It's been a long time

I've been trying to do a bit more reading lately, a habit that has sorely dropped off in the past few months for a variety of reasons. I've found a common theme...

An op-ed piece in the Chicago Reader (a free hometown paper; read it by clicking here) ran a couple weeks ago arguing that Barack Obama is just like all the other Chicago politicians: He's had to kneel at the throne of Daley to get where he is today, whether for good or for ill. The piece mainly speculates on how he might "immunize him[self] from his Chicago past", as Daley is D-I-R-T-Y but (1) closely connected with ol' B.O. and (2) too powerful to disown or denounce. The concluding paragraph cuts right to the point:

"So how should Obama play it when the Republicans launch their attack ads link­ing him to Daley’s Chicago? He should ditch the script that Conley so thoughtfully offered in Salon. He doesn’t need that fan­tasy of civility, consensus, racial harmony, and community empowerment. He can tell it like it is. If anything, Daley taught him to be ruthless, devious, and shrewd. He can say it’s prepared him for cracking down on Iran."

Then I came across this piece in the New York Times, in which David Brooks points out how Obama is just as duplicitous as any other politician, though a heckuvalot smarter. Brooks relates how Obama eschewed public financing for his campaign once he, a Democrat, ended up with a lot more money than the Republicans have, though Obama has been a champion of public financing in the presidential race since at least January of 2007. Brooks refers "Fast Eddie Obama" who made "a cut-throat political calculation seem like Mother Teresa’s final steps to sainthood." Towards the end of the piece, though, Brooks says that maybe we want a cutthroat in the White House: "On the other hand, global affairs ain’t beanbag. If we’re going to have a president who is going to go toe to toe with the likes of Vladimir Putin, maybe it is better that he should have a ruthlessly opportunist Fast Eddie Obama lurking inside."

Politics is dirty. That's it. Anyone who believes that Obama is going to bring "change" to the White House, to "the system," is kidding themselves. One politician is as dirty as the next; some are just better at getting others to believe that they are "different." Chicago's son in this presidential race has had one of the most infamously dirty politicians in recent memory as his 'mentor', who has helped him get where he is today; it's hard for me to believe that Obama can possibly be much different, as he's learned from a master. Will Obama reward Daley? Will he follow the Reader's advice and just admit that Daley taught him to be devious, and then throw Daley under the train? I don't know. Though I am curious. This is political gold, folks.

As I work my way thru a book that I recently picked up, the Obama situation comes to mind. In The Secret of New York Revealed, Thomas Howard speaks of Democratic New Yorkers' thrill in voting for a Republican (no doubt a compassionate conservative!) a few decades ago:

"[John] Lindsay seemed to be the thing we all wanted. He was young, blue eyed, lean and tousle-haired...and he managed to disarm everyone with his candor. He would appear in the streets of Harlem with his shirtsleeves rolled up above his elbows, the idea being, 'We've got tough work to do, right, gang? Never mind about coats and ties and limousines and walnut desks in City Hall, then.'
"New Yorkers believe this sort of thing, and the New York Times more than them all. Pictures were rushed onto the front pages. The word was passed in the chic, rumpled circles of liberal journalism, academia, and proletaria: Lindsay's the man!
"It was all very heady. Doctrinaire Democrats who had never met a Republican found thenselves atingle with the idea of pulling the lever for one of these creatures. What fun! Here, from that sluggish antediluvian jumble of political troglodytes springs Saint George himself! Fancy voting for a Republican!
"Everyone was terribly earnest...Everyone was on the march. It was a crusade. We've got to stand tall, all of us serious, selfless, concerned, good people, and advance. We must pluck down the basilica of power, privilege, and influence; drag the sweating and oleaginous politicians from their swivel chairs; fling open the doors; and let the people in."

Howard could've been describing the messianism that surrounds Obama with these words: just switch the parties around. He then goes on to detail, however, how the city was shut down by the transit workers' ten-day strike. Oops. Politics, I believe, won't change anything. No matter how shiny a candidate looks, it's all on the outside. It's best to look that fact bald in the face, move on with our lives, and let politics be little more than a blip on our personal radars of life. It is not, I argue, one of the Permanent Things. Pull the lever for the lesser of two evils (or don't), and be done with it.