Who Is IOZ?: PA, OH

Sunday, September 07, 2008

PA, OH

Sunday morning and I'm so rockin' to the tune of the Donk quite seriously looking at losing this Presidential election. Los Netroots are all agog because spokesmodel Joe Biden can't shut up about what an awesome guy is John McCain while Sarah Palin is making the rounds screeching that Barack Obama will personally rape her with his giant Afromuslim mandingo unless the good people of Central PA vote for her and gramps. And you know what? It's working. Prof. Sartwell thinks it has to do with the semiotics of class, and I've got to second that emotion. The advocates of Uplift, the Whatsamatta Kansans of the world, are blinded by the neo-liberal, Tom Friedman illusion of a post-class, high-tech, Google-and-biotech nation of middle managers and "information economy" workers. Meanwhile the self-proclaimed conservative faction goes in for good, old-fashioned, Marxian appeals to class solidarity. I mean, if you need proof of the assbackwardness of American political labeling, just consider that our right wing runs against the elites and the intellectuals while our left wing represents the educated, cultured elite. But but but, you say, the GOP doesn't really stand for Joe Schmoe and the Donk isn't really the party of urban affluence. Yeah, yeah. When has an election, here or anywhere, ever, ever hinged on what a candidate or faction actually believes or represents? It's all stagecraft and signaling, and the Republicans are good at it.

31 comments:

Rachel said...: Arthur Silber sees it that way too - he's got some really revolting quotes from liberals just wallowing in Not Our Class Dear sentiments. It's amazing how even after being warned many times by many people how much this sort of thing would backfire, they just can't seem to help themselves.; 10:52 AM
Anonymous said...: Nothing a thermonuclear device in Washington D.C. wouldn't solve. I hope and pray for such an eventuality.; 11:01 AM
LA Confidential Pantload said...: This lack of class self-awareness combines well with the Donkle's basic agreement on the tenets of Exceptionalist Imperialism to create a formula for perpetual loserdom. Well-deserved, too, although I can't say that the thought of President Poopdeck Pappy and VP Diana, Huntress of Big Oil coming to us next January brings me as much amusement as it should.

Completely off-topic, but just how awesome is Pennsylvania? We have M. IOZ in Pittsburgh and Prof. Sartwell in Carlisle; in addition, we are treated to the ruminations of Prof. Berube in Happy Valley and Prof. Gottfried in Elizabethtown, neither of whom I agree with on much of anything, but both of whom are usually interesting reads.; 11:41 AM
Chris E. said...: "The advocates of Uplift, the Whatsamatta Kansans of the world, are blinded by the neo-liberal, Tom Friedman illusion..."

I know I'm being one of those dull-witted whiny bastards from the peanut gallery, but surely you're not putting Tom Frank and Tom Friedman on the same side?; 11:59 AM
Anonymous said...: Nothing a thermonuclear device in Washington D.C. wouldn't solve. I hope and pray for such an eventuality.

Make sure you're budgeting realistically. There are 50 other capitals and if you don't wipe out all the eggs they just repopulate the hive the next season.; 11:59 AM
m said...: It seems so obvious to me - conservatives and Republicans are Orwell's Outer Party, destined forever to lose on every issue of importance. America is more liberal now than it was 50 years ago, more liberal 50 years ago than it was 100 years ago, more liberal 100 years ago than it was 200 years ago. On every issue of contention conservatives have lost - abortion, immigration, limited government, global warming, gay marriage (coming up), gun control, sex outside of wedlock, I mean, the list is endless. What's genius about this Inner vs Outer party design is that's its natural and grassroots, not artificially imposed ala the Soviet Union. And just like in 1984, the Inner Party is always paranoid that the Outer Party is going to rise up against them - in fact, the weaker the Outer Party gets, the more venomous and worried the Inner Party becomes.

Did anyone notice how often the camera panned to the token black guy in the RNC? How many minority and women speakers there were? Ten years ago this would have been the DNC, minus the geriatric nature of the convention itself.

Still - the culture war isn't over. There is much more to be done. The world, assuming it maintains its current trajectory and is around 50 years from now, will be much, much farther to the left than it is now. The next generation battle will be over the abolition of national borders - illegal immigrants are "undocumented immigrants" now, setting the stage for a North American Union. There is still much more work to be done on Affirmative Action, on further destruction of the institution of marriage, on vastly increased taxes, on reparations. Oh, the culture war is hardly over.

