Daily Blague

The cover of this week's New York Times Book Review bears the beginning of a serious essay by Michael Kinsley that pretends to review ten recent books about the state of American politics. The reviews are perfunctory in the extreme, however, sometimes consisting of no more than a sentence of comment. That's a disgrace on the part of the Book Review, perhaps, but the piece would be important wherever it appeared.

To cut to the chase, Mr Kinsley enumerates the things about American politics that need fixing. Voting machines. Electoral districts. Campaign finances. A more aggressive journalism. In the end, however, he concludes that there is only one thing that must be fixed. We need to put an end to our "enormous tolerance for intellectual dishonesty" - and for politicians who don't stand for anything but winning. The most brazen recent example that Mr Kinsley finds is the planning of the Bush campaign on the eve of the election of 2000. Fearing that Al Gore might win in the Electoral College, the campaign developed a plan for overcoming that outcome, arguing that it would be undemocratic. When in fact the election turned out just the other way, the Bushies because staunch advocates of the Electoral College.

Of all the things Bush did and said during the 2000 election crisis, this having-it-both-ways is the most corrupt. It was reported before the election and is uncontested, but no one seems to care, because so much of our politics is like that. And no electoral reform can fix this problem. Intellectual dishonesty can't be banned or regulated or "capped" like money. The only way it can be brought under control is if people start voting against it. If they did, the problem would go away. That's democracy.

When I read this, I understood something that had been bothering me. Why wasn't I paying attention to the campaigns this year? Surely they're as important as any mid-term elections could be. But I haven't had the slightest need for a campaign this time; my mind was made up before the season began. I will vote against Republican hegemony in any way that I can. And because I only have my one set of votes, it really doesn't matter to me what other people are planning to do. There is simply no news factor adhering to this election cycle. But the real reason for staying out of it is to avoid the appalling bullshit that, every once in a while, reaches up to the windows of my ivory tower. What is claiming that James Webb is unfit for the Senate because his novels have racy sex scenes in them but pure, unadulterated bullshit? Intellectual dishonesty isn't just a matter of bending the truth. It involves disregarding the concept of relevance. It short-circuits rationality. No matter how clever, it is fundamentally stupid. 

As Mr Kinsley urges, try to vote against it.