Starting tomorrow: SAME OR DIFFERENT?

MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2021

But also, Democracy or bust: Abraham Lincoln wasn't sure that American democracy, such as it was, could survive the Civil War.

He voiced that concern at the start of his famous speech at Gettysburg—the Gettysburg Address:

LINCOLN (11/19/63): Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

That's the way he started.

Lincoln referred to both "fathers" and "men." Beyond that, he said the new American nation had been built upon the idea that "all men are created equal."

All people weren't being treated as equal within that new nation—but that nation had at least rejected the ancient notion of rule by kings and queens.

Could any such nation really expect to endure? In effect, the whole world was watching as a shockingly brutal war tested that proposition—a war which could have divided that nation in two.

At the end of his famous speech, Lincoln said that we the people should "take increased devotion to that cause for which" soldiers had died at Gettysburg. We should devote ourselves to the notion "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

There is, of course, no perfect way to institute any such government. It's also true that, even in 1776, the British government against which an earlier war was conducted had ceased to be wholly based upon rule by kings and queens.

Still, Lincoln saw the Southern secession as a sign that we the regular people might not be up to the task of maintaining stable self-government. Eventually, Union forces won the war, and the United States continued along as a single nation.

Today, that nation functions very poorly, almost clownishly, in many major respects. In part because of new technologies and modern media, we're dividing into an array of warring tribes. 

We lack a sufficiently evil external enemy, a source of national unity. It can sometimes seem that a wide array of identity groups are creating a modern Babel.

Also, the dumbness is general. That said, a second problem arises—we're so dumb that we can't even see this about ourselves..

As this is happening, several major anti-democrats think our system is doomed. At his press event last Thursday, Joe Biden named two such people—Putin and Xi. 

As we noted last Friday, Biden said that Putin and Xi think our system is destined to fail. At the end of yesterday's column, Maureen Dowd quoted part of what Biden said

DOWD (3/28/21): Republicans are grasping to find something to throw at Biden. Their only ammo is weak: tabloid trash about his son and the absurd idea that Joe is out of it, a smear that only became more risible after watching Thursday’s news conference. He was calm, despite the monumental nature of his plans. He seemed to know his own mind—a nice contrast with his predecessor, who was out of his mind.

Republicans are out of touch with their own voters, many of whom seem to like free money and the possibility that Biden, unlike Trump, actually wants to go big on infrastructure, rather than frittering away his days hitting the links and tweet-trashing Bette Midler.

“Republican voters agree with what I’m doing,” Biden said.

The president knows that the American identity is on the line.

“I predict to you,” he told reporters, “your children or grandchildren are going to be doing their doctoral thesis on the issue of who succeeded, autocracy or democracy, because that is what is at stake.”

In that passage, Dowd chuckles at am unavoidable appearance—the appearance that we the people will approve any legislative proposal, just so long as we get $1400 per person as part of the deal.

She said that President Trump was "out of his mind" during his time in the White House. We can't say we disagree with that, although we'd rather see serious medical specialists discuss this matter in serious ways, using grown-up language.

Dowd said that Republican officials have little ammunition to use against Biden. She said these officials are out of touch with their own voters.

We think she's whistling in the dark when she makes these pleasing statements. She also said that Biden was calm at his press event. It seemed to us that he also doddered a good deal—and that's what those Republican voters are now being told on Fox.

As Dowd ended, she referred to Biden's remarks about Putin and Xi—to the bet he said they're making. They're betting that autocracy is going to win, Biden said at his presser.

Is autocracy going to win? We can't swear that it won't.

In our view, Dowd has played a major role in our nation's descent into clownishness over the past thirty years. 

So have the poobahs at her frequently clownish newspaper. These poobahs apparently thought that "Creeping Dowdism"—that was Katherine Boo's prescient term—was the way of the future in our political journalism. 

(For Joe Klein's unverifiable anecdote about the moment when this judgment was made, you can just click here. Mondale didn't know who to hug! To the brass, that seemed profound!)

Dowd said Trump had been out of his mind. She didn't mention the fairly  obvious ways she herself had seemed to endorse him in 2016, when she rather plainly seemed to hate Candidate Clinton more.

She didn't mention her endless columns devoted to Candidate Gore's bald spot. She didn't mention the way we over here, in the liberal world, were too gullible, too lazy and dumb to rise up against the Dowdism which crept, then spread and finally congealed as it came to define our childish, failing journalism.

Lincoln was a mental giant. Today, we pretty much aren't, not even here in Our Town.

In our view, it's true that Trump was "out of his mind" during his four years in office. But what can a sensible person say about the silly journalism and advocacy widely observed in Our Town?

Our view? It's no longer true that we the people, here in Our Town, believe that we're a nation at all. Can any assemblage so conceived survive as a functioning state?

