Nails On A Chalkboard: Watching the Nevada Debate

[marmar]

from the Working Life blog:



Nails On A Chalkboard: Watching the Nevada Debate

by Jonathan Tasini
Friday 15 of October, 2010


So, it's probably a bad sign about my own priorities that I flip on C-SPAN at night and, having stumbled on the debate in the Senate Nevada race, I stuck with it--without running for a large glass of wine. Or maybe something stronger.

Oh my god.

It was a muddle. I can't really call it a "debate"--from the perspective of Harry Reid, how can one debate someone (Sharron Angle) who is clearly entirely unqualified, and, frankly, is a loon and who seemed only capable of barely stringing together--to paraphrase Joe Biden--a noun, a verb, and "Obamacare" in each sentence. To be clear, I don't consider someone unqualified who has never served in public office. I mean, she is unqualified to serve in office in the 21st Century--or certainly anytime after 1920. When she said, "People often ask me why I smile so much. It's because I'm an optimist", I thought, no, it's because you have no idea what you are talking about.

That Harry Reid could lose this race, on the other hand, says as much about his lack of the common touch. Despite the fact that I am not a Reid fan for specific policy reasons, I kept trying to root for him. But, his performance last night was a reflection of his mediocre performance as majority leader. Some of that is simply his personal quirks and discomfort with the English language. But, if you are trying to talk to regular people, stop using the words "CBO" and all sorts of other Washington-talk acronyms--talk about peoples' lives in a real way ("Do you want insurance companies to decide whether you live or die?").

But, the bigger point about the debate: that a person of Sharron Angle's beliefs and qualifications (or entire lack thereof) could be within striking distance of unseating Reid says as much about the woeful state of the Democratic Party and the country. The best example is, in fact, healthcare. By refusing to kill the leeches in the insurance industry--and, in fact, handing the industry a windfall of tens of billions of dollars--the Democratic Party declined to seize a narrative that I believe would have resonated with millions of people given the unprecedented economic crisis we face: the "free market" does not solves all and, in fact, is a failed economic model.

We live in dark times.


http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=14998