?

This man lead a five-month, one-man filibuster to defeat the vietnam draft in 1972! This man read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record!

But America shows no respect. No respect for history. I saw those documentaries about John Kerry and they sent shivers up my spine. The winter soldier! You can be a hero in 1972 and no one in America will know in 2008. Mike Gravel, too, has no chance. He has $500 in cash and $80,000 in campaign debts. I sent him twenty-five bucks. It's the least I could do. Hillary has how many millions?

And then I wonder, what did Howard Dean do? He captured our hearts and minds and then was blown to smitherines. Did that experience alienate an entire generation from politics, from advocacy?

I was too young in 1992 to understand the subtleties of politics (and now I know better than to try), but I have to say that Bill Clinton was electrifying. (I campaigned for him at my Jr. High!) At that time I had no idea why Hillary Clinton was yammering on about Healthcare—it seemed like the boringest possible topic to my 7th-grade mind—but now I understand that she was fighting the good fight. At the debate she said she had the scars--I wonder if anyone remembers?—and, accidentally, I think, she invoked the phrase that propelled the Clinton Administration into the White House on what seemed to me in 1992 as an epic call to power, the epic defeat of that Evil Empire that came before: it's a time for change.

I also enjoyed George McGovern's op-ed in the Los Angeles Times this week. Cheney slighted him, and he fights back in style. I think of Hunter S. Thompson. In my limited view of 1972, this was Hunter S. Thompson's campaign, and he was disillusioned when it failed. McGovern (by the way: hilarious name for an American politician) says in part: "It is my firm belief that the Cheney-Bush team has committed offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew and Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from office after 1972. Indeed, as their repeated violations of the Constitution and federal statutes, as well as their repudiation of international law, come under increased consideration, I expect to see Cheney and Bush forced to resign their offices before 2008 is over."

Hunter S. Thompson's obituary of Nixon is the one that lingers, the one that spoke the truth instead of posturing by way of eulogy. One can only hope that present day folk can step up and do the same. Kucinich has introduced articles of Impeachment for Mr. Cheney. Somehow I doubt they'll go through. The American people can't understand, much less get riled up about, a crime any more complicated than Nixon's, which, of course, was burglary. A vast conspiracy, embezzeling lives and trillions, embarking on a profiteering war, all under false pretenses? Too subtle to be impeachable. Breaking-and-entering and blow-jobs are as complex as we can prosecute.

I imagine Bill Clinton wasn't actually larger than life but it was really that that election was the first I was really cognizant for, and today he might seem as amateurish as the rest of them. It's easy to be cynical about politics, but it's comforting and eye-opening to see that folks like Mike Gravel and Mr. Kucinich are fighting the good fight, and have been fighting it for a very long time. Politics is cyclical, but maybe this is the part of the cycle where the evil goes out.