Frum and the Politics of the Extremes

I never thought I'd hear myself say it, but I think I agree with David Frum. At least in part. I don't want to make it a habit of agreeing with former Bush speech writers, but in his article this weekend in the Washington Post, I found myself nodding along with a lot of what he had to say.

The first half of his article revolves around the following: As the McCain campaign has spent the better part of the last month gasping for air just to stay alive, it has moved far to the right in an attempt to fire up the extreme base of the Republican Party. As Frum says,
“To fire up the Republican base, the McCain team has hit at Barack Obama as an alien, a radical and a socialist...
“The very same campaign strategy that has belatedly mobilized the Republican core has alienated and offended the great national middle, which was the only place where the 2008 election could have been won.”

There was a hope at the beginning of this election season that we’d moved beyond the politics of extremism. The plan was to move us away from politics as usual and to bring us closer together while still giving us choices on real issues like the economy, health care and the war. Certainly the extremists will always be around—those who are excited by bashing intellectuals and by shouting inflammatory remarks which verge on racism. But if President Bush represented the choice of those people, his failures in office and his horrible approval ratings have shown that leadership from the extremes doesn’t work, and more over, as a country we’re looking for something new. Karl Rove may have been able to ignite enough extremists to “elect” this man twice, but after 8 years of failure, it cannot last.

Frum sees McCain’s attempt to return to this kind of extremist political posturing as a danger for the Republican Party and I’m sure that it is. But I think there is more at stake. I am not worried about the demise of the GOP as much as I am worried about what will happen to our political system in general if Republicans continue to offer up candidates who appeal to a very vocal extremist minority.

I am seeing the results of this in my own feelings at the end of this long election season. Not only have the last 8 years been a disaster, but as the McCain campaign sinks lower and lower in its attempts to use fear to get votes, I find myself getting angrier and angrier—forgetting why Obama was so appealing to begin with.

Frum talks of how, “the political culture of the Democratic Party has changed over the past decade. There's a fierce new anger among many liberal Democrats, a more militant style and an angry intolerance of dissent and criticism.”

The angry right has created an angry left. We are fed up as we should be and I blame a lot of it on the road that we’ve all been led down by the polarizing policies of the machine which gave us 8 years of Bush. The policies of Rove and others to move us to extremes—to pit us against each other on issues which are meant to divide us not unite us, and now recently, McCain’s attempts to place Obama in the company of all of those who are furthest left—the socialists, the domestic terrorists—have left us with no choice but to be angry, and to want to fight back.

If Obama wins on Tuesday it will be for a lot of reasons, but I think that a big part of it will be because we are not willing any longer to play this game of extremes. And although Frum is worried about bringing the angry left to Washington, I am hopeful. Hopeful that when Barack Obama says he represents change that he means it. Hopeful that when Obama talks about hope, he truly believes that he has policies that can restore hope to many of the people in this country who need it more than ever. And hopeful that this man who has inspired so many people to get involved in the process, people who have never been involved before, will not bring to the political world a mob of angry men and women, but people who are hungry for change and who want to move this country not towards the other extreme but who want to reverse some of the horrible policies of the past eight years in an intelligent and measured way. We don’t need an angry extreme left to do this. We need a strong leader who can bring all of us together—right, left, and center—and who can show us that really the things which divide us pale in comparison to the things which we all have in common. We are voting in a very exciting election and I am even more excited about where we are headed if Barack Obama wins on November 4^th.

Credit Where Credit is Due

I have to say that this blog would not have been started without the suggestion and encouragement from Jason, a great friend who recently started his own blog. Jason and I have spent many many quality hours discussing everything from politics to relationships to soccer to food. These aptly named windbagging sessions are part of what I miss most about home. We have a lot in common and Jason is very high on the list of people who know me best. Jason is a great listener, he is thoughtful and reflective and has always been there to give me much needed perspective on my life and to help me deal with problems I'm trying to work through. Far away in DC, keeping in touch with Jason means gmail, gchat and hopefully now blog-stalking. Jason's blog is thoughtful of course and very well written. It sets the blog standard very high--hopefully I can live up to it. You can read his always interesting musings here. Thanks Jason.

A DC Visit, and On Starting a Blog

I spent this weekend "at home" in College Park and DC. I was in town for a very very rainy homecoming and it was a fantastic visit. The game was great, I got to see a lot of the friends I've been missing in New York, I finally saw Emma's studio space/insane life, saw Molly and heard her talk about how fabulous her life is as a freshman (a time I found myself longing for somewhat as I walked around campus after dark one night), I saw some former co-workers and spent an hour chatting about the state of the world with one of my favorite professors.

The moment my bus pulled into DC on the trip down, I realized just how much I miss the city that I call home. It's different from New York in a lot of ways and while New York certainly wins on some things, it can't beat DC for me in terms of comfort. Walking from the bus to the metro in the yellow DC light, I was struck by a wave of nostalgia and what I can only describe as a sense of relief at being home in a place where I feel totally comfortable. More than the city itself, seeing old friends and spending time with my sisters brought up the same feelings. Being in a place I know, surrounded by people who know me so well is easy and always makes me insanely happy.

All that being said, I really do enjoy my life in New York. Different is good and I feel like taking the opportunity this year to change a lot about my life was the right thing to do. This city is so exciting and every day I love being here. My job is fantastic, I enjoy my coworkers and living with Alex in our super cute neighborhood in Brooklyn is really fun. I am also liking the freedom of not being in school. Having finished The Faulkner Paper and now being done (almost) with Medschool applications, I'm reading what I want to read and I have plenty of time to explore the city. There's no homework, no constant studying and I feel like all of that has given me a chance to get myself plugged back into the world. College can be isolating as far as current events go and I love that I have the time now to pay real attention to the real world.

But there are still things I miss about college. I miss being as smart as I was just last year--someone who could label all the structures of the brain and describe the functions of each. I miss being forced to take all my thoughts on a novel and shape them into a cohesive, well written and thoughtful paper. Without school it is easy to avoid big questions and to never spend time doing the kind of analysis and thinking that writing requires. Although I've spent a lot of time in the last few months reading about politics and health care and education and the state of the world in general, I haven't written anything and I'm not sure what I really think.

This blog is going to be an attempt to get myself writing again. To get me to organize my thoughts, to put them into words and to help me discover where I stand on certain issues. It's also going to serve as a record of my time in New York and of the work I'm doing with AmeriCorps and how each of these things changes and shapes me. And finally, I hope it will be a way for me to stay in touch with the people I miss most.