…it was wonderful seeing the Obama/Hillary debate tonight before a crowd full of actors.
I was planning to watch it at an Obama debate-watching party in Cambridge, but I was at a campaign get-out-the-vote (GOTV) training beforehand, and it would’ve been over by the time I got there.
Recently I related my thoughts about art and politics to a close friend (who is a costume designer and sometime painter), roughly as follows:
As I’ve written on my about page, I’m very wary of art being corrupted by political messages — or any messages for that matter. (Exhibit A: religious rock music.) Not because I’m anti-political, but because I’m very political, and know it would be easy for me to go overboard.
But I wouldn’t want all of my music to be “simply” music, in the sense of just being something to help people dance, relax, etc. There’s a time for music for music’s sake, and there’s a time for music with some kind of broader social relevance — be it in the lyrics or someplace else.
But where is the balance? What is too political, and too apolitical?
My friend’s response was, Continue reading →
I took a little break from my paper to whip up a little visual tribute to John Lennon, to celebrate Obama’s big win in the Iowa caucuses:
Predictably, some people (still) find the message confusing.
A Glenn Greenwald column explains why so many pundits call on Democrats to capitulate to Republicans on “national security” issues: they still haven’t gotten over the defeats of McGovern and Carter.
And the contrast with the authenticity recommended (however cynically) by Karl Rove is painful:
Klein is not unique in this regard. This view that Democrats had better act like Republicans on national security issues is the central religious principle of the Democratic Beltway Establishment. Compare that fear-driven, self-hating politics with how Karl Rove thinks, as evidenced by the 2008 advice he gave to the GOP in his first Newsweek column this week:
Say in authentic terms what you believe. The GOP nominee must highlight his core convictions to help people understand who he is and to set up a natural contrast with Clinton, both on style and substance. Don’t be afraid to say something controversial. The American people want their president to be authentic. And against a Democrat who calculates almost everything, including her accent and laugh, being seen as someone who says what he believes in a direct way will help.
I’ve been agnostic about the Iraq occupation for the past couple years, due to the following uncertainty: we shouldn’t have gone in, but now that we have, is an immediate pullout really in everybody’s best interest? Mother Jones magazine raised this question recently in a feature called U.S. Out Now! How? The editors sum up the dilemma in the following way:
For those of us who argued against invading, it is tempting to simply demand an end to “Bush’s War” and wash our hands of it. But as General Anthony Zinni, former head of U.S. forces in the Middle East, told us, “Your conscience is not clean just because you’re a peace demonstrator.” In other words, just because you weren’t in favor of going in doesn’t mean you’re not responsible for what happens when we pull out.
I have a feeling that we’re doing more harm than good, and that the violence would drop if we left. But honestly, I just don’t know enough about what’s going on there.
One thing I do feel strongly about however, is that we need to keep in mind not just the facts on the ground, but how mind-blowingly expensive this war is. Continue reading →
'If you're a believer ... the most dubious thing becomes possible. Your faith and your aggression should be limitless.' (Josh Axelrad)
This work by Zach Alexander is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.