Lastly, I think this distinction between "left" and "right" is simplistic and masks the really important and meaningful distinctions - first, between nationalist and trans-nationalist; second, between pronomian and antinomian. The antinomian and trans-national forces have been gaining power since as far back as the Enlightenment.; 1:57 PM
Anonymous said...: The central premise seems pretty strained. A McCain win is very, very unlikely, and in the long run the hockey mom ploy is going to be seen as making his long odds even longer. The deciding bloc here is going to be new voters, and the GOP's repelled too many people to have any.
-- sglover; 3:28 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: It's all stagecraft and signaling, and the Republicans are good at it.

isn't that the goddamned truth. the libs are effing clueless on this one. I can't wait to vote for President Palin. she was on the cover of People magazine! sheet. I, of course, reserve the right to be wrong. however, I think Palin is going to (help) sink the Dems. the Repubs don't have much to offer, true, but all that matters is that it looks like the Dems have even less to offer, and are incorrigible.

G5!; 3:38 PM
Paul said...: A McCain win is very, very unlikely

You can say that. And you can also put boots in the oven but that don't make 'em biscuits, if you know what I mean.

Put another way... huh?; 5:20 PM
TGGP said...: surely you're not putting Tom Frank and Tom Friedman on the same side?
Do you mean to tell me there are people who don't?; 5:58 PM
Cüneyt said...: Your point aside, IOZ, when you talk about the right wing running against these and the left wing representing those, you know, you're talking about real concepts that can be quantified. So what statistics are you using?

I have no reason to believe that the Republicans are any more working-class than the Democrats are educated. In fact, evangelicals tend to be more educated than most, which says a lot about them and also a lot about education.

I just don't know why people talk so much shit about these folks without ever bothering to look it up. But then, a class approach only achieved a stylish popularity in the States. As a political method, it's less popular than tarot reading.; 6:37 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: reason has nothing to do with politics in America.; 7:05 PM
Chirstopher said...: "It's all stagecraft and signaling, and the Republicans are good at it."

The Dems are really starting to recognize this, which has led to a bunch of hand-wringing, worried discussions about how best to snow the rubes.

It bugs me, because it has begun to infest the liberal blogs I hang out at. I go to Sadly, No! to get a cheap thrill at taking on the low-hanging fruit at RenewAmerica, not to hear deadly dull Kos style arguments about how the Democrats can appeal to the common man.

The Democrats have recognized that the (maybe) most powerful man on Earth is elected by a capricious, stupid process based on humanity's worst instincts, and their reaction is, "Okay, how can we get as good at snowing the rubes as the Republicans?"

There's some fucking idealism for you.

I think a start would be to not spend all your time explaining to everybody who visits how the con is going to work.

It's not really pandering if you admit that it's pandering.; 7:23 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: I think a start would be to not spend all your time explaining to everybody who visits how the con is going to work.

wink.

I wonder what the secret Republican handshake is? gawd, guys, we really need to form a committee and get to work on this. . .

LOL; 8:41 PM
Cüneyt said...: And yet, Mr. Fun, if you really want to analyze anything, from the outside or from within, you'd better employ a bit of reason. I'm not saying stats literacy will save the world (and in fact, quite the contrary), but as IOZ has himself quoted, follow the money. Follow the votes, watch the classes, learn the habits and behaviors of those who rule. I thought that shit was basic.

And yet still, I hear this David Brooks shit all the time. "Liberals are like this, and conservatives are like this...." It's not analysis; it's entertainment marketed as analysis. Not that that's necessarily a surprise to most here.; 9:14 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: yeahdude, I'm with ya. I was just blogviating a little too muchly. but the word craft is in there, so there's that.; 10:00 PM
Crusader.AXE.ofthe.Lost.Causes said...: Working class? The only one of the four knots on this branch who isn't working class in his/her/it's origins is John McCain. The only one not in the middle class is John McCain. Palin and Biden have more in common than Palin and McCain. Palin and Obama have more in common than Palin and McCain.

That said, class is really about choices, within some limits. To a certain extent, one could contend that since the First Dude has the time to train and equip a monster snow machine for the Iron Dog contest, the Palin clan is really part of the Alaska leisure class.

Another thing that sets the four Muskrateers apart is that three of the four have children serving in the Armed Forces; the one who doesn't has pre-teen children.

