Heads versus Hearts

This seems as true today as it was when I posted it in January 2010


As we roll into a new decade, Americans are basically divided into two groups. The first group sees the world changing for the better. We call these people Progressives. They tend to be naive and hopeful. They view the ever-changing cultural norms with equanimity. They see possibilities, they regard 'having fun' as a worthwhile goal. Fundamentally, they believe that things will work out if we just try to get-along and treat each other decently. They feel superior to the other group because they are driven by compassion to share the wealth (especially the wealth of the rich fat cats) with less-fortunate souls. They regard human laziness and stupidity as an unfortunate result of a bad dice roll. By contrast, if one is lucky enough to be born good looking , healthy and smart enough to take advantage of opportunity, you must always keep in mind that you were not entitled to it; you were given a break and you must pay it forward.


The second group - the ones we call Conservatives - are a grumpy bunch of stick-in-the-muds. They spend their workdays trying to get ahead. Then they stay awake at night afraid of slippery slopes and camels' noses in tents. Cons clearly see the negative aspect of anything that smacks of change. They love traditions and old authoritative books and parchments. They think everything worth knowing was already known by the Founding Fathers; new fads and ideas are regarded with suspicion and skepticism. They don't see the point in having fun, because people hate us and we need to stay on guard. They think they are superior to the other group because they are driven by their heads instead of their hearts. They see most taxation as stealing money from hard working people and giving it to ignorant slackers. They feel they are entitled to what they have, and hard cheese if you were born into the servant class, but that's the way it goes.


Normally, I think of myself as a fence-sitter between the two groups, usually falling on the side of the progressives due to a tendency to feel empathy and to acknowledge the relativity of moral truths. Conservatives are driven by their heads, thus they see human existence as a zero-sum equation where someone has to lose for you to win. For them everything is black or white, right or wrong. They regard fence-sitting-seers-of-grey with contempt.

Throughout the 8 years of the Bush-Cheney administration we were treated to the monotone nattering drumbeat from ultra progressive partisans, ranting negatively about everything that "W" said or did. It was tiring but often laughable for the extremes that the Libs would go to find fault with the President.

Now the cons, apparently feeling that turnabout is fair play, are filling the blogosphere and airwaves with silly criticisms of everything Barack Obama has done since his inauguration. Examples abound:
He is blamed for the ineffectiveness of the economic stimulus package (which was started during Bush's term), he is blamed for not bringing the troops home, for supporting a surge in Afghanistan, and the record unemployment is clearly his fault - all accomplished in just 9 months in office!
Lately, the criticisms are even nastier. You would never know that the Christmas day Northwest underwear bomber failed to complete his mission if you listen to some Conservative commentators. They are falling all over themselves accusing Obama of crimes and misdemeanors, sins of omission, commission and admission.
It's laughable. They used to say of Bush "He kept us safe" because there were no successful repeats of the 911 terrorist attacks in the USA. But Obama has been criticised as weak because of recent reports of foiled plots. (Hello, Cheney himself testified that there were several foiled plots after 911.)

Cheney, Limbaugh, and others talk about the Christmas day incident as if the bomb had exploded. They say Obama doesn't care about the safety of Americans - Which is about as block headed as it gets.

Most Americans are not as worried about crazed terrorists as they are about getting ripped off by some identity thief or taxed to death by out-of-touch elite legislators.

The main thing for which Obama should be criticized is this abomination of legislation called health care reform. As a candidate, Obama promised transparency, but has been silent while his pals in congress concocted this monstrosity of a reform bill behind closed doors. Candidate Obama pledged not to sign any legislation with earmarks, ("...we can no longer accept an earmarks process in which many of the projects being funded fail to address the real needs of our country.") Yet, nothing has changed. Deals were made in exchange for votes. Obama has has failed in his promise to us on these most important issues.

Already, two prominent Dems in the senate, seeing the tide of public opinion swelling against them, have already said that they will not run (and probably lose) in the next term.

Update: The recent shutdown and debt limit crises fan has flung shit in every direction.  Hard line Conservative Republicans are generally blamed for causing the impasse (They cynically changed the rules in the House to prevent anyone but the Speaker to call for a a vote.)  But the White House and Dems are not unscathed - since they cynically decided to close down government functions that would hurt innocent citizens.   Professional Pols on both sides are hoping voters will forget these shameful shenanigans by the next election.  I plan to vote against every incumbent.

The View From the Fence

 Americans are basically divided into two groups. The first group sees the world changing for the better. We call these people Progressives. They tend to be naive and hopeful. They view the ever-changing cultural norms with equanimity. They see possibilities, they regard 'having fun' as a worthwhile goal. Fundamentally, they believe that things will work-out if we just try to get-along and treat each other decently. They feel superior to the other group because they are driven by compassion to share the wealth (especially the wealth of the rich fat cats) with less-fortunate souls. They regard human laziness and stupidity as an unfortunate result of a bad dice roll. By contrast, if one is lucky enough to be born good looking , healthy and smart enough to take advantage of opportunity, you must always keep in mind that you were not entitled to it; you were given a break and you must pay it forward.

