August 21, 2012, Meta-kabuki
All hail the Grey Lady, for doing its part to keep the kabuki of a "political process" and "Presidential election" and "democracy" in this editorial lamenting the "extremist" Republican party platform agenda... hell, the first sentence even says:
Over the years, the major parties’ election-year platforms have been regarded as Kabuki theater scripts for convention week.
THAT is awesome: a piece advancing the political gestalt kabuki actually using the word kabuki. No...the only word is "awesome." The Times does its part to convince the few remaining "true believers" that "the eeeevil Republican extreeeemists" actually matter, because of their "extreeeeme" positions on... wait for it,,, abortion and gay marriage. Yes, it's a relatively easy play, given the mirth and merriment surrounding Congressman Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin [who decided not to hang it up in the Missouri senate race]. But, come on! Other than this year's exercise to stick Obama with control of the Senate (which he'd rather not have, as it imples some level of "accountability" he'd rather pretend he didn't have)... what, exactly, is different here? The previous Republican platforms have taken very similar positions... every Republican candidate since Reagan has espoused a "pro-life" agenda, and gay-bashing has been a mainstay for quite a while as well.
Still... there is some urgency now, as the game seems to be more apparent to more and more... Occupy! took a lot of the mask off "the process." Hence, the Grey Lady needs to tell us that there is a difference that warrants not only our attention but our extreme emotional (and maybe financial) commitment to "our side," as if "the two parties" weren't in full agreement on expanding the wars and the war machine, holding and torturing prisoners at Guantanamo and wherever else we want, gutting social welfare programs (except for the already affluent), maintaining public segregation through public school de-funding, the war on dark skinned people, especially young men drugs, permitting rampant environmental destruction, subsidizing extractive and poisoning industries and undercutting anything remotely healthy or sustainable, and allowing the financial sector to dominate the rest of society... tax cuts for the rich... and I could go on and on, of course.
But I won't. Hey... credit where credit is due to the Times... kudos, Grey Lady.