At a campaign rally in Ohio today, Arnold Schwarzenegger gave the flat-out best campaign speech given by *any* Republican this year. Good writing, good delivery, hit the right points for his political perspective. He put the entire rest of the party to shame. If any of the other candidates in the primaries or since then had been talking like that, they would have actually had a chance.
Which raises a question:
What has happened to the Republican Party? It seems like it's been years since we've heard a really clear and concise message from them, and it seems like they can barely even agree amongst themselves what their principles are sometimes. They are, of course, not alone in that, as the Democrats have been just as bad, pre-Obama. I'm reluctant to let the matter off on just a problem of the lack of intellectual rigor in American politics. And of course there's been conflicting agendas and over-reliance on polls (in place of actually working the streets and getting your answers face-to-face) and considerable confusion about how to move forward. And soundbite news that has to compete with reality television and soap operas hasn't helped. And the post-Reagan disdain for anyone smart, which worked for getting Reagan and Gingrich elected but has been a total disaster otherwise... other than George Will, have you seen many really serious thinkers hanging around the GOP lately?
But I digress. Seriously, what happened?
Because I don't know. It seems like there's just so much confusion and manipulation and spin and, well, LYING that basically everything is broken. There is no real anymore, only spin.
The Age of Reason is over. It was killed by the Age of Marketing.
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