Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Mythic Proportions
You would think the way some people are acting and talking that George Bush is the evil emperor from Star Wars, a weird mix of Anton LeVay, Hitler and Stalin all rolled up together, and that Karl Rove is Darth Vader out to destroy the free peoples of the world, deluding all his followers with fear and the dark power of the force.
We, on the other hand, often feel like those who found themselves threatened by the barbarian hordes on one side, much like the Roman Britons of King Arthur's era, where the Irish Scots were attacking from the Northwest while the hordes of the Angles and Saxons on the other hand driving us into smaller and smaller corners, with Bush being Arthur who rallies the forces to stave off the darkness.
David Brooks in the New York Times said:
There is a deeper assumption, which has marred Democratic politics for years. Some Democrats have been unable to face the reality that people have been voting for Republicans because they agree with them. So these Democrats have invented the comforting theory that they’ve been losing because they are too virtuous for the country.
We, on the other hand, often feel like those who found themselves threatened by the barbarian hordes on one side, much like the Roman Britons of King Arthur's era, where the Irish Scots were attacking from the Northwest while the hordes of the Angles and Saxons on the other hand driving us into smaller and smaller corners, with Bush being Arthur who rallies the forces to stave off the darkness.
David Brooks in the New York Times said:
There is a deeper assumption, which has marred Democratic politics for years. Some Democrats have been unable to face the reality that people have been voting for Republicans because they agree with them. So these Democrats have invented the comforting theory that they’ve been losing because they are too virtuous for the country.
According to this theory, Republicans - or usually some omniscient, omnipotent and malevolent strategists, like Lee Atwater or Karl Rove - have been tricking the American people into voting against their true interests. This year, many Democrats decided, we’ll be vicious in return.
And thus they have turned themselves into the Barbarian Hordes in the eyes of those they are contesting with, rather than the crusaders of the light they feel themselves to be. Every call to arms, every pre-emptive challenge just reinforces this image.
Is this then to be the Return of the Jedi Knights? Or are we witnessing Arthur's Battle of Badon Hill, when he routed the horde?
I am rooting for the latter.
# posted by Knitting a Conundrum @ 10:32 AM 
