11 Aug On American Politics

I’m listening to the live coverage of the announcement by Gov. Mitt Romney of his running mate, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. It’s accidental, really – i’ve taken up listening to NPR every morning since moving to DC to fill the empty space of silence that fills every cranny of this apartment. Normally, i avoid politics. I especially avoid American politics.

I don’t mean that i avoid the process of politics, or that i’m not interested in the impact of political power. In fact, it is precisely because i am deeply interested in the outcomes as they materialize in the every day that i avoid the circus that is American Politics (big P). When i do wander in, i am slapped down with the utter absurdity – an absurdity that i think disappears with enough exposure – regardless of your personal take on it all. I suppose if i was going to make a foray intothe wilds of the Political arena that i shouldn’t have started today with the Republican announcement.

I was thinking i might go point-by-point … try to keep up with the half-truths and lack of context in the pronouncements. But really – whether its about energy independence, unemployment, welfare, jobs, etc – it boils down to only money and some kind of imaginary American Dream – a dream which is dependent, discursively, on one set of values, and materially on another. Words like “values,” “choice,” “freedom,” are bandied about, but not explicated – a kind of simple short hand that assumes a sameness but makes room for a vast spectrum of ethics.

What confuses (baffles, really) me is the utter lack of understanding from the audience. It is depressing and sucks the hope right out of the entire process…My favourite gem (and ‘good-bye’ four hundred years of philosophy):

Our rights come from nature and god, not from government

For your own amusement, excerpts are already available Politico.com