Fred Thompson's candidacy is no more.
The world stumbles at the shock of the news.
There are lots of ways to explain the failure of his candidacy. The most obvious one is to say he seemed to want the office less and less the more he ran. With the exception of a few snappy minutes when he went after Mike Huckabee in the last South Carolina debate, Fred (and I'm not calling him Fred for sexist reasons - he told people to call him Fred) seemed tired and bored... just like the Reagan coalition he was to reassemble.
Reassembling the Reagan coalition has become the sniipe hunting of the Republican party. The great stories of Reagan's wooing of blue- collar Democrats are told. The old Reagan coalition organizations tell of their once heroic feats in defeating Carter and Mondale. But the reality is that coalition has been on the shelf for a very long time. One need look no further than Fred Thompson for the latest proof of its dustiness.
Thompson was to be the new Reagan - tall and sporadically employed by Hollywood. He was a strong conservative with a folksy way. He was conservative - really conservative - a tax cutting, welfare slashing, foreign aid reducing, military increasing, terrorist fighting, no nonsense fiscal conservative. He was the one who would bring it all together.
Not so much.
The Republcian party is in search of a new mission, in need of a new coalition. Fred Thompson was uniquely ill suited to leading that kind of party because his only goal was to recreate the Republican party circa 1980.
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OK - so Bush/Cheney is easy - lied, actively destroying the Constitution - we can all gather on that bandwagon and feel great - just great - about having seen it from the beginning (I did) and never trusting them (I haven't) and we can just feel like great citizens for finding the demons and casting them out.
However, as a good Girardian kind of thinker (Can't believe I actually got that into a semi-sentence) - I know that we can all claim victimhood and thus scapegoat the obvious - those who still believe that Bush is a terrific president - those who have made lots of money on a war predicated on untruth - those who destroy our social fabric in the medical system - those who have used my Christian faith to destroy others- need I go on. Can't even describe an opposition without accusations of the almost demonic.
As a good mimetic thinker I realize something else - claiming my persecutor status - recognizing that within me that I absolutely want to create victims of Bush and his bunch (I don't even like Barney and we've had Scotties for years). All the Republicans are busy distancing themselves from him and his ideas. The Dems have an amazing amount of material to work with, but the cartoon dramas of debates and 24/7 news cycles and pundits - well - it's getting to the point that all of us need to take a shower and clean up from this cesspool we call politics.
How do we come together for he common good? How do we elect officials without destroying the dignity of all concerned? How do we educate a citizenry that now believes the stuff circulated in emails and has little ability to get to the center of issues - rather gather around the "sexy" stuff like scandals and the possibility of a "fight" between Hilary and Barack. We are all the problem. Bush / cheney is our symptom and if we are not careful and learn to look within - we'll get the government we deserve instead of the one we dream can happen. It isn't about winning this election - it had better be about all of us becoming citizens of spirit and truth. Those who know me - we've got to "bear the burden of being displeasing to ourselves".
Sorry, to hog the blog - new phrase we will use again
But, if you missed "The Colbert Report" last night - you missed one of the great moral moments on TV. I"m serious. Go to the appropriate site and watch as much as you can. The last three segments were beyond genius. Andrew Young just - without directing it toward too many - gave us the solutions to what ails us.
Those of you who do not know - Stephen Colbert is the youngest of 10 children. When he was very young his father and two brothers were killed in a plane crash. Knowing that makes the segments that much more poignant.
Thinker, I absolutely agree. To be honest, the sense of victimhood after September whatever is how a lot of us justified letting our persecutorial side run free. I'll see if I can see the Colbert segments.
"OK - so Bush/Cheney is easy - lied, actively destroying the Constitution - we can all gather on that bandwagon and feel great - just great - about having seen it from the beginning (I did) and never trusting them (I haven't) and we can just feel like great citizens for finding the demons and casting them out."
Thinker, nice presentation but only 50% decent. Seeing what Cheney's daughter is, and has done, I agree with your assessment about casting out demons. She needs help, and an exorcism seems needed. By their fruit you shall know them, and in the case of the Cheney's the apple didn't fall far from the bio-daddy. Bush on the other hand, he has tried to rid the world of the most psychotic murderers earth has seen since the Nazi's took over Germany (and the Democrat party) and Roe v Wade opened abortion mills. Go with Cheney, and you get a gold star, but G.W. has tried to make the world a better place. Even his position on marriage the way Jesus taught it, is admirable. But it's nice to see you grasping a moral truth. You're half way to becoming a better person by embracing conservative values.
The sins of the fathers are the sins of the daughters, eh, Donny?
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