Boris Sends Us a Wake Up Call: It's Got to Be Amy

"The old assumptions—that truth matters, that lies shame the liar, that in a democracy the press and the public must have the right to interrogate those who seek those top jobs—have all been swept aside by the Tories’ convictions that in an inattentive, dissatisfied, cacophonous world, victory will go to the most compelling entertainer, the most plausible and shameless deceiver, the leader who can drill home a competitive and seductive incantation. Facts and details will be irrelevant so long as voters feel the politician is on their side…Mr. Johnson is not being exposed or embarrassed by his lies because the flood of them is overwhelming, because Britain’s powerful right wing press is backing him and because he’s dodging any format which could sustain a challenge to him.

Mr. Johnson’s team has seized upon a terrifying truth: that the old media, particularly the broadcasters and the establishment that has decided its rules of operation are no longer the gate keepers to communication. Cunning politicians can skip accountability, and British broadcasting’s rules on impartiality and balance by going straight for the voters’ emotional jugular. In place of public and professional scrutiny there’s Twitter and Facebook, where millions of micro targeted messages are flooding key voters.

These focused, ferocious evasions of democracy’s conventions and protections appear to be working…If the Tories win, they’ll shrug off critics: the demos has spoken."
--Jennie Russell, The New York Times 12/12/19

Mad Dog has been silent lo these many weeks.

He has been busy on Twitter, but after being sent to Twitter Jail yet again--this time for calling Lindsey Graham a political slut--he decided to reassert himself where the politically correct cannot reach him.
Slut? Really?  That's not even on George Carlin's list of the 7 forbidden words.

Twitter is so retro. It's the delusional platform where you may think you are engaging your fellow citizens, changing minds, putting new ideas out there, but nobody much on Twitter is interested in new ideas or having their opinions abridged. Twitter is a safety valve where steam is expelled and it's not even steam; it's more like flatus.

So back to the message in a bottle, the voice in the wilderness, the unheard mind, radiating out into the universe, where some light years from now, some civilization may receive the signal and wonder, "Who, or what, was Mad Dog? And what on planet earth was he talking about?"

Trump's Doppleganger

Yesterday, the Conservative Party swept Boris Johnson into office in a landslide, taking coal mining towns which hadn't voted for the Tories in generations.  The choice was between Boris Johnson and a socialist named Jeremy Corbyn. 

Jennie Russell, writing in the New York Times before the election, under the headline: "Can Boris Johnson Lie His Way Into Office?" was writing about the UK but any American can simply substitute names and recognize what she was talking about.

What this means for our own choices, here in New Hampshire, as we face the primary, now just over a month away is stark:  Much as we may love Bernie or Elizabeth, we have to face reality.

I last heard Bernie in South Church, and that was an entirely appropriate place to hear Bernie, a Unitarian church which is entirely secular, and Bernie was preaching that old time secular religion of power to the people, the rise of the proletariat and he was received with rapturous delight by young and old alike.

And I asked myself, "How could I have ever strayed from Bernie? He is my one true love." But, the fact is, both he and Elizabeth Warren insist that government must exclude private insurance from American healthcare and neither will hear a dissenting voice on this, nor will they explain why an American system could not accommodate both, as systems in Europe, and in England in particular, do.

Having just read "Dr. Zhivago" I could see in our most left candidates the intolerance of opinion, making the perfect the enemy of the good.

So, no, I'll not vote for either socialist. I'll reject Corbyn, Warren and Sanders and vote for the moderate.

But which moderate?  

Biden would be the obvious restoration candidate, but one duty of New Hampshire is to look at these candidates close up and inspect them for cracks and Biden is clearly failing, mentally, if not physically. Why trade a President Archie Bunker for a President Homer Simpson?

Mayor Pete is the most intelligent, articulate of the bunch, but he has that one weight around his neck which will sink him in the Midwest and the South: They will tolerate a Black President, who they can make an exception for, but not a gay President. And Black voters will not vote for him because Blacks go to church, as a rule, and their churches will and do preach against homosexuality. This is not a point you can reason with people about. You can rail at me, say I'm looking at Blacks as if they all think the same. But in politics what counts is characteristics which typify a group, and most Jews tend to revile Nazis and haters and most Blacks will not abide homosexuality.

Corey is a fine man, but for whatever reason, his Mr. Rogers persona has not caught fire with the electorate.  There is something cloying about him, too eager to please. He is the kumbaya candidate and the electorate is not about kumbaya this time around. They are out for blood. 

Which leaves Amy Klobuchar.  

Senator Klobuchar as several things going for her: She grew up in Minnesota, the American heartland. True, she went to Yale where she imbibed deeply from the cup of "the chosen ones" but she returned to Chicago for law school and to her home state for her political career. She's been an effective, law passing machine in the Senate.

Against all that, she is not a household name and unlike Trump, she has not spent decades marketing her brand to fans of the World Wrestling Federation and Fox News.  So, in that sense, she has not paid her dues.  Even JFK did his star making stint on national TV during the Jimmy Hoffa hearings. None of the women in my office have ever heard of her. They watch local news shows in the morning before going to work and none of them have any idea who Boris Johnson is, not to mention Amy.

The big knock against Amy is she is a mean girl, who punches down at her office staff which has the highest turnover on Capitol Hill. Of course, were she a man, this would not be a problem; the turnover of Trump's office staff does not seem to be a problem.

No, Amy's problem is a little different: She was asked at a local house party, "How do you run a campaign of policy against a candidate of charisma?" 

She laughed at that question, and seemed genuinely amused by it. Hadn't been asked that one before. Her response? You could predict it: "Well, I think I have charisma."

An acceptable answer, but a dodge, a place holder. The fact is, she needs work. 

At the last debate, her hair kept obstructing her left eye in a way which was so distracting it was often difficult to listen to what she was saying.

Oh, I know! How sexist! Nobody would ever talk about a man's hair style or his clothes. But this is not about fair. It's about winning.

She is going to have to dance backwards in high heels while her male opponent merely needs to push forward. 

She is clearly very bright. But she also clearly has her demons and she needs to overwhelm that with her rapier wit.

Her capacity for the funny put down is as yet untapped.

She needs to read more Churchill, and other politicians who could destroy an opponent with withering disdain.  She needs to have enough confidence in a coach to become devastating.

One of my sons was a wrestler. He had some strengths, but he had visible weaknesses. He was simply not as physically powerful as the champion opponents. But he found a coach who he trusted and he trained and practiced and the results were remarkable.

Amy needs the same thing.