Wednesday, September 23, 2009

"Those old guys aren't the leaders the party needs."

Tom DeLay on the Republican Party's leadership prospects. Unsurprisingly, when you run an operation where the only trait that gets rewarded is enthusiastic support for the party line, and anyone who deviates from it even mildly gets canned, you shouldn't be surprised when there aren't any leaders ready to take over.

In any event, doesn't being a Republican politician seem like one of the most boring jobs in the world? Every day, every week, every year, they say the same half-dozen things about the same handful of issues. Attempts to try to do something different, to take the initiative or reach across the aisle are more often than not severely punished (see Grassley, Chuck), and if you change your mind on anything, get ready for a primary challenge. It sounds like the sort of high-stress, boring office job with no security that most people want to get the hell out of. It makes sense that the GOP has no leaders: looking at the state of the GOP, a generation of smart conservatives has no doubt just said the hell with it and decided to take a job that leaves them more fulfilled.

The Man, The Myth, The Bio

East Bay, California, United States
Problem: I have lots of opinions on politics and culture that I need to vent. If I do not do this I will wind up muttering to myself, and that's only like one or two steps away from being a hobo. Solution: I write two blogs. A political blog that has some evident sympathies (pro-Obama, mostly liberal though I dissent on some issues, like guns and trade) and a culture blog that does, well, cultural essays in a more long-form manner. My particular thing is taking overrated things (movies, mostly, but other things too) down a peg and putting underrated things up a peg. I'm sort of the court of last resort, and I tend to focus on more obscure cultural phenomena.