A real conservative knows how to pick his battles.
Arlen Specter has taken plenty of heat in the last week, from Bostonians on one side and budget hawks on the other. The former have had all the Spygate they can stomach. The latter are burned out on Beltway excess. At bottom, both think Specter should keep his nose out of Roger Goodell’s laundry hamper—and both agree that in a time of war and recession and creeping Cartersian malaise, Congress ought to have bigger fish to fry.
Of course, that assumes that somebody on Capitol Hill has one mother of an oversized frying pan.
And last I checked, the only thing worse than a feckless Senator was one who bites off more than he can chew.
There’s something to be said for efficacious governance. Spygate might not be the most noxious sore on the American body politic, but at least it’s treatable. If Specter stays on track, he can reasonably expect to promote transparency and accountability in the Commissioner’s Office. If he shifts his sights to one of those bigger fish, he can reasonably expect to spend a whole lot of time wishing he’d aimed just a little bit lower.
Some men see things as they are and ask, “Why?”
Some men dream things that never were and ask, “Why not?”
If recent history has taught us anything, it’s that pondering the second question is extraordinarily bad for one’s electability.
“How small of all that human hearts endure,” wrote Samuel Johnson, “That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.” It’s comforting to believe that America’s problems are a function of government indolence. If only. When push comes to shove, the players do the playing. No matter how many rules he broke, Bill Belichick couldn’t win Super Bowl XLII from the sidelines. It shouldn’t take a George Gipp fan to draw the political parallel.
Every liberal democracy reflects the spirit of its people.
When that spirit is sound, you get competent leaders, and successful policies.
When that spirit is warped, on the other hand—well, suffice it to say that an ugly man shouldn’t be in the business of cursing at his mirror.
The rub here is that the ball’s in our court, not Arlen’s. At press time, the prognosis wasn’t promising. We spend ourselves silly and blame the mortgage lenders. We eat ourselves sick and blame Ray Kroc, or Big Pharma. We raise our kids on a steady diet of microwave dinners and Monday Night Football—and then we wonder why they turn out fat and lazy and utterly incompetent next to the average six-year-old from Shanghai. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, Bubba. And from the looks of it, we are all in very deep shit.
A bit of postmodern whimsy, for all you Sammy Hagar diehards out there:
Somewhere, right now, Bill Belichick is plotting his next move.
Somewhere, right now, Hu Jintao is doing the exact same thing.
Somewhere, right now, you and I have to decide which threat we’d rather talk about.
And somewhere, right now, one of us has the sinking sense he’s only just saying, is all...
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2 months ago
Specter is doing this for one reason and it has nothing to do with football - Comcast donated $100,000 to his recent campaign, the largest contributor - and Comcast and the NFL are battling. He doesn't care about the issues or transparency in the commissioner's office. He cares about helping out a company that donated to his campaign. It is pure politics, and Specter should not be indulged. He was always focused on the Patriots, even saying the reports that Walsh had a tape were looking pretty strong. It was not until it was proven Walsh had nothing that Specter (like many others) adjusted course. He should not be applauded or encouraged for his actions - he should be ashamed and embarrassed for wasting his time, his staff's time, and really all of our time.
2 months ago
Did you just coin the "ugly man... cursing at his mirror"? If so, kudos. I googled the phrase to see if it was some aphorism I hadn't heard before... this article and not much else came up.
from 2 months ago
Can't say I'd ever heard it before...but I won't claim full credit, as it's definitely a spinoff from the classic "Do these jeans make me look fat?"/"No, your butt does" exchange. (Or: "Does this penchant for aphorism make me sound glib?"/"No, your shallow and facile thinking does." Sigh.)
2 months ago
nice article Ryan. Good point.
2 months ago
Excellent article, and extremely well written. Good show, man, good show.
But where do we go from here? The collective mass of people too fat, lazy and stupid to make rational decisions without someone telling them what's right is decreasing by the day (we are being eaten by the fat ones). Can we even change it anymore, or are people too stubborn to move or agree on anything?
If I had one thing I could say to the world, it would be this: We spend our time blaming people for doing things that really have no effect on us, and supporting causes and writing laws to prohibit those things; shouldn't we be worrying about being able to live our lives the way we want, instead of getting in the way of people living their lives how they want?
from 2 months ago
Agreed. My personal suggestion is to move to the desert and teach yourself Mandarin. Look me up if you're ever in Laughlin—I'll buy you a fortune cookie.
from 2 months ago
That's almost the plan, except "Mandarin" is "Japanese" and "desert" is "Japan."
Who knows where the travels will go from there, though?
2 months ago
I'm almost to the point of wanting to talk about Hu Jintao over Bill Belichick.
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