But, you can see McCain and Palin tossing back boilermakers and eating moose chittlerings, but Biden evokes brie rather than corned beef and cabbage. Obama is definitely a white wine type of guy. So, if your vision of America is based on faulty perceptions of class...

Of course, the great unwashed really don't want to be run by someone like them. Most Americans are pretty sure that electing a guy based on "he'd be fun to hang out with" was a bad idea.; 10:23 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: I will say this though, and maybe I'm off base, but you don't see Republicans talking like this, picking things apart like this. you know, semiotically. you see the Dems tangled up in it, though. maybe I'm being naive.

I guess, though, I would chalk this difference up to science versus engineering. do you follow that?; 10:40 PM
Cüneyt said...: I'm sorry; I'm incapable of engaging in discussion with anyone who throws out shit like "Obama is definitely a white wine sort of guy" (as opposed to a white whine sort of guy? zing!). What the fuck does that even mean?

But class is more in what you do than where you come from. Does anyone question Biden's or Clinton's commitment to crushing those who represent where they came from? The long line of human history is replete with men who, on escaping squalid conditions, punish those who came from same conditions, or at least limiting access to the same heights they now enjoy. After all, if you want to say that Biden's really working-class, you might as well say that Saladin was no king for the fact that his origins were common. We are what we do, not where we're born. Basic fact, that.

That said, I think we're in agreement, Mr. Don't worry about blogviating; it's healthy. But I will say that if you think class approaches are more common among Dems, you're being optimistic. Most of them are dyed-in-the-wool reverse Brooksians. They like folksy horse-shit, too, and they think that a man who serves state power who was born to the working class is better than the elitist who would actually rework power relationships, mostly because one's more "electable." They half-believe the lies they'd spread, which means they're even more fucked up than mere liars. It's sad. Most of them don't even know when to support a war, so caught up they are with appearances and being tough but rational, which usually means just a little more rational than the next guy.

Okay, now I'm lost. But science versus engineering? Do explain.; 10:57 PM
Aaron said...: The Donkers are pretty awful, no argument there. I do think however that Obama gets a ten percentage point or so Black Man Discount. So to the extent that they're at risk of losing, it seems pretty much about slavery more than anything else.; 3:20 AM
Anonymous said...: hey - what's mr. fun doing off the reservation??
IOZ: how did you survive the weekend invasion of the Irish my dear fellow?

ronald; 8:51 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...: Well, this is a blog; roast me at will, it doesn't really matter. It tickles. Of course, "what does that even mean, man?" That's the overall cant of this blog, imho. You know, "what the fuck are they talking about?" But there is more to the what they are saying, signifying, etc. and it does have meaning. I mean, not to us here: we're alls about dissecting The Beast. There is no Beast to most people; it's just America.

As for my half assed analogy? To put it loosely, science explains things. Sartwell looks at the narrative at work here and picks it apart. But who engineered the thing? Who put it together and pinged all the right, or in the Dems reaction to this case, wrong signs, etc.? It would be good to analyze and know this, and the Dems seem adept as scientists, but horrible at engineering. Now the Dems seem to be catching on, but damn if they're not being schooled right now. The Dems are not that good at engineering. (I believe this to be a feature, not a bug. That's just an unfounded position, for now.) Their bridge to the Presidency is swaying in the Narrows. When all they had to do was shut up and be nice to Palin. Sure, dude, it's fun to poke fun at the Governor of Where? Who? What? What is she doing here? She doesn't belong. She believes what? How many kids? It can't be. Something's just not right here.

As shallow and stupid as these things might be, it's what gets people elected. Take a look and listen around your office, do you hear anyone mentioning the Donkle? Global hegemony? See any Ctuhlhu 2008 posters in anyone's cube? Dudes, we're still in America, even though we might be on the internet.

As for anything changing with either candidate going into office? Well, good luck with that. But right now we're just talking electoral politics.

Ronald, please forgive me for being entertained by this entire charade we call Election Time. It's making me crazy.; 9:10 AM
Cüneyt said...: Well, to be clear, my shock was directed toward crusader.axe. You were mostly talking sense, or talking as much as was appropriate.

But thank you for explaining the science versus engineering thing--I wasn't actually too far off, then.

