h/t: Dr. Soldz
I remember getting pissy and deleting our last attempt at an open thread, entitled, ironically enough The Kitchen Sink, but I’m fixated on the primary and something’s gotta give. I’ve considered going drastic, quit writing about psychiatry altogether and turn this site into a pathetic imitation of 15 million other netroot blogs, or reserve a single open thread for the denouncing, renouncing, hilarity and linky wonderment to come, and see if that curbs my political jones. Could be I’m entrenched in the election because I refuse to mention it, which is mere neurosis, and a timely tip to seek some balance. So please take this thread as an invitation to comment and drop off links to any remarkable agitprop screeds found cruising the Internets. You may know I am a political junkie but there will be no bloodletting whatever your delusion, and no personal attacks despite unseemly depths of conviction or blasé indifference regarding the political process. Switching between the two appears to be the norm.
Full disclosure — I went with Hillary last week but cried a little afterwards, it was knowing that the first time in my life my vote was actually counted, or so I thought… til I checked Wonkette and found a certain bug in the system: Texas Caucus Results Thwarted By Possibly Transgendered Old People
The Texas Caucus will never be decided, and not because of some Diebold terrorist glitch, either. No, it is because old people don’t know the meaning of “transgendered,” and when caucus officials tried to explain it to them last night due to ballot confusion, the old people cursed them out and refused to give any gender at all.
Over at Vanity Fair, James Walcott says what has to be said, in The Sorrow and the Pity Party:
If only returning to the womb were a viable escape option from Hillary’s taloned deathgrip! Probably such posts are indicative of the low morale pervading Sullivan’s side pocket of the universe, his readers mirroring and amplifying his own downcast, defeated mood in a dispersed pity party. Hillary Clinton’s bounce-back on March 4th had Sullivan drowning his sorrows (“I just had a Jager shot, and hope to get drunk very soon”), and staggering like a ghost through the stricken ruins of his dashed hopes, lashing out at Hillary like Sebastian blaming everything on “mummy” in Brideshead Revisited. Or perhaps Sullivan is closer in the depth of his despair to Sebastian’s lover Kurt, sadly, bitterly contemplating his wounded, pus-ridden foot. For Sullivan, Hillary is the psychic pus that torments him so (she’s not just any old “monster,”she’s a “fratricidal maniac”), Obama the healing, uplifting ointment.
And for the cooler heads, this instant classic has been making the rounds, by HTML Mencken at Sadly, No!
Eh. It’s not the support or supporters I object to, it’s the enthusiasm and the fanatics. For any politician. But especially for such mediocre ones. After all, it’s not as if either Clinton or Obama are exactly FDR incarnate; they are both fairly average “liberal” politicians who are thoroughly schooled in the arts of serial triangulation. They ain’t radical; nor are they idealist; they are simply better than any Republican alternative. They’re good enough for a vote (with or without one’s nose tightly held) but that’s it. It just won’t do to mask this homely reality with fawning, drooling praise of either politician.
As usual the fun is in clicking the links, and sharing your impression or lack thereof, whatever the case may be.
Whoever gets voted in is just going to be screwed. Why? Very simple the amount of spending the current government has done on War is astounding. This alone would screw whoever came into office. BUT the double whammy is the baby boomers are due to cost the Government big time. 1950 + retirement + old age medicaid = 2010 financial collapse of the U.S. government.
Because of the sad state of affairs that the Bush regime has left, I think it is probably true that whoever the winner is, they will be screwed – at least in some ways. Just the national debt alone – which I’ve read is now at $9.5 trillion – is going to be a major problem. A columnist in my local alternative newsweekly has suggested that winning may be the worst thing that could happen to the Democratic Party, just because they will end up taking the blame for the mess they inherit:
http://www.newsreview.com/reno/Content?oid=631759
Personally I think the damage of having another Republican presidency would be even worse, though, because of things like Supreme Court appointments and tax policies that would make the current problems even worse.