The second group - the ones we call Conservatives - are a grumpy bunch of stick-in-the-muds. They spend their workdays trying to get ahead. Then they stay awake at night afraid of slippery slopes and camels' noses in tents. Conservatives always see the negative aspect of anything that smacks of change. They love traditions and old authoritative books and parchments. They think everything worth knowing was already known by the Founding Fathers; new fads and ideas are regarded with suspicion and skepticism. They don't see the point in having fun, because foreigners hate us and our way of life -- thus we need to stay on guard constantly.  Fun is for the weak minded Progressive sheep.  The central issue for Conservatives is the role of government.  They are convinced that all Progressives want a "Nanny State" where the Feds control every aspect of citizens' lives.   They see most taxation as stealing money from hard working people and giving it to ignorant slackers. They feel they are entitled to what they have, and hard cheese if you were born into the servant class, but that's the way it goes. Conservatives think they are superior to the other group because they are driven by their heads instead of their hearts.


Normally, I think of myself as a fence-sitter between the two groups, usually falling on the side of the progressives due to a tendency to feel empathy and to acknowledge the relativity of moral truths. Conservatives are driven by their heads, thus they see human existence as a zero-sum equation where someone has to lose for you to win. For them everything is black or white, right or wrong. They regard fence-sitting-seers-of-grey with contempt.

Throughout the 8 years of the Bush-Cheney administration we were treated to the monotone nattering drumbeat from ultra progressive partisans, ranting negatively about everything that "W" said or did. It was tiring but often laughable for the extremes that the Libs would go to find fault with the President.

Since he  was elected,  the cons have been  filling the blogosphere and airwaves with silly criticisms of everything Barack Obama has done since his inauguration. Examples abound:
He is blamed for the ineffectiveness of the economic stimulus package (which was started during Bush's term), he is blamed for not bringing the troops home, for supporting a surge in Afghanistan, and the record unemployment is clearly his fault.  The recent attack on the Benghazi embassy is another example where the opposition is bound and determined to embarrass Hillary Clinton and President Obama for snafus that they say were covered-up to help Obama get re-elected.

Many on the right wing have drifted to the fringes and embrace all sorts of conspiracy theories about the extreme path that the Obama administration is following to turn the US into a socialist state.  They say he wants illegal immigrants in the country so he can have more voters.  If you point out the non-citizens cannot vote, the anti-Obamite will just laugh at you and refer you to thousands of  cases of alleged voter fraud, which they say is only committed by Democrats.  ( In my personal experience I know of only one case where someone used a loophole to vote twice.  He is a Republican.)

The main thing for which Obama should be criticized is this abomination of legislation called health care reform (AKA: Obamacare). As a candidate, Obama promised transparency, but has been silent while his pals in congress concocted this monstrosity of a reform bill behind closed doors. Candidate Obama pledged not to sign any legislation with earmarks, ("...we can no longer accept an earmarks process in which many of the projects being funded fail to address the real needs of our country.") Yet, nothing has changed. Deals were made in exchange for votes. Obama has has failed in his promise to us on these most important issues.

Bigotgate?

Poor Gordon Brown, PM of Great Britain, in the pre-election campaign to keep his job. He got caught saying regrettable things on a live mike. He called a the woman to whom he had been chatting a bigot, because she was complaining about the numbers of Eastern European immigrants in the UK taking jobs and using services. They are calling it Bigotgate and saying that it threatens to sink his campaign.

Not that what he said was so awful, but it was said behind her back and not face to face. The political opposition pounced and the news organizations have been delighting in the gaffe, despite the fact that he actually went back to the woman's house and personally apologized.

Poor Brown, all he did was call the woman a bigot. He never mentioned mention the fact that she was also overweight.

Kinda reminds you of the good old USA. Just a few weeks ago, VP Joe Biden famously congratulated Obama on his Health Care bill passage, in front of a live mike. Everyone who doesn’t live in a cave has heard him say grinningly “This is a big fucking deal !” That got everyone's panties in a bunch for a few days, especially the opposition that is obsessed with nitpicking everything that anyone in the Obama administration says or does.

These contemporary examples are not the first incidents where embarrassing things were caught on mike

From Wikipedia:

"On September 4, 2000, when Bush and running mate Dick Cheney appeared at a
campaign event at Naperville, Illinois. While on stage before the event, Bush
said to Cheney, "There's Adam Clymer, major league asshole from the New York
Times." Cheney responded, "Oh yeah, he is, big time." The remarks were picked up
by a live microphone, causing a minor campaign controversy. Bush later publicly
stated "I regret that a private comment I made to the vice presidential
candidate made it through the public airways. I regret everybody heard what I
said."

When this Ronald Reagan sound bite was leaked in 1984, I got under my desk

"My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've
signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five
minutes."

It was a warm-up joke, and only the audio techs heard it live, before the radio speech was broadcast; but within a few hours it leaked out and most of Asia went on alert. Old Dutch really had a decent sense of dark humor.


I really can't say whether Brown is worthy of being re-elected to the PM post, but if I was a Brit, I would look at his record and pay less attention to an utterance that was accidentally recorded.
And that fat bigot, well, maybe she needs a course in diversity training...