Yes, liberals are always a little weak at putting knowledge into action--engineering, in effect. They think that knowledge is often enough--or maybe I just note this contrast in terms of liberal intellectuals and conservatives intellectuals. I don't mean to chart any sweeping trends, because then I'd be doing the same shit I hate.

But I think it's an appropriate comparison, then. However--I've noted that campus liberals in particular--no, not campus hippies, but the type who think they're going to be the reasonable ones--have a particularly confusing view of engineering, if you will, even when they consider it. Most of them have the basics down, that self interest can potentially be balanced against itself to form a balance of power and blah blah blah, but they almost never step outside the box. No, they're always fiddling with the settings rather than going into code (and now I've stretched this way too far, but bear with me). And so there I am, yet again, with some liberal who has the ideological equivalent of a Rube Goldberg machine to explain how he'll use the market to do what the market never does and how he'll use state power to, in essence, act against the worst tendencies of state power. Dude, why are they always so caught up on reform? Why are they so scared of being radical? An engineer ought to work with the terrain, but he is not beholden to it.; 9:34 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...: I enjoy pulling the pins out of their contraptions. Or at least, watching someone do it.

Radicals will wear themselves thin, and wind up right back at the status quo, because it's easier that/this way. As an engineer, I've got to say, there are a lot of real reasons why things are the way they are. You want to innovate radically and change the world? Go into the academy and be crazy there. Out here? You're just cutting into my blogging time with talk like that.

Cheers!; 9:52 AM
Cüneyt said...: Radical to me means simply one who goes to the root. And one can do so well or poorly.

But as far as the Internet world and the "real" world, well, point taken, since most of this shit around here is just talk. Even so, I thought there was a Ron Paul guy in every office, which suggests that some kind of connection might exist...; 10:06 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...: Radicals, once at the root, think they can outmaneuver the rest of the system. Futile, absolutely futile.

One of the receptionists here bitches about Friday's because "they're that much closer to Monday." She's definitely an honorary Defeatist. I guess she just gets lost in the moment! But as far as I can tell, no Paulbots.; 10:34 AM
Cüneyt said...: Not all systems are essential. Some shit isn't changed, but a lot of shit can be, because it's mostly arbitrary. I don't want to return to the "is anything possible, what is the nature of meaning, can we order pizza" conversation, but a lot of shit that we think is eternal and massive and unstoppable and ultimate... Which, by contrast, renders our efforts futile and worthless? Well, what precisely are we trying to change?

Violence? Madness? Religious extremism? Sure, then--go all Cthulhu and speak of eternal evils that shall never be undone, that can never even be contemplated in fullness because the human mind cannot blah blah blah blah blah.

But power elites? Industrial capitalism? Sprawl? Momentary power groups and political coalitions? Hell, most of this shit's been around for, what, a few lifetimes, if even a single lifetime? So much of the modern world, while not changing certain basic facts, I grant you, is nevertheless rooted in sand, man. Maybe it's more about us and less about what we want to change, if we find ourselves incapable of changing shit. When it comes to progress, man credits himself. In times of stagnation, man blames the universe. The Victorians did it and now, so do we, when we feel such angst at the world that refuses to fit our dreams. Boo-fucking-hoo. Don't give me that Germanic fatalism. We're not caught between Wagnerian forces, here. We're pressed between petty need and inconsistent notions of propriety. This isn't epic tragedy; it's middling failure. Grant me the patience to accept that which I cannot change and the courage to... fuck, it's a universal constant. Want a beer?; 10:54 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...: . . .because it's mostly arbitrary.

Again, we settle into these arrangements. Why? Life is boring, life is mundane. This is the best we can do. This is the most we can care for.

I partly wonder if these habits I've cultivated will hamper me if I decide to go and do something better and more fulfilling with my time and life.

But, yeah, middling failure is fun. Do you call it pong or beirut?; 11:06 AM
Cüneyt said...: Why, Dr. Pangloss--is that you?

They call it beer pong 'round here. I prefer pool, honestly, though darts is an interesting night of RSI and either increasing or decreasing accuracy.; 11:35 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...: Yeah well we create our own problems. Christ. It's a goddamned problem in a book!

Well, er, um . . . BLAWG!; 12:14 PM
Anonymous said...: Beer pong and beirut are two totally different games. One involves paddles, the other doesn't. Anyone who calls beirut beer pong isn't worth the plastic cup they're drinking their beer out of.; 10:24 PM

Sunday, September 07, 2008

PA, OH

31 comments:

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