I said this over at the crack den, but I wanted to expand on it a bit here. It’s a measure of how screwed we’ve been for how long, and how utterly unacknowledged it has been by our leaders, that the very basic statement that once you’ve earned a pension no one should take it away should sound so radical to our ears, should be so welcomed. It’s a measure how voiceless we have been for so long that we would take such wild joy in hearing that no one should lose her house because her husband got sick. It’s a measure of how intemperate our face to the world has been, that someone can speak of “taking the fight” toanyone and be perceived as mild.
In other words, my response to what Obama said in that ad isn’t so much about Obama as it is about Bush, and maybe that’s the case with all politicians, that we hear not just what they’re saying but what we’re saying. In that case I’m less reassured than I would be by this kind of thing ordinarily, because what I heard very clearly was WE ARE MASSIVELY SCREWED THIS IS A VERY DEEP HOLE PLEASE SEND GRAPPLING HOOKS AND CANNED GOODS.
A.