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My husband told me to write this. I think it's because I've taken to talking back to the television. Or maybe not, I think I always did that. What I didn't always do was seek out politicians speaking to people standing in a field in the rain. We don't have cable, so to see obscure coverage of Democratic political events I have had to learn to navigate my way around C-Span online.
Today it was the Harkin picnic. I didn't catch it all. I first tuned in to some generic wet people footage with a little half hearted man on the street. My general impression of C-Span feeds in general is that they have the homey feel of small market television. The cameras are always in slightly the wrong place or the mikes are muffled. There isn't any art or pace to a C-Span production. Somehow the lack of grace lends authenticity. It's more like being there if you can't see very well or something like that. Any way, soon enough they introduced Senator Harkin. the founder of the feast, and his wife. Clinton joined them on the stage. Harkin's wife is a terrible speaker, one whose sense of what is funny, well, it isn't. She had obviously carefully prepared her remarks and equally obviously enjoyed delivering them. The crowd missed a couple of punch lines and she either didn't notice or had done the pauses in the mirror and didn't know to leave them out. Scale of 1 to 10 as a speaker and we give her a 3. Harkin's next. I tried to listen, but my mind kept wandering. It wasn't bad enough to register or good enough to make me sit up and take notice. I got the general impression that his heart was in the right place, and I'm glad he stomped on the republican's grab for overtime pay, but I can't give him more than a 5.
Then Bill took the mike. His hair was big and windblown. He looked like a happy man. Bill thanks the candidates arrayed behind him, gives a small personal history fact on each one and then gets into the swing. He's found a great hook. He didn't have "two nickles to rub together" before he got out of the White House and now the Republicans have given him a tax cut. He's charming and self deprecating. His burr smooth voice hints at how surprised and delighted he is to be there in the rain, a rich man with a story to tell. So he lays out the plan of attack for the grass roots. Tell your Republican friends about all the things that are being cut to give me (Bill) a tax cut. He lists them, college loans, after school programs, 88.000 cops on the street. He lists them more than once, for anyone who was taking notes. Meme one: Kids, cops, loans. Give Bill a tax cut.
Meme two: Idealogues with big shovels. Bill tells us we're practical. We make mistakes, but we own up to them. The Republicans are idealogues who aren't about data, or outcomes or consequences. The dug themselves into a big hole giving Bill a tax cut the first time....and when that didn't work, got out a bigger shovel to do it a second time.
I liked the shovel.
Meme three was Democrats want to fall in love with a candidate. Republicans fall in line. So he told the crowd to go ahead, fall in love, now, but when we've got our candidate fall in line.
Meme four: people don't think this is a great presidential field because these folks aren't famous...not because they aren't good.
Meme five: There was no mandate. The election was a squeaker and Bush had no right to make so many changes.
For part of the speech my daughter sat very still next to me and laid her head on my shoulder and that felt very nice. And then I wondered how long the candidates had been standing up on that stage, and whether they were tired or tired of being wet, or whether being there in the rain with the former president and running to replace him in the White House was enough to keep you marching forward day after day when 75% of the country doesn't know your name -- or thinks Saddam was in on 9/11 or both. When the Big Dog put down the mike, and the announcements for buses started issuing on the PA, it seemed pretty desolate to me. But it's been raining here, and my bad ankle has been hurting, and I'm rather disposed to think poorly of everyone.
I'm surrounded by folks at work who don't think it matters, or who argue that politicians are all equally horrible. I want to shake them, these sleepwalkers, and tell them that while they are being too important or too busy to pay attention they are letting the Borg take over. So now, I'll practice my five presidential memes. Repeat with me: Bill's tax cut, shovels, they're just not famous and what mandate?
So maybe that will help. I sure don't want to be assimilated. Even if sometimes I do what my husband tells me. |