Of the two Democratic candidates, I see more cause for hope with Obama. He seems more trustworthy than Clinton, but beyond that, he at least hasn’t made defamatory statements against people with psychiatric labels like Clinton has. Whenever the gun issue comes up, she talks about wanting to prevent people with “mental illnesses” from having access to guns as one of the major things that can be done to reduce violent crimes. I don’t really even give a damn about whether or not I can own a gun, but I bitterly resent the implication that psychiatric survivors are an especially violent group. Maybe if she qualified her statements – saying something like “people who’ve been treated for mental illness within the past five years shouldn’t be allowed to own guns” – I could live with it more easily. But she doesn’t do that (at least not that I’m aware of). If it came down to a contest between her and McCain, though, I think I might still support her as the lessor of two evils.
I am just in awe and amazement that we have a black man and a woman up for presidency. I am a black female. I am voting for Obama because Hilary cried. I know that seems fucked up, howver, one of the many excuses for having a woman run the counrty has to do with presumptions about females. Presumptions like, we are hormonal and could push the button during the “week before,” we are catty, etc. She cried and I felt manipulated. Yes, I have absorbed those presumptions and she cried dammit. She cried because she lost Iowa. I mean it’s okay to cry it was a huge loss but to do it in public and then just be viscious. That sucked. It was a low moment for me as a woman.
…a woman run the….
I meant NOT.
Soldiers don’t cry in front of the enemy has always been my motto. She cannot afford to lose it in public.
Hillary and Obama are a great history making event, of which I believe neither one have any great platform to stand upon. I do think we need a Democrat for President.
Before we had to choose which party we are voting for, I went through the ballot and blindly voted in all women for whatever they were up for; and if there were 2, I’d pick the Democrat.
I seriously am not very impressed with Obama, I’ve been to a rally and he said nothing new. I was waiting as a 48 year old to hear what this guy had to say who they all called a rock star personality and frankly it was nothing worth writing home about. No platform, none of these people have one, it’s all the same and in the end the popular vote doesn’t win so what’s the point in voting for a President!
Hillary didn’t cry, her voice broke. The next day Jesse Jackson Jr. turned that into hysterical woman bawling about her appearance, who is a racist for not breaking down in public over Katrina victims.
Kent, none of us like defamatory comments about “the mentally ill” but Hillary’s being fed talking points by NAMI and that’s their language and platform. She needs to hear from consumer-survivors, and she will. Watch this space, I’m waiting for a list of questions the candidates will be asked by our side, it’s going to happen.
Currently, I’m feeling pretty much knifed in the gut over the election, and trying to find my specifically feminist voice (backing Obama, but 100% supportive of Clinton should she win the primary), amid cries of alleged “cultism” and, oh yeah, calls for “Obamabots” (apparently persons voting for Obama after a clear-minded, respectful, and organic process of evaluating each candidate’s respective policy positions are actually robots hell-bent on patriarchy-promotion, etc.) to, from within their so called “padded room[s]” for the “fucking insane” to “calm down, take a Xanax, shoot some smack,” etc. (I assume you saw the post, if not, sorry, I’m too nauseated right now to find the link, might dig it up later if I’m feeling exceptionally brave.)
Knowing as I do that I’ve been out about mental health issues (even if they’re not a primary topic of discussion necessarily), sometimes taking medication for same and sometimes not, it just adds another layer of insidious, profoundly insulting silencing to an election season that has gotten way uglier than I’d anticipated (and I’ve seen more than my fair share of ugliness among circular-firing-squad soldiers of feminism).
I know quite well that, regardless of such pressures, I’m still the only one responsible for recovering that voice and making use of it (while, as always, remaining open to new information that isn’t just noise about both of the current Dem candidates*), but sweet Jesus, it would certainly help if everything I’m feeling out there, within the feminist blogosphere, hasn’t been more characteristic of internecine warfare than it has been of substantive dialogue. Divided we fall, y’all.
Unless of course it’s just me, and I really am a worthless robot for whom the use of benzodiazapenes and/or heroin must be prescribed, lest I continue to use my apparently deluded, cultist, patriarchy-promoting, inherently objectionable voice.
