A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on February 7th, 2008 in Campaign News

Pastor Dan gives Rick Perlstein a big pat on the back for not understanding symbolism. I’ll see if I can explain things…

The discussion kicks off with Andrew Sullivan‘s line: “If you are an American who yearns to finally get beyond the symbolic battles of the Boomer generation and face today’s actual problems, Obama may be your man.” Perlstein says no one can do that. Then he explains what some of the problems back in the sixties were. Totally missing is any inkling of an understanding how those battles are being fought through the use of symbols today.

Symbol: something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign.

Perlstein talks briefly about how John McCain grouses about Hillary Clinton wanting a Woodstock museum and how Bill (and Hillary) Clinton used Lyndon Johnson to try and batter Barack Obama. What he doesn’t talk about is how the candidates themselves are symbols. Bill and Hillary are not just part of the Woodstock generation, they are the symbol of that generation. And John McCain is not just part of that generation that cranked up Okie from Muskogee, he is the symbol of it. Both Hillary and McCain carry the entire memory of their part of their generation on their shoulders.

Bill was the poor kid that didn’t go off to war as his duty dictated. They gave him a deferment and he had the God-damned gall to protest this government’s decision to go to war! To McCain’s view, Bill Clinton is the students at Kent State. Hillary, on the other hand, was the child of privilege who was radicalized, burned her bra, tuned in, turned on, and – well, Hillary didn’t drop out. But she is symbolic of the hippies at Woodstock that thought love was enough to turn the world on its head. That she married down to a trailer-trash escapee like Bill Clinton galls the hell out of them.

And who is “them”? The people for whom John McCain’s life stands as an example of what the sixties should have been like. God. Honor. Country. Kick the shit out of the dirty hippies. Take your orders, take your lumps, and don’t Goddamn complain about the shitty hand your dealt. (It just occurred to me that John McCain’s constituents are basically Red from That 70s Show.)

And neither Hillary Clinton nor John McCain can divorce themselves from their symbology. When Hillary proposes healthcare programs it is “Hillarycare”. When Hillary proposes an education program it will be “Hillary-ed”. And it will be fought with the same veracity with which the hippies in the 1960s. It doesn’t matter what the details are – she’s one of them – Hell she IS them – and she must therefore be wrong. When McCain says “I will chase bin Laden to the gates of Hell” he isn’t talking about visiting the Rodin museum – he’s stepping into the domino-theory plans of Johnson and Nixon – we will have peace with honor and all that.

If Perlman thinks the virulent hatred of the George Wallace crowd is missing, then he needs to listen to Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin for about ten minutes. What else can you call it when someone opines that the greatest tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing was that Timothy McVeigh didn’t take out The New York Times? And Rush Limbaugh? Sean Hannity? How blind can you be?

It isn’t as if these problems never existed prior to the 1960s anyway. America has always been divided because it has always been diverse. But in times of great trial and of great need, we have found ways to look beyond our differences to find that – whatever it is – that holds us together. This is what Barack Obama is trying to reach for. George W. Bush had his finger on it on 9/12 and squandered it. Obama believes that we do not need another 9/11 or Great Depression to find it again. I hope that he’s right.

Because Hillary or McCain means that we will simply be caught up in the Vietnam era by proxy. By symbol. And fighting by symbol rarely gets any solution because it never faces the actual problem. That’s what Obama can get us past. It doesn’t mean he will be successful. It only means he won’t be crippled from Day One by the image of 1968.

Technorati Tags: Pastor Dan, Rick Perlstein, Andrew Sullivan, Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton

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