We don't think it's entirely clear. More on this topic all week.

Tomorrow: Chuckling, Professor Gates asked a question: "What difference does it make?" 


25 comments:

  1. "Still, Lincoln saw the Southern secession as a sign that we the regular people might not be up to the task of maintaining stable self-government."

    It isn't clear to me that Lincoln was saying anything about "we the regular people" since it was the elected representatives who instigated the conflict and most of the regular people could not vote.

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  2. "Today, that nation functions very poorly, almost clownishly, in many major respects."

    This is certainly true of Trump and his appointees, but the nation itself does not function poorly or clownishly. The fact that the regular people have now removed Trump and are undoing the harm he did speaks against Somerby's hypothesis.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The goal in a democracy is not unity but full participation. It is through conflict that all aspects of a situation and its potential solutions are explored. That assumes that all parties are acting in good faith. I believe the problem is that Republicans do not act in good faith to represent their constituents or to achieve common goals. I see that as a form of corruption, but its source is not lack of unity but lack of concern for our nation's well-being and the common good.

    I believe Somerby exemplifies that corruption too because of his dishonesty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're a moron and you compulsively see and believe stupid shit to protect your ego which has totally consumed your shitty life.

      Delete
  4. "Biden said that Putin and Xi think our system is destined to fail."

    Putin and Xi are Marxists. Of course they think our system is destined to fail. It is part of the ideology of both countries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Putin is a Marxist? Since when? what's your basis for that one? China is governed by the Chinese Communist Party, but they seem to operate as a capitalist system, not what Marx had in mind.

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    2. The 1917 Revolution was a Marxist revolution. The Russian Communist party is Marxist. It doesn't matter that they have overlaid a veneer of capitalism over that. The heart of their autocracy is Marxist Communist.

      A major tenet of Marxism is that capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. The workers will rise up and overthrow it. Capitalism is a fatally flawed system that time will destroy.

      It is like Christians predicting that Christ will return to earth. Not interesting as a statement because it is inherent to their belief system.

      Delete
    3. anon 5:48, Putin and the ruling majority in the legislature in Russia aren't Communists. There is a Russian Communist Party - but it is not in power, and Putin doesn't belong to it. You don't make any sense. Anyone can have an opinion - but crazy opinions aren't valid. What evidence do you have that Putin is a "Marxist"?

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  5. "It seemed to us that he also doddered a good deal—and that's what those Republican voters are now being told on Fox."

    Spoken like a true liberal...oh, wait, Somerby is no liberal. That's why he has nothing good to say about Biden and keeps repeating the same talking points heard on Fox, including this one.

    Trump is a blithering idiot, but we're supposed to be concerned that Biden, who has been demonstrating his competence in numerous ways, seemed to be "doddering" (whatever that means) at his press conference?

    Then Somerby says:

    "Is autocracy going to win? We can't swear that it won't."

    Because Somerby always holds that anything is possible. Even in the face of evidence that democracy has been spreading worldwide, and with it decreased conflict and war. But who cares about facts? Not Somerby -- he thinks that facts be damned, anything can happen. So he regularly says things like this that undermine the faith our citizens place in our government, almost as if that were his purpose.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're stupid.

      Delete
    2. Shorter Somerby to Rachel Maddow: You're stupid.

      Delete
  6. Somerby fails to mention the column Dowd wrote urging Biden to run against Hillary in 2016. Dowd likes Biden. Plainly, Somerby does not. Dowd's column this past weekend urged Biden to keep on doing what he is already doing. Somerby is a naysayer and says nothing about Biden's accomplishments, only that he thinks we're all stupid and Biden is old.

    It would be nice if just once Somerby actually had something to say besides spitting into the lemonade.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Could any such nation really expect to endure?"

    But of course it can, dear Bob, and most do, despite liberal-hitlerian cult's attempts to destroy them.

    Not surprisingly, those where the liberal-hitlerian cult is not powerful (the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China) are doing better then others.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mao, not one but two "liberal-hitlerian" here!!??. Your Goebblesianism here is getting a little weak, Goebbel's would have used a different vile lying slur the second time, not repeating the same one twice.

      Delete
  8. Bob,
    Self hatred is not good.
    They will be coming for you.

    ReplyDelete
  9. ps: Gore lost the election by losing Tennessee; his home state.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, he did not lose the election. All legally cast votes in Florida were never counted.
      You are saying that it is ok to steal the election in Florida because he lost Tennessee.

      Delete
    2. I'm saying that had he won his home state (Tennessee) he would have won the election.

      Delete
  10. Hit the Joe Klein link to the story about Dowd flying to Cali to check an identical model to Clinton’s hot tub.

    Mickey Klaus is improbably involved.

    ReplyDelete
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