Thursday, May 08, 2003

I was telling Jans today how I usually find a local florist and order flowers from them, rather than using FTD or doing it online, because I feel I get better value by cutting out the middle man. Jans shook his head and said, "Poor middle man." I also went to a "steering committee" meeting for Missourians for Dean, and left, as soon as the wackos started airing their various psychoses through their association with an association that accepts all comers. I wanted to mention the book _Right Turn_ that discusses the downturn of the the Democratic Party as a result of abondoning core constituencies - such as working families - which the Republicans picked up using the flashy allure of social conservativism, directly in contrast to the Democratic Leadership Council's strategy of moving towards a centrist politic. But it's not about the rational. That's the problem with so much of liberalism, is that the interests seem, in the short term, counter to the rational self interests of those who support them. Meaning that we have a high percentage of kookiness. If I were running Missourians for Dean, or any other campaign these days, in a meeting like tonight, I would be merciless. I would simply tell those who had nothing relevant to say, who raised their hands anyway, or had something kooky to add, to leave the room. Now. That we would focus our energies on those who saw the race as beyond politics, towards saving participatory democracy, and that meant that participatory lunacy would not be tolerated, as vanguard as that may seem. And it would be more appropriate in a political setting, unlike the local Sierra Club, where outside kookiness rules, with an institution that is invested in kookiness. In my ideal world I would be that munificent dictator, a Marcus Aurelius - the trick would be ensuring that those institutions survived me, perhaps by becoming an overthrowable tyrant in my dotage, to bring up the highest order among humans of the day to topple me.  12:45:47 AM