I am sorry, in any case, that your joy for feeling your vote had counted for once had to be so short-lived on account of such surreal ridiculousness as indicated by the Wonkette piece. Clinton is not, at this point, my candidate, but you’d better believe I want everyone who supports her to be heard, loud and clear as I want my own voice to be heard.
__
* McCain can, of course, suck it.
It’s not just you, half the blogosphere has become unreadable without a laugh track. The weirdness is in defending shit that makes me cringe too. In ‘84 I marched in the streets for Ferraro and it pains me to see her histrionics play out, digging herself in and with no awareness of the harm she’s doing to the Clinton campaign. She may be old, irrelevant and needy today, but she was once the most powerful and important woman in American politics, so from me she gets a little slack.
I was in high school when she was the candidate for VP, and I vividly remember this one afternoon when I was supposed to be doing something with PE, but wandered away, and picked up a stick, and drew in the dirt near the football field, “Mondale/Ferraro.” To say that this week she fell a few notches off the heroine pedestal upon which I’d previously placed her is a very sad understatement.
I did read one piece this week that was heartening (and required no laugh track!) – this op-ed in the Washington Post, co-authored by two feminists, one supporting Obama, the other supporting Clinton.
I suppose I risk denunciation (not by you, my dear) not only as a cultist but also as a Big Cheese Ball when I say “let peace begin with us.”
You are the bright spot in my day. Thanks for being there.
i gave my first ever vote as an american citizen to edwards because i liked his unabashedly pro-working class, pro-unions politics, but then the guy proceeded to quit. if i had to vote now, i’d vote for hillary. she didn’t cry, by the way. like flawed plan said, her voice cracked, and it didn’t crack because she lost iowa, it cracked because she got caught up in saying how much she loves this country. if she had been a guy we would have been all AWWW.
in any case, i’ve decided the two are not very different from each other and, having to go for one, i’ll go with the one that rocks my boat. and my boat is rocked by hills. i think i’d be the happiest person on earth if a woman were sworn in as president of the US come next january. do i think she’ll make it all go away? all the pain, the horror, iraq, the subprime crisis, the recession, the poverty, the racism, the torture, the spying, all the abomination of these last 7 year. NO. but i’m keeping my nails filed for when she starts fucking up. for now, i’m rooting for her. and she will fuck us, make no mistake about it, if and when she gets elected president. obama will too, and i’m keeping my nails filed for him, too. which doesn’t mean i won’t campaign like all get out for him if he wins the nomination.
what saddens me most is that the dems are splitting themselves open over these primaries. it’s so fucked. i want to say, guys, we are all friends here. no one has the monopoly on goodness. we are trying to repair that mess that our country has become. let’s be good sports about it all. if you don’t like hillary, fine, but no need to get all venomous about her. and no need to say stupid-ass shit like, “i won’t support her if she wins the nomination.” are you crazy????? how about another four years of nuttiness? HAVEN’T YOU HAD ENOUGH???
so this is what i think. i’m a political junkie, too, and all my friends are obama supporters. i’m a lone voice. i get shit. i hold my own.
and this is not election related, necessarily, but still something we should all be aware of. because we are all getting royally fucked:
http://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/
I appreciate all the insights shared on this thread and outside perspective. Because I’ve been feeling that way too, ama, I’ve never seen the democratic party destroy itself and there’s a sense that I’m overreacting, along with the opposite feeling that I don’t really care, it’s not like the democratic party means that much to me, or should. But it is what it is, it’s upsetting, and my usual way of dealing with upsets is stoicism, act like it’s off my radar and I don’t care. Always a good sign that I care too much, more than I want. It turns into a 300 pound gorilla sitting on your chest, and there’s no reason for the shame, it’s not like no one else would relate to this thing that everyone but me is posting about. So I got this off my chest, readers are responding and I actually went out yesterday and did feet on the ground mental health activism again, so I can do that, balance all these interests and identities without betraying some inchoate standard I think I’m supposed to live up to. It’s just fear, sit in it then shift it, poof, all gone.
I think one aspect of the “fawning, drooling” adoration of many Obama supporters that has not been mentioned is his support of net neutrality and “google for government”.
