Chuck > Recent Status Updates

“It was, of course, a sign of things to come, a larger, darker reality in which partisan affiliation and political expedience would threaten to blot out everything- your previous positions; your stated principles; even what your own senses, your eyes and ears, told you to be true.”

“…tying themselves into knots as they sought to convince the public that in a vice presidential candidate, the need for basic knowledge of foreign policy or the functions of the federal government was actually overrated. Sarah Palin,Ike Reagan, had ‘good instincts,’ they said, and once installed, she’d grow into the job.”

“I was even more surprised to witness prominent conservatives- including those who’d spent a year dismissing me as inexperienced, and who’s spent decades decrying affirmative action, the erosion of intellectual standards, and the debasement of Western culture at the hands of multiculturalists- suddenly shilling for Palin…”

“Palin’s nomination was troubling in a deeper level. I noticed from the start that her incoherence didn’t matter to the vast majority of Republicans: in fact, anytime she crumbled under questioning by a journalist, they seemed to view it as proof of a liberal conspiracy.”

“They’d heard my call for something different. Even if I hadn’t always been at my best, they’d divined what was best in me: the voice insisting that for all our differences, we remained bound as one people, and that, together, men and women of goodwill could find a way to a better future.”

“And maybe I’m bothered by the care and delicacy with which one must state the obvious: that it’s possible to understand and sympathize with the frustrations of white voters without denying the ease with which, throughout American history, politicians have redirected white frustration about their economic or social circumstances toward Black and brown people.”

“To the relief of his keepers, the bear became accustomed to captivity.”

“I realized too, that of supporters could mold bits and pieces of me into an outsized symbol of hope, the vague fears of detractors could just as easily congeal into hate.”

“At some basic level people were no longer seeing me, I realized, with all my quirks and shortcomings. Instead, they had taken possession of my likeness and made it a vessel for a million different dreams. I knew a time would come when I would disappoint them, falling short of the image that my campaign and I had helped to construct.”