Then Halperin asked me directly: "Would you like to see [Obama] work with Republicans -- on education, financial reform, on economic development -- or not?"
"You know what, Mark?" I answered. "Actually? 'Not.' Not for the sake of just working with Republicans." I explained how Obama worked hard to craft a bipartisan stimulus bill that was smaller than many Democrats wanted, and that was low on funding for infrastructure building programs as well as support for cities and states that were shedding cops, firefighters and teachers at the same time the stimulus money was coming down. Keeping people employed is an excellent unemployment program, I noted, but thanks to the president's efforts to win Republican votes, the Obama stimulus was too small to do more than a little of that. (Joan Walsh, “Mark Halperin: Obama must still chase GOP support,” Salon, 24 March 2010)
Thou shall not be aware
Please remember that a lot of us grew up with parents who were irresponsible and unaccountable, and learned (through the help of our superego, which steps in to help us from arousing parental ire that a dependent child cannot bear) never to confront them with this fact -- learning, instead, to suspect that WE, that our own needs, our own attempts at growth, were really at fault for whatever our parents did to us, and to find every way to account them (our parents) self-sacrificing, principled, and just.
That is, your instinct to show ridiculous people up as ridiculous, to say what fairly should be said and stand up for what is truly right, will trigger something in a lot of people that will make them want to make you feel that you are way out of line, that you are being "bad" in your disparaging "parental figures" -- what Halperin tried to do to you here
Anyhow, good show. And thanks for describing how this encounter made you feel. It was good to watch.
Comments
Post a Comment