While walking this morning [unusually early – I started
before 5 am] I was reflecting that on my blog lately I have been wearing my
heart on my sleeve. “Where does that
expression come from?” I mused. I had a
vague recollection that it turns up in one of Shakespeare’s plays, and speculated
that it originated with the chivalric practice of wearing a lady’s scarf or handkerchief
when jousting. A little googling
confirmed that it does indeed appear in Othello,
where it is uttered by Iago. As for
medieval jousts, Google allows this as a reasonable guess, but primly reports
that there are no actual texts dating from the Middle Ages in which it occurs.
But that leaves unanswered the question why I have been so
open about my feelings. To be sure,
blogs are supposed to be confessional – they are, after all, web logs, or
diaries – but it is my impression that the self-exposure of blogs is rather
more formulaic than honest. I suspect
that in my case it has something to do with my consciousness of age, but I am
not sure. Curious.
Rather more seriously, what is this agita about Nancy Pelosi?
And why are the egregious Chuck Schumer and the readily replaceable
Steny Hoyer given a pass? I understand why
the Republicans hate Pelosi. With great
brilliance and immense institutional skill, she shepherded the Affordable Care
Act to passage against implacable opposition.
But after an election cycle in which the Democrats ran on health care,
health care, health care, why are some of them echoing Republican talking
points? Pelosi is the most effective
House Speaker of either party in several generations. I honestly don’t get it.
Which brings me to Mueller Time. It seems I was not alone in anticipating a Friday
indictment drop two weeks ago. I want
Don Jr. to be indicted so bad I can taste it.
And a RICO-style case sweeping up Hope Hicks, Jared Kushner, and First
Daughter Ivanka, along with Roger Stone, and even the cartoonish Randy Credico,
would truly compensate me for many defeats and disappointments. I know these are debased desires, rather like
my affection for The Young and the Restless,
but I am too old to conceal my low feelings [pace wearing my heart on my sleeve.]
Well, having done the TIMES
Sunday crossword puzzle, it is time to complete my preparations for Tuesday’s
Columbia class.
11 comments:
For a prominent left Democrat's view of "The Pelosi Problem," go here: https://bit.ly/2A2l4Or
My view is this, citing just a few of my problems with her leadership:
1. She is emblematic of the neoliberal establishment that has governed most of the world for the last several
decades: to wit, she has said, a) “There is no greater political accomplishment in the 20th century than the establishment of the State of Israel,” and b) that "I never thought I’d pray for the day that you [George W. Bush] were president again." Thus she glosses over endless wars in the middle east generally, now costing a staggering $5.9 trillion since 2000, as well as the horrific persecution of Palestinians and Yemenis, to cite just two populations.
2. With regard to President Trump she has said “We have an obligation to find common ground where we can." And so she does not oppose voting for increased military spending and increased surveillance which is to be handed over to the president who is supposed to be evil incarnet: Common ground indeed.
3. Not surprisingly she voted for the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, and the bank bailout.
4. She is currently pushing for a rule that would "require a three-fifths supermajority to raise individual income taxes on the lowest-earning 80 percent of taxpayers." This would kill Medicare for All. MoveOn.org called the proposal "a staggeringly bad idea."
5. She is opposed to investigations into Kavanaugh and/or Trump that could lead to their impeachment.
6. On North Korea: In her official statement on Trump’s Singapore summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, a question is raised: Is she willing to risk nuclear war on the Korean peninsula in order to keep the 68-year-old Korean War going, at least until a Democrat is elected? “[T]he President handed Kim Jong-un concessions in exchange for vague promises that do not approach a clear and comprehensive pathway to denuclearization and non-proliferation,” she complained.
For people wanting to win a new world, she is an obstacle.
Perhaps wearing a heart on one’s sleeve derives from the garb of the minstrel love singers and poets of the Middle Ages. For example, the German Minnesaenger of the 12th-14th centuries. (Minne is a Middle High German word for love.) One can imagine putting emblems of hearts on the sleeves of such singers to not so subtly indicate what these troubadours were singing about. (Heart as a symbol of love was already known in this period.) This tradition was all over Europe for quite a while. Besides the Minnesaenger there were the Provencal troubadours, etc. –Fritz Poebel
What Jerry Fresia said,particularly number 4, since it is simultaneously the most egregious and the most destructive.
