Comment & Debate
Oliver Willis. “Oh. That’s why I’m a democrat.” Huffington Post. September 8th, 2008: “The Democratic party, for better or worse, believes in a Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart view of the world. It says time and time again that through our collective might we can improve the nation, and as a byproduct the world. It is optimistic to the point of being almost corny. The party looks as the world as it is, and says ‘Gosh darn it everyone, let’s roll up our sleeves and clean up this mess.’ It is no coincidence that the current leader of the party, Barack Obama, is the sort of guy you can imagine saying ‘by golly’ and not in an ironic way. […] By contrast to the Democratic sunshine, the Republican party is night. Their view of the world is one in which everything is just a shade of negative, and that is the cold heart underlying the cynicism of speakers like Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney. They see a world of despair and depression and they wallow in it. The Republican party and the conservative movement that supports it is all about being the snarky guy in the corner playing the angles and making a buck off the foibles and failures of others. For a few it promises the spoils of war – both ideological and real war – but for the rest it just offers a way of wallowing in darkness without any optimistic movement towards a better day.”