Saturday October 30, 2004

Keep Talking

Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo says he’s been inundated with mail from Kerry supporters, fretting about the political meaning of the new tape from Osama Bin Laden. As he’s said before, this seems to be a uniquely Democratic ailment, “their tendency to fret that all is lost, almost to indulge in it, when the car hits a simple bump in the road,” as he calls it.

Actually, I think it does point to something unique about Democrats — something that is also one of their strengths — and that is an openness to discourse. In the administration’s call for a truce, we see what the Republicans are always calling for: the end of discourse. You can’t talk about the President. You can’t talk about Prime Minister Allawi. You can’t talk about the allies. You can’t talk about the troops. You can’t talk about Mary Cheney. You can’t go out and register voters or run PSAs reaching out to disenfranchised voters. The right’s instinct for stopping rational discussion about anything is neatly summed up in Bill O’Reilly’s rallying cry: “Shut up!” You could read it on the faces of Bush and Cheney when they were forced to actually justify their positions during the debates.

Democrats, on the other hand, love to talk. As believers in speech and the fallibility of authority, they love to keep the conversation going. As Marshall points out, this sometimes leads to doomsaying — and while it might sometimes make the left appear naive in contrast to the Machiavellian operators on the right — it beats blind faith in the messianic callings of mere mortals. And that is, in part, what this election is about: pluralism vs. absolutism, inclusion vs. exclusion, openness vs. secrecy, humility vs. arrogance, discourse vs. silence.

That said, let’s review the week. Bush let explosives be stolen by insurgents. He got caught doctoring a photo for no good reason. The FBI is investigating Halliburton. Curt Schilling blew him off, and the guy who wrote his campaign theme song has asked him to please stop using it. Slate, meanwhile, is reporting that Bush will have to win every state in which he has a poll number of 46 or higher to wrestle Kerry to an electoral tie. As for the Osama tape, I’m with this guy. If Bush is doing his job, why are we still watching Bin Laden VNRs?

Just show up on Tuesday, take your ID, wait as long as it takes to vote, and everything will be alright.

Posted by jim at 12:58 AM ||