I lost it

I have been had.  Like Willard Mitt Romney's dad, I was brainwashed. I was taken for a ride. I bought the story-- hook, line, and sinker. I completely lost it.

I wrote a check to a political campaign for the first time in my life.

This reprehensible behavior violated everything this blog is all about.  All my warnings to blog readers about lying, cheating, stealing politicians went into the toilet last night with a loud flush.

I could say, “I am sorry.” But I would be lying. I am not sorry.  I would do it all over again, and I probably will.

All my nasty, mean-spirited, bitter, snarky cynical blogging and doomsday preaching was upended by an elderly, mild-mannered, law school professor running for the United States Senate in a state in which I cannot vote!

It was pathetic. I was like silly putty in her hands.  Regular readers of this blog probably think I was on drugs. I felt like a groupie at a rock concert.

I probably should have gone home and taken a bath.  Politicians and their nauseating political campaigns disgust me. In 39 years of working with politicians, I have seen it all, and as Rick Sanctimonious said about Jack Kennedy, it makes me want to throw up.

But last night, at the invitation of a neighbor (initials H. Q.), I went to hear Elizabeth Warren speak.  Elizabeth is a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts once held by Senator Ted Kennedy.  It’s a blue state, but the Rs captured it in 2010 with an out-of-nowhere Tea Party-backed candidate.

I was expecting to hear the usual progressive policy wonk stuff, knocking the other side, with a little of the “hopey changey thing” thrown in, after which I could return to this blog and explain all the ways in which Democrats don’t know what they stand for and don’t have a clue about how to do political campaigns and can, therefore, never compete against the slick manipulative lies of the right.

After many dismal months of following the Herminator (Cain), the Executioner (Perry), Anne Rand (Ron Paul), the Pompous Historian (Newt), and Etch a Sketch Romney make fools of themselves and fools of the American voter, disgusting each other and everyone who is exposed to their absurd pandering and negative attack ads, I was pretty sure that the cesspool of politics was going to stink from now until November.

Sure, Obama would come with a little hopey changey PIXIE dust to try to cover up his blunders and failures of the last six years.  But then, he would be suffocated in the usual political stench and try to get out of it by building a few more pipelines and artificially surpressing the price of gasoline.

Then along comes Elizabeth Warren.

I flipped.

How did Elizabeth flip me?

It was not her agenda, a typical progressive agenda. Her platform is about strengthening public education, building the infrastructure our economy needs, and forging ahead with the research and new science we need to maintain a place in the world economy. Nothing new, except that thank God she did not blather on about any stupid ALL-of-the-above energy policy.[i]

It was not her charisma. She is not a stem-winding speaker.  She pushes up her spectacles when talking.  She doesn’t wear the latest Oscar de la Renta outfits.  She pretty clearly does not hunt and skin elk in Alaska. I would bet a case of beer that she has never been drinking with the boys at a NASCAR event.

She does not have much experience in politics or business. Her only other foray into politics before now was taking on every single lobbyist in Washington trying to get legislation passed to protect consumers from financial and other frauds, after which she became so toxic to the K Street crowd that she was run out of town on a rail by the biggest lobbyists in the business.

She is not a comedian.  No jokes.  No pandering.  No cheesy grits.

She did not claim that God told her to run for Congress.

It wasn’t about destroying the enemy. There was no denigrating or making fun of other people.  No sarcasm.  No screaming, shouting, or abusing anyone or calling names.

She was calm and determined. She was not defensive.  No cheap shots. (Well…maybe one little one.… a tiny joke about Gingrich’s plan to make elementary school students work as janitors.) She never once mentioned her opponent.

So how did she flip a seen-it-all cynic like me?

It was simple really. She told a true personal story, her history (with no drama.)  She explained why she is now running for office.   She talked about one thing that everyone can relate to—what we need to do in America to continue to provide opportunities for Americans to have good lives-- why we need to do it—and how we need to do it.

She reframed all the tax-budget-deficit issues into issues about values, the values that all (or all but a small minority) of Americans share.[ii] She said that it is not about putting up a fence and defending your pile of accumulated stuff from other people gorging themselves on food stamps who want to take it away from you.

It IS about fairness to the next generation and the generation after that.  It’s not about taking all you can get as fast as you can get it and leaving a devastated wasteland behind. It IS about paying the dues that you owe and contributing what we all should contribute to make sure that our kids and our grandkids, and everyone’s kids and grandkids, can have the opportunity to make something of themselves.  

Some pundits say that Republicans are the daddy candidates, all about taking your punishment, not showing weakness (NO CRYING Speaker Boehner!), going to war and beating the crap out of the other guy, and not asking for help from anyone. Democrats, they say, are the mommy candidates, forgiving, nurturing, caring, respectful, etc.

There may be some truth to those models.  Or maybe not. Either way, my money went to grandma.  It might be wasted though. Her opponent is backed by every bank and financial services lobbyist and super pac on the planet.  

Visit Elizabeth at www.elizabethwarren.com.

To comment on this blog,  click on the hyperlink at the bottom that reads “0 comments” or “X comments

---

[i] If you think Obama’s ridiculous ”all-of-the-above” concept of energy policy is a good idea, listen to what Bill McKibben says about it. Bill says that if you want more dirty coal, more oil drilled everywhere, and more pipelines snaking across the Great Plains like spaghetti, together with a few windmills and solar cells scattered here and there, you are like a drunk who thinks it is good healthy plan to mix 2 or 3 vitamins in a gallon of gin and tonics. (NPR News March 21, 2012.)

[ii] I dislike the word “frame” that people use to refer to the context for a story, question, or idea, but that is the word we are stuck with ever since congnitive scientists and brain researchers started using it to explain how our brains process information and make decisions. Framing issues is the most relevant, important--and surprising-- concept for politics to emerge from modern cognitive science. To understand framing, you unfortunately must read  David Kahneman's 499 page book, Thinking Fast and Slow. (I am only on page 59.) An example of framing an issue would be in the abortion debate: do you talk about being pro life, or do you discuss being pro choice? How you frame a question determines the answer/outcome. Forget about the facts, if any, that might be thrown in. See George Lakoff, Don’t Think of An Elephant, p. 17.