Everybody Knows the Deal is Rotten

[phamos818]

Watching the Obama speech, I was struck by a couple of things. First, as much as I love hearing this man speak, I think this particular speech benefits from being read as text rather than watching him deliver it. It's too long -- he spends too much time at the beginning setting up what he has to say through the prism of the Jeremiah Wright

Comments

[kiwikat]

YES! exactly. i read the whole thing through today and it was so inspiring to see a politician ask us to use our brains and be nuanced. it was so frustrating to be at the gym after reading it and watch three networks cover it simultaneously with sound bites that missed the overall point.

do you mind if i link this entry?

[kiwikat]

p.s. i just downloaded the song those lyrics are from, groovin'!

[phamos818]

No, go ahead!

[ndykman]

I don't know. Maybe I am cynical, because I'm pretty sure people want change, but too many don't want have to think about it too much. I mean, I kind of don't either. I just want a foreign and domestic policy that doesn't fuck up our economy and keeps me from getting a job, really. Frankly, I don't want the big issues of race, class, etc. to get in the way of fixing the stuff that's broken now.

People do want soundbites, especially the youth. Yea, I know get off my lawn. But, for a generation in which texting is the high of literate conversation, well, yea, reading a newspaper, is like: "Whatever. I mean, I'll go read some blog comments on it if I give a crap, which I probably don't."

To be honest, I don't care about racial divides and the dumbing down of Americans, etc. I want a job. I want our economy not to implode. I want better health care, and that's hard enough, so let's just worry about that for now, okay.

[phamos818]

But that's the thing -- I think anyone who just promises "more jobs" is promising a stopgap measure, and the same shit is just going to happen over and over again. I'm not talking about some radical Marxist overthrow of the government, but 'm saying that unless the economic, social and political CULTURE of this country changes, no one is going to have job security. And racial resentments tie into that. And the dumbing down of America (aka failing schools + moronic media = idiotic fun!). It's ALL interrelated -- that's what he's talking about. To try and simplify it is to fail at providing long term solutions. I know you want a job now. Everyone wants a job now. But what good is a job now if in 6 months you lose that job and then it's the same thing all over again?

[ndykman]

Okay, busted. I guess I just want to make out with a ton of money. Why wasn't I a dot-com millionare (flappy arms).

I'm for long-term solutions, but not at the cost of short-term progress, which I worry is becoming increasely impossible. I mean, people need work and security now, and we can't put them off.

Strangely, I think this was a very thoughtful, nuanced and detailed reaction where I think a simple "My pastor said some really dumb shit. Not my thing." would have been okay, because people are trying to make this big mountain from more of a molehill over this. Shit, if Obama's biggest problem is that his pastor is a bit of a dumb-ass demogauge, get him in the White House now man.

[billyphuz]

Woah, Concrete Blonde did a version of that song?

But I really came to write: hear hear. When I read the speech, I had to leave my workspace and the prying eyes of my would-be-voting-for-Huckabee boss to tear up in the bathroom. I wish people could just listen, but over the past eight years there's been nothing to listen to, no art, no magic, not even well-crafted bullshit. It's going to be hard to bounce back, but if he can make an apathetic cynic like me AND the majority of our country's democrats believe, maybe there is hope. Maybe someone, lots of someones, are listening.

[phamos818]

I like the Concrete Blonde version better, although they leave out at least one verse. I think the Concrete Blonde version was on the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack originally...

[phamos818]

Ugh, you're braver than me to venture over to the Corner. They break my brain. I try to avoid things that will get me TOO riled up, even though I strangely enjoy the feeling of righteous indignation.

[rationalpassion]

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjkwNzRiMzQ1YzYzYzAxNDBjMTc2MmFiNDA3NjhjOTE=

Read and learn.

[phamos818]

Wait, what am I supposed to be learning? That Jonah Goldberg thinks Obama's a good speaker but doesn't agree with him in the end because Obama's solutions will inevitably involve more fascist New Deal-type entitlement programs? I knew that. I didn't need to give the National Review ad hits to figure that out. :)

yo

[madisonmassage]

great senitments...
did you check out the thread by futurebird on the politics forum?

it was sweet...

later yo

Re: yo

[phamos818]

I'm personally really enjoying ontd_political for my LJ political commentary these days...it's relatively irreverent, but they post lots of good stuff.