1 Boring Old Man

Yesterday, the oak tree in our front yard came down. It had been getting sicker and sicker for a couple of years. This year, there was sawdust at the base of the tree. Then, its limited foliage began to wither. So it was time, and the tree man came to finish it off. He’s a wonderful guy – a humble, religious person who ministers to the elderly and the down-trodden, always a pleasure to talk to.  And he is a tree-felling artist. He landed this huge tree in the only possible spot it could land without doing big damage. And taking down an oak tree and ending up with a stack of firewood is a day-long process. Toward the end of the day, I went out and announced that Sarah Palin had resigned. I said, "I guess she’s going to run for President." He said, "I’d vote for her. I think she’s got a good head on her shoulders."

Later, we were on the lake with a flotilla of boats tied together for a "first friday" gathering – our first ever flotilla social with ten or so small pontoon boats lashed together. We even motored out together when the wind blew us too close to the shore. A friend stood up and asked a humorous question about Palin’s resignation. In the biggest boat, there was a visitor who couldn’t "keep it light" [the usual protocol for political dialog in our small community]. Out came the "Limbaugh-isms." The only one I recall was "On the 4th of July this year, we’re celebrating Dependence Day" – the Socialism meme.

I like to think that the sarcasm and contempt comes from the Conservative side of the fence, but anyone reading this blog would be well within their rights to call me on that. I can’t think of much to say about Sarah Palin that’s not sarcastic. A friend reminded me that my first comment when Sarah Palin marched onto the stage as McCain’s pick, was that he’d picked a "hottie" or something like that. It’s funny, now when I see her, I’m reminded that she’s an attractive woman  – UNTIL she starts talking. Then that attractiveness melts in the blather that follows [see, I am sarcastic].

It is impossible for me to take her seriously as a political candidate for anything. I saw a video clip of her on today’s New York Times Palin Timeline from 1987 as a sports-caster. She was good. She hadn’t yet perfected the hair-toss, head bob, or her signature wink [It’s worth a visit]. She throws around sports metaphors well. As a politician, her jargon is poorly integrated – she uses phrases like "Maverick," "out of the box," "business as usual" like they are concrete objects, anchors for her sea of confusion. It’s as if she knows what she stands for by the categorical titles, but knows nothing of the paragraph under the heading that explains its meaning. But when she talks about basketball, or hockey, she’s right at home and the jargon remains metaphoric.

I think that a lot of people think about President Obama like I think about Sarah Palin [or I thought about George W. Bush]. They have an immediate negative reaction, and internally begin to reframe what he says as socialism, or welfare-ism, or he’s-going-to-take-my-stuff-ism. Though I doubt that they can bring off "he’s a fool" like I feel when Sarah gets going, there are many ways to discount others. "She’s a lightweight" isn’t much different from "He’s a Communist."

I have the fantasy that there is a center, some place where political debate isn’t so polarized and divisive, some middle of the road where the thrust of our political life isn’t driven by the kind of polarization we live with right now. But when I review my own experience, or read history, I don’t find that to be true except in certain situations.  It was true during World War II, I think. We pulled together with a common purpose. I expect it was kind of true during the Revolutionary War. The time in my own life when it was most true was in the year or two after 9/11. We did have a common purpose and a common enemy. We were "united."

I think that discussions with my tree man or the rich guy in the big boat would have been different in the summer of 2002. We would have been on the same side. So there it was, the center that I think would be a such good thing. The religious right tree man would’ve set his biases aside. The capitalist in the big boat would’ve moved to the middle. Liberal-me might have relaxed on the social issues that have otherwise driven my political thinking. And yet, the summer of 2002 was a time when our unified country was about to make one of the biggest mistakes we’ve made in our entire history – the Invasion of Iraq.

There were enough signs in the Summer of 2002 to let us know that we weren’t in good hands. All of that Axis of Evil talk should have alerted us. We should’ve paid more attention to "dead or alive," "bring ’em on," the Bush Doctrine. Our leaders weren’t talking like grown-ups. They were using the language of video games or action movies. As my friend ShrinkRap recently pointed out, we were operating on Palin-esque slogans like "we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." Our unity was not a good thing. In fact, it was a bad thing. It led us into an unwise call to action that will nip at out heels for decades.