I strive to take Integral approaches to issues in ordinary life, culture, politics, sexuality, and spirituality. A graduate of Harvard University and The Divinity School at the University of Chicago, I have worked as a writer for more than 15 years. 
The sleeper snow cone issue
August 22nd, 2008 by Joe PerezIt’s Bizarro day on Fivethirtyeight.com, so I just had to let my true political feelings be known…
Sphere: Related ContentAs an avid John McCain supporter, I must say that all this vice presidential nonsense is distracting us from the truly important issues facing the next American president. And that is, whether the next Leader of the Free World will be a genuine war hero or a junior Senator who recently visited Pearl Harbor in order to buy a snow cone (which he prefers to call “shave ice”). His colors of choice? Lime green, guava orange, and communist red!
Naturally, I am in no ways questioning Mr. Obama’s patriotism; however, I have always felt that is the responsibility of the leading candidates for the presidency of this country ensure that the great red, white, and blue are always given their proper respect. I have no doubt that John McCain would have purchased a snowcone with cherry-pie red, vanilla white, and blueberry blue flavors.
Americans deserve an American President who will not disrespect the veterans and POWs (did I mention that John McCain is a POW?) who died for our country with their choice of anti-American snow cone flavorings.
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 am
Great piece, Joe! Much better than Theda Skocpal’s, imo.
But don’t we, following Ken Wilber’s lead, need to go deeper than this? If we do, we begin to realize sooner or later that our two-party, political system is no longer adequate for the realities we now face. For example, the Democratic party is no longer actually a party so much as a coalition of parties trying, not very successfully, to work together. When Obama speaks out for Change, Green Democrats may be energized, but Orange Democrats are more likely to become nervous, if not even troubled, by what he might mean.
It’s very difficult to come up with a positive stance that the party as a whole will rally around, and that’s becoming increasingly the case even for the Republican party. As much as any entity needs to have a positive sense of where it is going, that’s becoming increasingly unworkable in politics, hence the increasing recourse to negative politics.
The emphasis on red-white-and-blue patriotism by the Republican party has taken on a negative, as well as a positive meaning, namely, that Democrats aren’t patriotic. Republicans as a whole may be in disarray about what they are for (for example, for Bush or not), but they still know what they’re against. And vice versa for Democrats. Isn’t whoever wins this election certain to inherit a very divided country?
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 am
Excellent points. I agree with what you say, though I think that the green Democrats are going to be disappointed with Obama and the amber Republicans with McCain. Obama and McCain both have the potential to help America bridge many of the divides and elevate our political discourse. Unfortunately, only one of them has been running anything close to an intellectually honest campaign so far, which is rather discouraging.