A Pilgrim’s Digression

Yesterday on Maryland Avenue, near the Supreme Court, I saw an SUV with a bumper sticker that read: “1/20/2009: The End of an Error.”

Error or not, as of yesterday, an era began to draw to a close. It is now exactly one year until Election Day 2008. I am always surprised how quickly an election cycle creeps up on us, except that in this case it seems like the election has been more like our shadow than a mysterious lurker in the shadows. Did the previous election cycle ever really end? It seems like news anchors and talking heads have been talking about the 2008 Democratic nomination, anyway, since at least the day after election 2004.

I have difficulty feeling much passion about the election. I am beyond feeling that a vote for one candidate or another is going to bring about Armageddon, or conversely, the Utopian vision of a Perfect Society. I know I’ve cited this before, but like the donkey in Orwell’s Animal Farm, I tend to believe the world goes on pretty much as it did before–that is, badly–no matter who is in charge, whether the pigs or the humans. Of course the ultimate lesson of Orwell’s fable is that there is little difference between the two, in the end.

It’s a hard lesson to learn. Democrats want Hillary to be the next Franklin Roosevelt, but even FDR was not the Franklin Roosevelt of our dreams. And Republicans all want to be the next Ronald Reagan, or rather, some mystical idea of Ronald Reagan that has nothing to do with reality. In the end, every politician disappoints. Hillary ends up refusing to commit to a withdraw of troops from Iraq, and Rudy can’t speak honestly about his feelings on abortion.

I’ve been through all this before. Several times now. I apologize for my inability to feel any excitement or urgency in the matter. Far from my twenty-something years as a Clinton-loathing conspiracy theorist who believed Bill Clinton contracted the murder of Vince Foster because he was having an affair with Hillary, I actually believe Hillary won’t be as bad a President as Rush Limbaugh wants us to believe. Her refusal to commit to troop withdrawals at least signals a recognition on her part that she should not handcuff herself to a policy before knowing what George Bush knows.

Nor do I view Rudy Guiliani as the anti-Christ. After suffering a fool in the White House for eight years, one can’t imagine any President actually being worse than George Bush.

At some point in life, whether because one is old enough, or cynical enough, one realizes that there is nothing new under the sun. The politicians running for office today are much the same as they have always been. The world will go on, no matter who you vote for. The phrase “election cycle” is apt, in that there is a cyclical rhythm to it. All that was old becomes new again. Recycled issues, recycled politicians, recycled bromides, recycled fears.

I think the only thing that is genuinely new is the medium utilized to bombard us with the tired, old slogans of yesteryear, repackaged. The Democratic blog, heavily funded by George Soros and other activists, is little different from the hastily-printed broadside of nineteenth century America. It is propaganda, pure agit prop, every bit as much as the right-wing propaganda machine represented by talk radio. When Mark Levin refers to Hillary Clinton as “Hillary Rotten Clinton” or “Her Thighness,” what other purpose does it serve but, through a crude sort of humor, to impress people with her essential evilness? When any of the Presidential candidates bring up the subject of 9/11, as they inevitably do in every other sentence, are they really doing anything more than waving the bloody shirt and stirring up the passions of an electorate? Demagoguery is as acceptable in the political arena today as it ever was.

For better or worse, we live in a nation suffused with ideas and opinions and people propagandizing for them. The problem is we are no better educated to make up our own minds than we ever were. I thought about this yesterday when I read a seemingly factual article at Time concerning Barak Obama’s “Red State appeal.” The gist of the article is that there are Republicans attracted to Obama, as if Americans always vote their party and any deviation from that course is remarkable enough to warrant a piece in Time Magazine. Really, this is just (again) propaganda masquerading as news. The tip-off is that the article refers to a supposedly independent website called “Republicans for Obama.”

Now, if you believe that some supposedly independent-minded Republicans, who voted for Reagan and both Bushes and probably even Bob Dole, somehow decided to put up this nicely designed website supporting Obama for no other purpose than to “inform” the voting public, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Cheap.

The old X-Files slogan is still applicable in modern life: trust no one. Unfortunately, unable to rely on themselves, Americans trust everyone with some semblance of authority, whether it is a liberal blogger who has been a Democratic party hack for twenty years, or a conservative talk radio host with no college education. Even our President is guilty of mis-placed trust and succumbing to his own party’s propaganda. Just this past weekend there was a 60 Minutes story about the Iraqi informant “Curve Ball” and how he pulled off the deadliest green card scam in history, trading lies about Iraqi WMD for aylum and a new identity in Germany.  And our President, Secretary of State, and CIA Director fell for it.

Look, I’m not really advocating complete cynicism here. I am still going to vote in 2008. So far, I like Obama best because he does not seem to be over the top in his propaganda. I haven’t given his positions more than a cursory glance, but on a subjective level, Obama seems calm, confident, respectful. By all accounts, he probably would not have invaded Iraq, which is important in my book though it is more about the past than about the future–what he would have done, rather than what he will do.

I don’t advocate cynicism, though I am guilty of it myself. I only advocate skepticism in regards to all the information available to us today. It’s so difficult, but as we enter the next election season, we all need to be questioning what we are hearing from all sides. Realize that truth is the first top aide to get the boot in any political campaign. And above all, trust no one, and always verify.