The Goat Pen

hedge wrote:FWIW, the winner of the SC republican primary has gone on to be the party's nominee since, like, 1944 or some shit. Yeah, it might just be a coincidence, but it's enough of one to make some people give a shit...

Bklyn wrote:It's just fascinating to me that the Republican Establishment is the minority in their party.

Even his staunchest enemies now regard his presidency as the good old days. He has become the rare consensus figure in a country that has lost all sense of consensus. So we talked to him about where it went, and how we might get it back.

ESQUIRE: Mr. President, as we're going into an election year that will likely scorch the earth, we want to talk with you about the notion of American consensus for the common good and why that is in so much trouble right now, and we want to find consensus on some things. As impossible as it might have seemed twenty years ago, there is now no figure of greater consensus in America than you. How did that happen? What is different between now and then? Why does the politics seem so much more caustic now than even then?

CLINTON: Well, it is more caustic now, but don't forget, when I was there, there were radio talk shows accusing me of murder, killing guys on train tracks in Arkansas, and of running drugs in western Arkansas, that kind of stuff.

First of all, I think the obvious answer is that I'm not running for anything anymore, and when you get out of the conflict, there is no particular advantage to somebody continuing to tear you down. And I think the second thing is the work I have done since I left office. It is seen as both conventionally progressive — the kind of stuff a Democrat would do in America and around the world — but it focuses on what works, and I've been able to generate support from liberals and conservatives across the board. One of the real dilemmas we have in our country and around the world is that what works in politics is organization and conflict. That is, drawing the sharp distinctions. But in real life, what works is networks and cooperation. And we need victories in real life, so we've got to get back to networks and cooperation, not just conflict. But politics has always been about conflict, and in the coverage of politics, information dissemination tends to be organized around conflict as well. It is extremely personal now, and you see in these primaries that the more people agree with each other on the issues, the more desperate they are to make the clear distinctions necessary to win, so the deeper the knife goes in.

Jungle Rat wrote:I still read it, just don't give a shit about politics.

Hizzy III wrote:The Repubs might want to take a good look at themselves if SC is a strong indicator of who their best presidential candidate is. Granted, they've won two of the last five presidential elections but still... I mean, some of you need to visit Sumter County to understand what I mean.

Jungle Rat wrote:I voted while on probation. Hell, my probation officer is the one who told me to go register when I lived in Granville. I also own a gun. Shhhhhh