my last ever post on this topic, cross my heart and hope to die
Marty Peretz, in a post sweetly titled “Please God, Do Bless America and Rescue Us From These Swilly People!”, has this to say about the fact that — like Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and John McCain — Sarah Palin brought her entire family to the convention, including Trig (whom Peretz refers to as “the softly adorable five-month old Down’s Syndrome baby”) and pregnant Bristol: “Is there nothing private anymore?”
God rescue us from swilly writers who use Down syndrome as an adjective for people. Advocacy communities across the country are cringing. People first language, please.
— Julana · Sep 6, 01:37 AM · #
Huh? I don’t get it.
Are you criticizing or approving him? Is it the fact that he implies Trig especially should have been hidden from view, which I find kind of disgusting?
— PEG · Sep 6, 07:43 AM · #
Sorry, PEG — I just thought it a irresistibly ironic that, after press’s speculative feeding frenzy about every detail (real or imagined) of Palin’s personal and family life, Peretz blames Palin for violating proper standards of privacy. And her crime is that she did exactly what all the other candidates did: think of the vast crowd of Bidens and McCains that we saw on stage. Which can only mean that Peretz thinks Bristol and Trig uniquely shameful and worthy of being hidden.
— Alan Jacobs · Sep 6, 11:53 AM · #
I thought the same, about the irony of the article, but wasn’t sure if you were being ironic or not.
— Julana · Sep 6, 02:08 PM · #
Right. Agreed.
— PEG · Sep 6, 02:09 PM · #
But decided you were, after remembering remarks on the disturbing tone political dialogue has taken.
— Julana · Sep 6, 02:10 PM · #
A lecturer at Harvard University and proprietor of a venerable political magazine is of the view that a convention of the political opposition is a ‘rotten crowd’ trading in ‘malign hysteria’ and properly compared to what is fed to pigs. He says this in a public forum and appends his name to it. Yet another sketch for the ongoing series, Declining Standards of Classiness.
— Art Deco · Sep 6, 02:15 PM · #
On a marginally related note I’d like to write a shoutout to Ezra Klein. Sullivan basically lives in a world of self-induced hallucination, and Matt Yglesias, while he hasn’t nearly gone off his rocker in comparable proportions, has nevertheless become more shrill and biased in his new partisan job, and is no longer a pleasure to read.
Meanwhile I just went over to Ezra’s blog, and it was just really really good. I agreed with practically everything I read, and what I didn’t agree with was fact and data-based, thoughtfully argued in good faith.
He calls Mitt Romney an insincere tool — and as I understand it, “Insincere Tool” was the motto of the Romney ’08 campaign. He zings McCain for adopting Republican orthodoxy and the GOP for talking up the mantra of reform while refusing to reform itself, which is definitely fair enough (in fact, I could see R&R making the same argument). Etc. etc.
Paradoxically, while I didn’t read too much of Ezra before because he seemed too, well, left-wing, in this crazy election season he seems like a bastion of sanity and moderation — even though I’m pretty sure he’s farther to the left than Yglesias and Sullivan.
Honestly, I admire him for that, because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be as cool-headed as he is under the same circumstances.
— PEG · Sep 6, 07:00 PM · #
Let me provide a crucial piece of context: Marty Peretz is insane. I’m sure Alan is aware of this, but perhaps others on the conservative side don’t bother to keep track of TNR Kremlinology. If you did, though, you’d know that Peretz disagrees with the rest of the TNR staff (save Jamie Kirchick) on virtually every issue, and that his posts on TNR’s main blog used to get everyone so riled up that his writing was eventually banished to his own page. He’s the former owner and the nominal editor-in-chief, but he’s a fringe character. And he’s no leftist; please do not assume that he speaks for any faction of the Democratic mainstream.
— haighterade · Sep 6, 07:13 PM · #
look..if Palin was truly a good mother she would have waited until Bristol was married to run.
its that simple.
what 5 months pregnant teenager wants to be crucified in the press for her mom’s ambition?
— matoko_chan · Sep 7, 12:51 AM · #
Frankly, after reading about Sully’s “viral load” and his “husband” the last few years, I suspect stool samples will soon become the topic for polite conversation…
— moose · Sep 7, 02:11 AM · #
if Palin was truly a good mother she would have waited until Bristol was married to run.
Um, how does that work with the vice-president slot? I don’t see a lot of choice for Palin in terms of the timing. AFAICT her only other choice was to say No and hope that she’d have another chance (certainly no guarantees there).
— kenB · Sep 7, 02:17 AM · #
You’re totally right, haighterade — Marty Peretz isn’t representative of anything these days, perhaps not even himself.
— Alan Jacobs · Sep 7, 02:20 AM · #
Putting scare quotes around the word husband because Andrew Sullivan is a man is pretty low, even for how things have gotten.
— Freddie · Sep 7, 02:43 AM · #
“Putting scare quotes around the word husband because Andrew Sullivan is a man is pretty low, even for how things have gotten.”
Why?
— Art Deco · Sep 7, 03:31 AM · #
Because Andrew is, in fact, married.
— Freddie · Sep 7, 03:49 AM · #
“Because Andrew is, in fact, married.”
That is the scary part.
Boiled frog syndrome, Freddie.
— moose · Sep 7, 07:44 AM · #
“McCain’s treatment of Palin is increasingly one of the most sexist displays I’ve ever seen in national politics.” — Andrew “Nuprin” Sullivan, entertainer.
— JA · Sep 7, 04:17 PM · #
It’s funny how blog credibility is conferred. Glenn Reynolds, whose entire contribution to our political discourse can be summed up as “Heh. Indeed,” is a widely-read superstar. Andrew Sullivan, whose appeal I never understood when he was an excitable somewhat-heterodox conservative, is just as incomprehensible a phenomenon as an excitable somewhat-heterodox liberal. Meanwhile, this blog—along with Ross’s, one of the few on the right I find readable and edifying—still flies under the radar. The internets are weird.
Since I’ve already anointed myself Spokesman for Teh Left once in this thread, I might as well do so again. I’ll make you guys an offer: we’ll give you Andrew Sullivan back, and we’ll let you keep Marty Peretz and Chris Hitchens, if you let us keep John Cole. Deal?
— haighterade · Sep 7, 07:38 PM · #
“I’ll make you guys an offer: we’ll give you Andrew Sullivan back, and we’ll let you keep Marty Peretz and Chris Hitchens, if you let us keep John Cole. Deal?”
No way. Sullivan, Peretz, and Hitchens are yours, forever. And no deals. We are TAKING Joan Didion and Edward Luttwak back.
— Art Deco · Sep 7, 11:32 PM · #
Is Sullivan trying to buy Alan off? A little suspicious that he takes a breath from the politics of Palin destruction to link to it now (j/k!)…
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/original-sin.html
I am sure it’s a great book; I have only read The Narnian of Alan’s, but it was excellent.
— kab · Sep 7, 11:39 PM · #
I have to extend Andrew Sullivan a measure of forgiveness for his post on Palin’s choosing to have and raise a child with Down syndrome.
P.S. This week, he’s not using Down syndrome as an adjective. He can change. Yes, he can. Good for him.
— Julana · Sep 8, 11:41 AM · #