I watched again Rachel Maddow's interview of Meghan McCain on my PVR today. She talked about generational differences, and her words suggest that moderation is something about which "the older generation just doesn' get"......
When asked by Rachel, Meghan said "I have lots of liberal friends, and we all get along together". She went on to note that "we are able to compromise"...
You know, I am really getting tired of being dismissed as being an ideologue because I believe in certain things. I also am completely fed up with being dismissed because "I am over 50".
You know, this thing about post-partisan is based on the idea that somehow you can come to a middle ground on just about anything; and worse yet, that there is always a middle ground. This is a notion that I think is crippling; it stifles discussion, it obscures the ability of people to question whether there is "ANY" validiy in something being said by another, and it allows misconceptions and potentially harmful things to go unchallenged.
I know that I have come back to this a lot in my postings, but as a former military officer, I have plenty of experience upon which to fall back. I was exposed to people who came from every social strata, had verifying degrees of ability, had varying levels of education, and had various emotional attributes. I had to learn to deal with all of that, and what I learnt was that there were some things that were always true. You always had to be able to work to understand where they came from, you always had to figure out how to inspire and lead someone, and most importantly, people always had to know what you "stood for", "what you believed", and what they could expect. It was true about my timme leading people and it is just as true about one's basic belief.
In her conversation, McCain said she thought that how "ideological" someone was "must be a generational thing"; what an immature and insultingly dismissive view to have. She OBVIOUSLY doesn't realize that some things are actually true. It ISN'T good that people work hard every day, and remain poor because of non-responsive social and political institutions. It ISN'T good that wealth continues to be concentrated in the hands of the few, it ISN'T good that people are bankrupted or die due to illness, and a lack of access to it, and it ISN'T good that our leaders have to be prodded, kicked and dragged often to do the right thing.
The fact of the matter is that Meghan McCain, her family, the people they know, and the party they support have pretty much been running things, either in acutality or control of idea and dialogue, with the result that we have come to the most despearate time in our world's social and economic history, in the last almost 80 years. What is THEIR answer; why, MORE OF THE SAME! "Hey, lets just compromise and things will be fine". What complete and total, abject, self-serving, niave, and ignorant loigic. Do I have to say it? "HEY, YOUR STUPID IDEAS HAVEN'T WORKED!"
If I sound mad, YOU ARE DAMN RIGHT I AM! The time has come to stop this nonesense. Since the time of Regan, we have done things their way. Anyone reading this blog knows what the results are, so I won't bother listing them. And what is the answer, why it is "hey you older generational ideolouges, can't we all just get along?; GROW UP! It is time for the Meghan McCain's of the world, and even President Obama to admit that compromise, and sell-out has not worked. This is a very serious age we live in, and the time for childish calls for compromise and watered down negotiation is passed.
I thought, at the end of the discussion, came the most telling part. Pressed by Maddow, McCain (unbelevingly, just like her dad) said, "I don't really know much about economics, I only write about what I know", when pressed by Maddow on what she thought the economic solutions were, being offered by the Republicans. That is a sell-out of your position of legimate spokesperson for "a new way". What it says is, "well I either haven't thought about, I have thought about it and don't want to tell you what I think because you might not like it, or I really don't care".
If compromise and "Koom-by-yay" is the way of the future, then THE HELL WITH IT! Again, as I said, some things are true, and I guess it will remain up to us to ensure that the "truth will out"!