Democratic Presidential debates

By jxmartin

Mon, 24 Jun 2019
  • 624 reads
4 comments
 

                                  Big Brother is watching and tweeting

 

        The first of the Democratic Presidential debates are near. With a crowd of two dozen or more prospective candidates, this will turn out to be more of a contestant beauty pageant than any kind of substantial, in depth discussion of issues. Still, it is a start to the 14-moth process that will select the eventual challenger to Donald Trump, in the 2020 presidential election.

 

       I was mildly taken aback by comments of the current President regarding the debate. Mr. Trump said that he would be watching the debates and critiquing them by twitter. Huh? Isn’t that like having an electronic heckler throwing mud balls at all of the candidates, from the safety of his 1600 Pennsylvania lair? I know that Fox News, like all state-run television stations, will gleefully cover the twitter comments at length. I hope the real television stations and free press will concentrate their coverage on the men and women involved, offer analysis on their thoughts on the issues. That is the raison d’etre for the whole cumbersome process.

 

      It reminded me of a time in the late 1960’s at the State University of New York at Geneseo. Like most college students of the era, I was a liberal democrat at the time. A political Science professor on campus had formed up a dozen or so of us into the town’s first functioning democratic, town committee. It was more of an anomaly than it sounds. At the time, this was horse country, blue-blooded and rural, Republican to the max.

 

     We would meet monthly, in a town meeting room, to discuss matters of the day. The town’s Mayor, a cigar chomping and portly defender of all things Republican, would come and sit at the back of the hall, watching what transpired. I don’t know if he was observing these radical, left-wing minions for anti-American activities, or maybe he was just plain curious as to what the heck a “democrat” was and what they had to say about things political. We paid him no mind, but thought it curious that he would attend a meeting of the “opposite party.” Perhaps all small-town and small-minded officials like this have a proprietary instinct when it came to matter that occur in “their town.”    

 

     I will watch the coming debates and be thinking of that portly, cigar-chomping, small-town Mayor and wondering what he would have to say about this gang of democratic conspirators who were so bold in their opposition to an elected president. And, I will occasionally tune in to state run t.v., Fox News, to see just how one-sided and awful a production they make of the whole affair.

 

                                                                  -30-

                                                            (445 words)

 

                                                      Joseph Xavier Martin

 

 

Certificate U
Non-fiction
BUFFALO STORIES - Joseph Xavier Martin
Rant

Comments

Submitted by jxmartin on

 

Submitted by celticman on

for the moron's moron to be president is an abomination of the worst kind. I hope he loses and is prosecuted when he can no longer claim immunity. But I'll settle for him fadig into senility (if he's not already there) as long as he does not start World War III, which is a real possibility. 

 

Submitted by ice rivers on

I've been reading up on Deridda and deconstructivism which basically says that words have two meanings, the intended and the non-intended which are in fact equal to if not better than the intended as a means of cultural contribution. This leads to the current fashion of "unpacking" everything that everybody says so the concept of Trump interpreting the debate and than having his own interpretations subsequently and infinitely unpacked is the reason that existentialism has fallen out of favor although it exemplifies Satre's No Exit etc.

Let's facxe it all of our unpacking is flavored by SUNY Geneseo late 60's which is as relevant as any other time or place.

I enjoyed this piece.

 

Submitted by jxmartin on

Thanks, Ice. When trying to interpret some of this crowd, I prefer Lewis Carroll as the interpreter:

Alice tried another question. "What sort of people live about here?"
"In THAT direction," the Cat said, waving its right paw round, "lives a Hatter: And in THAT direction," waving the other paw, "lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad."
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."