Mother Jones - Comments for "The Politics of Esthetics"

I’ve really admired Khoi

I’ve really admired Khoi Vinh’s work for a long time now, but he has given me an unhealthy obsession with grids.

Maybe McCain knows he's going to win. Maybe that's why he picked a right-wing extremist as his VP. Maybe that's why he's stirring up the base with violent, racist attacks. Maybe they've finally managed to program enough voting machines to steal even a Democratic blowout and he wants the base to stay mad enough to strangle any post-election challenge in its cradle. Yeah, it could be blind ambition and an extremely inept campaign. But it could also be our worst nightmare.

They don't give a shit about the war hero thing

Of course not. But I'm referring not to the radio talksers, but to the people that listen to the crap, and swallow it whole.

But listen to talk radio. It's easy to sneer, but the "war hero" narrative still has a lot of subscribers

And yet, these are largely the same people who called John Kerry a traitor who injured himself on purpose. They don't give a shit about the war hero thing. It's all just post facto rationalization to root for the team they've rooted for their whole lives. If the GOP ran Ward Churchill for president, these same people would all talk about what a great American he is.

I've been saying something similar to friends and relatives recently. I would definitely prefer four more years of Bush to a McCain presidency. The primary reasons: (1) Bush has been chastened by his failures, hence the decision to engage with North Korea, Iran, etc.; and (2) McCain doesn't think Bush's decisions have been wrong, just poorly executed; McCain thinks that if he were president, instead of the incompetent Bush, then it would all have worked out fine.

That terrifies me.

I wonder if McCain has any idea just how thoroughly he's going to exit this campaign with his reputation permanently soiled and his life story in tatters?

This is a fantasy. McCain has run a pretty standard campaign against long odds. He'll be remembered as a war hero with a long and (in my view) fairly undistinguished record in Congress.

If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose between John McCain and George Bush as president...

I'd probably tell you to go ahead and pull the trigger.

Running on fumes?

I don't agree. They're running on an ammunition dump.

Can you imagine this rhetoric, say in 1965? The country would be at civil war again - or campuses would be Kent States all over.

This is McCartheyism. This is criminal. This is where the belly of the beast turns skyward and exposes its bloated putrification.

They have op'ed Pandora's box of racism, hatred and bigotry.
No matter who assumes office (I have no reason to think that any election will be fair and that votes will be counted accurately as they are actually cast) now, there will be unrest across the land for years to come.

McCain/Palin/Republican Party have declared war. We just haven't acknowledged that declaration.

The difference is that Bush used surrogates, such as 527s, to do the culture war thing in the gutter, while he pretended to be on a higher plane. McCain and Palin have stepped into the gutter themselves. I don't think it's a smart move.

If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose between John McCain and George Bush as president, I don't know who I'd pick and that's something that would have been inconceivable as recently as a year ago.

Not a choice I'd care to make, but as long as Democrats more or less control Congress, and I never thought I could say this, I'm w/ Lev and would pick Bush43.

At least we know what to expect from him, and who knows what insane stunts McCain might try.

If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose between John McCain and George Bush as president, I don't know who I'd pick ? and that's something that would have been inconceivable as recently as a year ago.

Not a choice I'd care to make, but as long as Democrats more or less control Congress, and I never thought I could say this, I'm w/ Lev and would pick Bush43.

At least we know what to expect from him, and who knows what insane stunts McCain might try.

Not a choice I'd care to make, but as long as Democrats more or less control Congress, and I never thought I could say this, I'm w/ Lev and would pick Bush43.

At least we know what to expect from him, and who knows what insane stunts McCain might try.

Politics of Aesthetics is already a book by a french political philosopher, Jacques Ranciere. I highly suggest it, too.

Most former presidential candidates become irrelevant after losing, and McCain will be no exception. Republicans who've never liked him will like him even less after he loses while the independents and Democrats who've respected him over the years will now view him as a poor man's George Bush.

The real question is what happens to Sarah Palin after the election. The Republicans are gaga about her now, but let's face it, what do they have to be excited about in this race? I'm wondering if she's going to wind up forgotten like Ferraro and Quayle.

I also was wondering why the McCain folks were leaking their strategy to the press. I have to think that at least a few of them have the decency that alludes McCain-Palin and are embarrassed by the depths of disgustingness the campaign has reached. I also think these folks might know something about McCain's health, and likelihood to survive very far into his term, that the rest of us do not, and that they're very afraid of McCain presidency.

McCain and Palin (who might as well put on jackboots) have moved into ugly and dangeroous territory with their latest meme and if, heaven forbid, something awful happens because of their posturing, they will be held accountable for the blood on their hands.