It's About Time!

I don't have much of anything to say about Qur'an burning, other than it seems that Rev. Jones was involved in no more than a cheap publicity stunt to me, riding the publicity tidal wave as far as he possibly could making heinous threats without going through with the heinous deed.

He is no more than a hissing kitten.

I don't have much of anything to say about the Governator's Russia-hunt, other than it was worth a good chuckle, and I don't think it was meant to be worth anything more than a good chuckle anyway. So you might have been offended, saying that it wasn't Palin, but Tina Fey as Palin, who said they could see Russia from their house. I'll tell you how much I think it matters:

Doodly-squat.

Ahem.

I do have something to say. That is: thank goodness for Meghan McCain. Yes, I said it. Her new book Dirty Sexy Politics is more than a memoir about being the daughter of a former presidential candidate, but is, additionally, a call to Republicans to establish the party they could have. That is a good thing.

It has seemed far too much, and for far too long that we have a party of fairly reasonable do-gooders on the one side, and a party of game-playing, point-scoring lunatics on the other. And, if you watched Obama's speech near Cleveland, Ohio this week, the idea of Republicans as a party of point-scoring lunatics would have been reinforced for you. With good reason, too.

I tweeted, At his speech in Cleveland, the President praised Reagan. Does that mean the GOP has to hate Reagan now?

This was because of the way this impression is so reinforced in the discourse (even as right-skewed as the discourse has become). For years I have been wondering what happened to all of the sensible, intelligent Republicans I knew in the late 90s. They were, I think, pushed into hiding when, on this date 9 years ago, the power of emotional, non-rational thinking was demonstrated to all of us, and, well, the rest is history. We were left with the shrill, fear-mongering, maniacal rhetoric.

So it has seemed that we are faced with a choice between reason and unreason, and not a choice between reason and reason. A choice between two fairly reasonable options is a tough choice, but it is a choice I could happily make, knowing, at least, that some responsible decisions are going to be made either way. A choice between two fairly reasonable options forces the options to be better, to work harder, and to try and win us over with argument rather than try to scare us out of our wits.

The smart Republicans have been in hiding, as I say. But, thank goodness for Meghan McCain for reminding us that they are still there.

Now, when are they going to come out to play?