I’m in agreement with Prof. Wolff on Pelosi. True, she is the villain to the Republicans, but that would be the case with any Democratic leader, particularly any woman.
As to Jerry F.’s points--I fear once again we are looking at different worlds.
1. It may be true that she is emblematic of the neoliberal world, but that is not the reason for most of her opposition. That comes largely from Democrats who have been elected from generally red districts, e.g. Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania and Jared Golden in Maine. I suspect that her comment about praying for Bush to be President again has much to do with the present incumbent. I’d take Bush over Trump any day, and also Nixon.
2. What’s wrong with finding common ground with Trump if that’s at all possible, e.g. infrastructure?
3. I don’t like her vote for the Iraq War either, but the bank bailout is more complex. Many economists on the left agreed with the argument that the situation would be worse if the banks weren’t bailed out. Pelosi and others, including Barney Frank, held their noses and voted for it. Frank did his best to prevent the country from every being in that position again. Sadly, the support just isn’t there.
4. I’m not familiar with the “three-fifths supermajority” proposal. How is it connected to Medicare for All?
5. Senate conviction of either Kavanaugh or Trump is, at this point, not going to happen. There aren’t 67 votes to do it. With that the reality, the question for Pelosi and the Democrats is whether it is to their political advantage to push for impeachment or not. I think the politically wiser thing to do right now is not to mention impeachment, but to let the investigations that will be started by the Democrats in January go forward and see what they produce. And, of course, to see what Mueller produces.
6. Her statement on Korea is quite OK with me. Trump was acting as if he’d brought peace and ended the nuclear threat in Korea. He did nothing of the kind, and she wasn’t going to let him get away with that.
Politics, as has been said, is the art of the possible--the doable. That’s the world Pelosi lives and works in, and she’s pretty good at it. Going down to defeat for the ideal may be noble, but it usually isn’t the way to get things done--to make the things better than they are, even if that falls short of their being ideal.
David, point of information here:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/16/staggeringly-bad-idea-outrage-pelosi-pushes-tax-rule-would-kneecap-progressive
Jerry,
This strikes me as an interesting, complex issue about which I know nothing. It certainly can be seen as an impediment to Medicare for All if that (as seems inevitable) involves higher taxes--but, would Medicare premiums be considered taxes for purposes of this legislation? Making it easier to tax the top 20% than than tax everyone else seems to be an obvious goal, and one that I think is worth exploring. The kinds of objections raised in the article are the kinds of things that usually get worked out as legislation progresses through the system. I'd be interested in knowing what the proponents argue.
Some of the opposition to Pelosi might be due to her being 78 years old (she was born in 1940), and will be 79, in March. Politicians are in general ambitious individuals, and maybe some of the “younger” Democrats think it’s their turn to take over. I put younger in quotation marks above because relative to Pelosi most of the people coveting her job are “younger.” I’m 70, and Pelosi may have graduated from college before I even got to high school. The newly elected first-time Congressman from my state is 36, the same age as my older son. I don’t harbor any resentments towards younger people, but it’s pretty clear to me that they want us out of the (or their) way. Maybe Pelosi is just “so 1990s.” I heard that about the Clintons, too. I think that the Owl of Minerva has begun to spread its wings on the 1960s generation.
For those of you who may be suffering the pangs and disappointments of advanced age, I recommend that you see the movie The Old Man & A Gun, Robert Redford’s farewell appearance and a tribute to doing in life what you love, even to the bitter end. And for a certain professor who is fond of quoting a line from a certain movie starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman, a gesture that Casey Affleck gives in one of the movie’s scenes will make him smile. (I’m sorry, but I had an irresistible impulse to post this bit of self-indulgent effluvium, but, in my defense, it does relate to the leading post about the effects of the aging process.)
No matter how bad Pelosi is under any defintion or faction of democratic party, she is infinitely better than Schumer. Schumer has been nothing but the worst leader of any opposition. He certainly has become a toothless senator from the great state of New York.
E.J. Dionne's column in today's Washington Post on Pelosi:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-supreme-test-of-nancy-pelosis-wizardry/2018/11/18/0df35d0a-e9e6-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html?utm_term=.25352b4da4ae
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