Driving Blind: Some Links for the Ride Home
Conor Friedersdorf takes on a double absurdity today: letting the CIA vet the Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report and President Obama’s cheap rhetoric on citizenship and tyranny at Ohio State.
Garance Franke-Ruta explores the politics of masculinity through the lens Ferguson and Cruz.
John Holbo analyzes the ethics of Kickstarters by way of Zack Braff’s newest project.
Alyssa Rosenberg demonstrates the emptiness of low cultural criticism: celebrity GIFs at red carpet events.
Adam Serwer documents the much longer history of sexual assault in the military. So why is Obama just now making it an issue? Why didn’t he have people’s backs before?
I’m really not sure if you’re being snarky here or not.Report
Also, given the facts that this is something that dates back to basically the start of women in uniform (and was publicly revealed as early as the Tailhook scandals of the 90s) should we start excoriating Clinton on down for not having done a damn thing about the issue in an institutional way?
I mean, yes, the fact that it took Obama till now to get a full blown full court press on the issue using Hegel is a problem. But it’s a substantial and massive improvement over everyone else who has ever held the office of the presidency.Report
I can no longer make any pretense of respecting President Obama. It’s appalling that in back-to-back elections the GOP couldn’t dredge up someone who would have surpassed the abysmally low bar Obama is setting.Report
Was it one of the topics from those links that pushed you over the edge on that (for whatever import your previous maintenance of a pretense of respecting the president actually has), or is this just generally apropos of the topic of Obama’s inadequacy (or worse)? Was it something else in particular that did it, or just a moment when it all built up for you?Report
Honestly speaking, given the historical evidence we have Clinton’s cadre of advisers, is there a realistic Democratic candidate circa 2008 that could have done better given the current set of political realities? What low bar are we talking? Economy? Civil liberties? Foreign policy?
And by what standard?Report
That is to say:
1. Gay rights – Clintonistas = DADT, DOMA.
2. Civil Liberties – Clintonistas are likely to have been similar in composition to the Obama team. And honestly I think if you were asked if Goodwin Liu and Harold Koh would have advocated for some of the positions they’ve wound up doing, would you have believed me circa 2007?
3. Economy – Well I don’t know what your expectations here would be, so I don’t really know what to say.
4. Sexual assault in the military – two words: Tailhook Convention.Report
Economy: Hillary was in debt to wall street. need i say more?Report