no subject
Nov. 7th, 2015 01:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So - I badly want to be more enchanted by Bernie Sanders than I am. And I'm not sure how legitimate "enchantment" even is, politically speaking, but noticing affective responses is kind of what I do.
I watched the Maddow-moderated Presidential Candidates' Forum tonight kind of backwards, Clinton first and then O'Malley and Sanders. And mainly I was enchanted by Rachel, obvs, I was watching it for her, she's my Jon Stewart replacement and I coo over her cleverness in similar ways. But I also finished the Clinton segment feeling just fucking pumped. Clinton and Maddow worked together beautifully in managing the levels of the interview - the intensity of HRC talking about her meeting with Sybrina Fullton and other bereaved Black mothers (can i say how much I appreciated it that she avoided another repetition of the "black lives matter" slogan?) mellowing into a genuinely sweet reflection on a wedding-day photo. Had me choking up and then grinning like a loon.
And yes, O'Malley is a centrist dope who can't give a straight answer, nothing new there - loved the "smh" reaction shots from the crowd - but golly I also got bored and tired during the Bernie Sanders segment. I don't like the way his points are always the same. I feel like he's always lecturing, not communicating. He reminds me of my father, both positively and negatively. I love my father, but sometimes I really dislike having to work with him. And, like, you know Sanders fucking loves Rachel Maddow (did he maybe call her "kid" at the beginning of the silly segment? "i could never hate you kid"? dying here), but I got a stronger sense of conversation/connection between her and Clinton. I rewatched that segment; I left the tab open but wandered off to tumblr while Sanders spoke.
I mean, like I said this is all analysis of affect and theatre, not policy. But politics is both. I don't feel that I can trust HRC morally; death penalty/Iraq/welfare reform/didn't fucking protect Monica/banks. But damn if she's not the one who impresses me beyond my expectations when I see her work. She's the one who seems like she's already doing the job, not just campaigning for it.
I watched the Maddow-moderated Presidential Candidates' Forum tonight kind of backwards, Clinton first and then O'Malley and Sanders. And mainly I was enchanted by Rachel, obvs, I was watching it for her, she's my Jon Stewart replacement and I coo over her cleverness in similar ways. But I also finished the Clinton segment feeling just fucking pumped. Clinton and Maddow worked together beautifully in managing the levels of the interview - the intensity of HRC talking about her meeting with Sybrina Fullton and other bereaved Black mothers (can i say how much I appreciated it that she avoided another repetition of the "black lives matter" slogan?) mellowing into a genuinely sweet reflection on a wedding-day photo. Had me choking up and then grinning like a loon.
And yes, O'Malley is a centrist dope who can't give a straight answer, nothing new there - loved the "smh" reaction shots from the crowd - but golly I also got bored and tired during the Bernie Sanders segment. I don't like the way his points are always the same. I feel like he's always lecturing, not communicating. He reminds me of my father, both positively and negatively. I love my father, but sometimes I really dislike having to work with him. And, like, you know Sanders fucking loves Rachel Maddow (did he maybe call her "kid" at the beginning of the silly segment? "i could never hate you kid"? dying here), but I got a stronger sense of conversation/connection between her and Clinton. I rewatched that segment; I left the tab open but wandered off to tumblr while Sanders spoke.
I mean, like I said this is all analysis of affect and theatre, not policy. But politics is both. I don't feel that I can trust HRC morally; death penalty/Iraq/welfare reform/didn't fucking protect Monica/banks. But damn if she's not the one who impresses me beyond my expectations when I see her work. She's the one who seems like she's already doing the job, not just campaigning for it.
no subject
Date: 2015-11-07 08:32 pm (UTC)I like Bernie and I respect his principles, but I'm a lot more interested in what a president does than who they are as a person. (Which is part of the reason I find his fanbase annoying--it seems so focused on how great he is personally, and much less how he would function in reality, within the political sphere that exists today.)
no subject
Date: 2015-11-07 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-11-08 06:53 pm (UTC)She gets tainted with Bill's centrism a lot, I think, even though the rating from her own record is identical to Elizabeth Warren's and only slightly right of Bernie himself. So in terms of Hillary vs Bernie, the media theatre is doing their damndest to magnify what are ultimately fairly minor differences of opinion. Neither of them will be able to accomplish what they or we would like, in any case--the real question for me is what they'll be able to accomplish at all. They can't pick all the battles, or most of them. Which ones are they going to choose? What concessions are they going to make?
no subject
Date: 2015-11-09 12:36 am (UTC)It felt to me like she and Maddow were doing pedagogical work together, using their "discussion" to guide listeners through a developed line of thought. It's ... something, to get that out of a campaign event, and I don't think Sanders did get it.
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Date: 2015-11-08 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-11-08 04:37 pm (UTC)I honestly don't know how much of the agenda that's important to me is doable. Getting rid of citizenship for corporations and money as speech, public funding for election campaigns... can we change the minds of people who have billions of dollars in advertising aimed at them?
no subject
Date: 2015-11-09 12:38 am (UTC)