Sunday, September 27, 2015

Blood-red moon over Washington

Tonight is a rare "super moon" lunar eclipse, in which a blood red moon will cast its vermilion shadow on North America and Washington D.C., presumably bathing the Capitol Building in blood. And why not? House Speaker John A. Boehner's resignation forebodes an even nastier fight over defunding Planned Parenthood, or shutting down the government, than before.

It's difficult to remember when one party has been riven by such an intense level of in-house animosity. It is so hard to get House speakers to resign willingly (the last being Tip O'Neill in 1987) that it is almost as rare as that supermoon eclipse. And therefore, Boehner must have felt pressed remarkably hard to leave. Perhaps next the Republicans will be attacking each other with silver-headed canes, as South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks did to Senator Charles Sumner in 1856. Or maybe we should bring back the duel--plenty of congressmen back in the early days used to line up to take potshots--lead ones,that is--at each other.

What does this presage for the presidential contest? Hard to say. I believe, against many pundits, that there is room for a Republican moderate to take a firm stand (he will be backed by the polls, which show that most people abhor the type of brinkmanship politics being played by the Republican right) in favor of principled compromise. 'Firm stand' being the key phrase. In presidential elections, it is all about picking your enemy and never wavering, no matter how much blood gets spilled.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Trigger Warnings

Trigger warnings are all the rage in the world of the academe--many professors now let students know when a particular reading assignment may contain sex or violence, lest these trigger some difficult incident from the students' pasts.

It's my feeling, after viewing the last two Republican debates, that candidates should come with their own trigger warnings, perhaps helpfully dispensed by a little runner across the bottom of the screen. Donald Trump? "May Cause Dementia of Hair Follicles." Carly Fiorina? "She Is A Bit Headache-Inducing." Ben Carson? "Narcoleptics Beware!"

"God Might Strike You Dead" if you disagree with Mike Huckabee, at least to hear him tell it. And Jeb Bush?  "Well, Yes, He Is A Bush!" (He also thinks Myanmar is still called Burma, but that's another story.)

It is so good to be back at the beginning of another campaign season. The latest edition of Anything For A Vote: Dirty Tricks, Cheap Shots and October Surprises in U.S. Presidential Campaigns will be out on October 27, updated and revised to 2012. (Preorder it here.) It is my job to remind you that the more things change in our national election contests, the more they remain the same. Sure you've got Republican candidates snarling at each other (soon the Democrats), but has Trump called Jeb Bush "a fathead with the brains of a guinea pig," as Teddy Roosevelt once dubbed William Howard Taft? Has Bush riposted that Trump is a "hideous hermaphrodite?" That's what Thomas Jefferson (via his cackling hack writer James Callender) called John Adams.

And when, in 1864, General George McClellan sneered that Abraham Lincoln was "nothing more than a well-meaning baboon," well, you know that even a Trump or Huckabee couldn't match this level of invective. But I kind of hope that they do. Because then the trigger warning could read: "In The Grand Old Tradition of 19th Century America Politicking, Here Comes A Real Election!"

Candidates, don't let me down.