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"The stream of Time, irresistible, ever moving, carries off and bears away all things that come to birth and plunges them into utter darkness, both deeds of no account and deeds which are mighty and worthy of commemoration. . .Nevertheless, the science of History is a great bulwark against the stream of Time; in a way it checks this irresistible flood, it holds in a tight grasp whatever it can seize floating on the surface and will not allow it to slip away into the depths of Oblivion. "
- Anna Comnena (1083-1153), The Alexiad
"I have taken all knowledge to be my province."
- Francis Bacon, 1592
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Hemmed In?
Regarding Laurence Haas: A Democratic President would be far less hemmed in than he asserts. Remember, there is a long history of campaigning this way - Woodrow Wilson "kept us out of war", Roosevelt ran as a peace candidate in '40. When the rubber hit the road, both did what they had to and are known as great statesmen and military leaders today, not for their anti-war rhetoric during political campaigns.
As for the current crop of "anti-war candidates", while it's kind of cynical to say their campaign rhetoric will mean nothing when we're faced with the need to "project force abroad", it's also reassuring to realize that the current Democratic candidates are, well, lying, even if they are getting credit for being "the candid truth tellers". (Ok, Dennis Kucinich exempted: He's sincere).
Just take Al Gore (please) - today he sounds as rabid anti-War Left as the rest of them, but during his actual career, he employed people like, well, Lawrence Haas. Right now the Dems are just saying what the "Netroots" demand to hear. Is this behavior corrosively destructive to our civic discourse? Yes. But it doesn't have as many real foreign policy implications as people who are taking them at their word believe.
At least I hope that's true. To the extent to which they're sincere, instead of cynically playing to the "netroots" base, we're in trouble. But then they'd be "hemmed-in" whether they spoke this way during silly season or not.