I am surprised at the omission. So many political bloggers out there are participating in the mud fest of late. Not one has mentioned the issue of keeping the internet free. Hmmm
Paulie from the snakepit
wait, paulie. is barack an outspoken supporter of net neutrality? really? have a source on that?
http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/060608-network_neutral/
He’s also for putting proposed legislation online so the public can access it beforehand. These are great ideas, and he doesn’t have to be president to put them forward.
[...] I couldn’t bring myself to express it here; I had to go to a friend’s blog, and let it pour out of me in comments. (That friend being, incidentally, a Clinton supporter, who has been exceptionally fair minded [...]
My prediction of financial trouble coming true?
With government welfare of 30 billion for the rich of course.
how far would 30 billion go for the poor?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88460841
“The Fed extended JPMorgan Chase a $30 billion credit line to help it buy rival Bear Stearns, a firm with an 85-year history on Wall Street that was on the verge of collapsing due to losses in the mortgage market. JPMorgan is getting Bear Stearns for the rock-bottom price of about $2 a share — or about $236 million. That’s a stunningly low price when one considers that Bear Stearns’ shares were trading at $30 each on Friday.”
You guys need to know about Open Congress
I am sorry. My link did not work. Go to this website: http://www.opencongress.org
What? I know about Open Congress, Paulie. Before you school me you need to know about the term “political junkie”.
I am sorry. I was not trying to patronize you. I just learned about
“Open Congress” and thought it was cool.
I was just pissed at you for calling my heroes “evil” (I visited your blog). What’s up with that?
Which heroes are you talking about? I call alot of heroes “evil”.
Cobain, Elliott, Baudelaire, and I stopped reading there, but saws the tags for Lennon, Plath, Bukowski, Waitts, looks you’ve trotted out the mentally ill icons and have proclaimed at least 3 of them evil, which would have only made me roll my eyes. But the fact that you’re a psych tech who works with this population in a mental hospital is beyond troubling. It appears you conflate mental illness with wickedness, though Cobain, Elliott and Baudelaire gave the world gifts, contributions that we now use that would not exist without their agency. In what world does that make them exceptionally evil, instead of exceptionally good?
I apologize for the misunderstanding. Wow! You got a bad read on me dude! None of the artists you mentioned are evil. In fact, I wrote about them because I admire and respect them. I thought that was made clear. I have proclaimed none of them evil. I do not conflate mental illness with wickedness, far from it in fact.
I am a psych tech and I do work in a mental hospital. I suppose an anti-psych person is bound to hate me because of that. I hope I am not mischaracterizing your beliefs. It is a cruel thing when someone, who has a label given to them by society, is assumed by a stranger to be nothing more than that label. There is more to who I am than what I do for a living.
You are quick to judge in situations where you do not have all of the facts.
I’m not anti-psychiatry and I’ve worked as a psych tech. So much for the ad hom explanation. I also think categorical thinking (good/evil) is extremely lazy, reductive, and stereotyping. And you sound like an exponent of the otherizing mentality when you say this freakish nonsense:
http://moodle1.wordpress.com/2008/01/20/evil/
And:
http://moodle1.wordpress.com/2007/10/01/charles-baudelaire-beat-up-the-rich/
A commenter posts:
MAY have been pulling the reader’s leg? That’s called art, Paulie. So much for “avowed.”
You have a perverse fascination with TEH crazy, and you approach these people as if you were a rational spectator, making insightful, intelligent commentary that adds no illumination, makes no sense and simply slanders them. I can’t bring myself to imagine what you bring to the table in your job with psych inmates but based on your writing it’s a nightmare.
Stop Psychoanalyzing ME!!!
Perhaps you missed the memo on how the Internets work. Make public your views and expect a thorough vetting.
I haven’t seen anything like this election cycle in all my years of professional political observation. i teach government and I have been a political consultant. i think it is really me and not them, but I secretly know that it isn’t me it just feels less threatening if I think that I am losing it and not everyone else.
My head hurts.
I hope you are well. I have had some knee surgery and I am healing but it is a little traumatic.
Let me hear from you sometime.