Last Friday I was riding around the Rhino Ranch with my boss when I saw the info on his dash. I looked at the smiling faces of Rudy and W on the glossy colorful bumpersticker sized ticket. He asked, "Do you want to go to that on Monday?"
"Oh hell no! I hate that kind of shit!"
I can say those sorts of things to my boss because he understands me and my feelings about meetings. I despise them. I can usually cover the necessary points in less than thirty minutes and get us out of there and back to being productive. This meeting, this gathering of blowhards and cheerleaders, had all the appeal of a day in the dentist's chair. I am thankful to say that I did not Get Motivated!
Look the Republicans are genuinely bummed out. They won't admit it publicly, but they are sad and despondent that nobody wants to go along with their way of thinking. Nobody is buying what they are selling. Last year one of their own said in the midst of another round of scandals, "If the Republican brand was dog food, they would have pulled us off the shelves." They are sucking hind tit and they know it. They needed a day of rah-rah, go team go, get your ass out there and make some money so you can give it to some deserving candidate or the political action committee of our choice. They got out the big guns. They had Rudy of 9-11, they had W and they had Colin Powell. The Dallas Observer had someone there monitoring the situation. Glad they did it and not me. Under the heading of "Finding Their Special Purpose",
It was fitting that Bush was introduced by Tamara Lowe, owner of the seminar business with her husband Peter. Lowe spoke to the crowd about how she motivated herself out of drug addiction and into a successful business; she mentioned more than once that America is "the greatest country in the world"; and stressed that a crucial ingredient for leadership and success is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. She even did a rap to that effect: "The real superstar is Jesus Christ," she said quickly and brightly in her red suit and matching lipstick. "He's the way, he's the brightest light and the highest high ... Here's my rhyme and the bottom line -- give your life to God while there's still time."
That gurgle you hear is the churning of my stomach and the cringe I feel is shame that this happened right down the road from me. One more blockquote and I have fulfilled my duty of reciting the crap they were handing out.
"The interesting question about life is: Are our values worth fighting for?" he said. "Let me share my values with you. Every man, woman and child should be free, that's what I believe. I believe it's in our interest to help people realize the blessings of freedom for the sake of peace." He went on to laud the Constitution and praise Americans' freedom to worship whatever God they choose.
While defending his legacy and reaffirming his seemingly eternal optimism about his country's future, Bush emphasized that to succeed and remain motivated, each individual, at the end of the day, must answer to himself and his own conscience.
"It doesn't matter your political party," he said. "What matters is how you live your life and how you act. It's so simple in life to chase popularity, but popularity is not real. What is real is principles. Always follow your conscience, so when you look in the mirror you're proud of what you see."
When we have Netroots and panels of speakers I can expect to get some actually useful information about getting the vote out, online activism or other concrete tasks. They have a pep rally. It doesn't matter how much your team sucks, you have to have a pep rally to prove
"We have spirit yes we do! We have spirit how 'bout you?"
I can handle that for maybe five minutes. I am as big a sports junkie as they come, but shtick like that gives me tired head. I don't really need to hear a cheerleader ask me if I have spirit. I don't need someone telling me to get fired up. I need tools to get the job done. I need to see someone standing up and speaking their mind, see Alan Grayson. Harry Reid couldn't motivate a cow to eat grass. Alan Grayson can fire up a crowd just by showing up nowadays because he is willing to speak truth to power and let fly with the fastballs on the inside of the plate. The R's don't have that. All they have is a fuzzy notion that somehow they are right about everything and the rest of us are evil and wrong. They alone are the true patriots and they alone will wrest control from the dirtyfuckinghippies and get back their country! Yeah, it is pathetic and more than a little sad.