by expatbrian (cross posted from World Gone Mad)
I've never been so remiss before about posting to this blog. But alas, my excuse is a good one as I have been blogging elsewhere. That link will take you to the blog I set up at the school for foreign students where I teach.
Anyway, since I already heard the fat lady singing, there hasn't been that much to talk about. Sure, the campaigns have continued. McBush is down double digits and like the ignoramous he is, he says he's happy with that. Palin has "gone rogue" in the words of some inside staffers. In other words, as could have been easily predicted, the dingbat is out of control, gone completely batshit with the media frenzy that surrounds her, and will certainly do something so incredibly stupid that her political career will implode if it hasn't already.
I've been especially amused by the various opinions expoused lately on what a "real American" is. It seems to be anyone who falls between Walter Brennen's "Old Rivers" and Andy of Maybury. Somehow, those of us who are educated, professional, thinking adults have been excluded from the definition. I mean, is anyone else as utterly offended as I am at the idea that, in order to be viewed as a "real American" we have to be the sort that drinks a six-pack at night after showing our butt crack all day?
Bloggingdino was right in his (her?) critique of one of my earlier comments over at The Swash Zone. The American voter is not mind numbingly stupid as I overgeneralized. It is only approximately half of them that are. Well, in the case of this election, less than half and that number is deteriorating rapidly. In any case, the moronic ones are quite simply the Republicans, who, with all of their failures so blatantly exposed, continue to support not only their ridiculous "team" of McCain/Palin, but continue to preach - to an emptying room - that their way works the best! They are apparently absolutely blind to their own recent history!
Like so many others, I feel like I have been politically brutalized by the Republicans for so long that I find it nearly, if not completely impossible to be in any way optomistic of the future. Yet, with Obama in charge and a 60+% in congress, who knows. Maybe, like Michelle, I'll get a renewed sense of pride and hope.
The "real American" thing was a deja vu event for me. I still remember a filmed comment by Martha Ray to John Wayne back in the 60's about war protesters not being "real Americans" like those two enthusiastic war profiteers.
ReplyDeleteHello Expat,
ReplyDeleteThe blogging dino is a male Allosaurus, of Jurassic provenance. Mostly he just kills stegosaurs and sits by the watering hole. And teaches English literature, oddly enough--evidently, there are many things science doesn't know. Anyhow, enjoyed your posts. As for "hope," yes, I would like to hope for something like a de-vulgarization of American political life. Things really have coarsened over the three decades I've been paying attention to "la politique." Some pols on the right say world-historically stupid things that would have embarrassed them years ago, but now they do it w/o batting an eyelash. I suppose Palin is the ne plus ultra of that development--her arrogance and ignorance know no bounds, and she's obviously fiercely proud of both traits. But I am pleased with the way this election is shaping up--Obama is a wonderfully skilled politician who has come onto the scene not a moment too soon. It isn't too much to say that his success is vital to the Republic.
Pleased to make your aquaintance Sir Dino and to hear that you are a fellow teacher of this crazy and complex language we call English. While my students, though adults, are beginners, I am humbled by their determination to learn it as a second and sometimes third language. Indeed, as you will see from my posts, my own mastery of English is limited as well, but I'm gonna try to sqeak by.
ReplyDeleteThank you Expat, and again, welcome aboard.
ReplyDelete