Optimism and Cynicism

Some Canadian and American friends have asked for my opinion on the upcoming US Presidential election. What do I think Obama’s chances are?  Isn’t it going to be a Landslide for the Democratic party, given the disaster that Bush has proven to be? Do I think I might return to the US after it’s gone back to being a country more in tune with my beliefs and values?

While for some I may seem unenthusiastic or even pessimistic, I have to admit that my first response has been that I think the outcome is a toss-up. While I’m hopeful that Obama and Biden will win in November, I remember all too vividly how it was to be stunned in 2000 by Bush taking the oath of office, and shocked again in 2004 (no, that time it was more like we were all in mourning) when he was reelected. How could more than half of the American public be so blind, twice? (More about that in a bit). Being a long-suffering Red Sox fan during their drought of World Series victories and agonizing defeats to the Yankees that lasted the lifetime of my mother-in-law (she was born the year after their Word Series win in 1916 and died before they won it again in 2004), I’m no stranger to the despair of an unexpected defeat. Perhaps I’m just doing my best to guard against that pain a third time in a row.

Republicans, like the Yankees, are Good at Winning

If a win for the Democrats is not a certainty, does that mean that McCain and Palin can win? I’m reminded that the GOP is very, very good at winning elections. (As Howard Dean used to say that it’s a pity that the Republican’s aren’t as good at governing as well as they are at getting elected). They still have tons of money from countless corporations and groups made far richer and more powerful than they were eight years ago. They are still in power and hence, have access to all sorts of advantages their opponents don’t have, and they have highly regarded experts with impressive track records like Karl Rove (either within the party or hired as consultants and lobbyists) who know how to persuade voters and perhaps even once again alter voting machines enough to gain an advantage in key swing states (Ohio, anyone?).

American Lack of Education

My belief that either party could win goes deeper than just the GOP’s recent successes (not counting the 2006 Congressional elections, but it’s worth noting that even in defeat, they still managed to hold on to enough numbers to make the Democrat’s retaking of several Congressional seats a non-issue for them; the US Congress is currently held with even lower esteem than Bush!)  I believe that for the last 20 years or so the US population has been methodically robbed of the ability to think rationally about the choice of who will govern them. With the weakening of the Public Education system that started at about the Reagan era, it is very possible that both parties — perhaps even by accident — discovered that a dumbed-down electorate was far easier to control, and hence, easier to govern. I can imagine that each group came to the same conclusion: An easily steered population would benefit their agenda. For liberals who believed that individuals deserved help from the government, this meant that people could be convinced of the worth of social programs by selling them the way that Ford or Toyota sold a new car model. For conservatives, well, we can see that the last 8 years of tax cuts (’You like tax cuts, don’t you? After all, it’s your money!’) for the richest friends of the party and military adventures (with corresponding military contractor feeding troughs) have been the direction they’ve gotten through herding the US’s citizenry.

I’m not alone in this view. Al Gore’s latest book deals not with climate change, but this very subject. It’s called The Assault on Reason.  There are also books by Richard Hofstadter: Anti-intellectualism in American Life (which ended up being very prescient, as it as the Pulitzer Prize Winner in 1963) as well as Susan Jacoby’s very recent The Age of American Unreason. There are others, but I thought it might be good to point some of the more well-known titles. There’s been a lot of ink on this particular subject.

With a public so easily influenced and turned to the advantage of whoever is the cleverer marketer, either outcome is possible. It comes down to a game of dueling commercials between the campaigns (and isn’t it appropriate that the same word ‘campaign’ applies to both the activity of selling soap as well as political candidates?)

The Press is Playing for Time

Sound cynical?  There’s more: The press has it’s own agenda, but it’s a different one. At a slightly later date after the eroding of the public education system, many news reporting organizations were bought up by a relatively small number of owners, and also placed under the entertainment budget of their respective owners’ businesses. This is particularly the case with TV News, not to mention the 24-hour cable networks. We almost take for granted the fact that The News is now clearly in the ratings business. That means that they not only have to compete for attention, but they also benefit if the Presidential race is close and people stay tuned in and engaged as long as possible. I’m not echoing the common tirade that the press has a conservative or liberal bias. Instead, they have a bias towards anything that makes the race closer, and in turn generates more ad revenue. It’s very likely that the see-sawing lead between McCain and Obama in the polls is a concerted effort by the news media to make sure that their viewers stay on the edge of their seats until November.

Perhaps it isn’t dueling commercials, but a Professional Wrestling match. It’s certainly not a debate of issues. You get the appearance of a contest, but it’s really all just theatre. Policy discussions are, well, just too boring and dry for an uneducated electorate. They want to be entertained, and in the final analysis, may end up voting for the most entertaining and telegenic candidate, and depending on how you define telegenic in this case, I don’t think that Obama’s youth and handsomeness will necessarily guarantee that he gets more votes, particularly if voters want to be reassured by an avuncular or Grandfatherly McCain. This could certainly be the case if the Republicans can once again play the fear card, and there could, of course, be another terrorist attack before the election. I’m not quite cynical enough to believe that the Republicans will stage a fake attack, or even surreptitiously notify some group of a security hole, but give me time.

So with an ignorant public that’s ruled by emotion and campaign manipulation,  organizations (like some within the GOP) that have no qualms with a little cheating here and there, and a media that mainly just wants to keep the contest exciting for as long  as possible, I don’t expect the outcome to be predictable based on real facts or situations. So, I’m optimistic, but won’t at all be surprised if the Republicans find some way of winning once more. The outcome was never anything that you or I could predict in the first place.

It’s Their Last Chance

One final thought; if the Democrats do manage to lose, they should absolutely and without any further discussion be disbanded. Sell off all the assets at a fire sale and start with a new party with a new name and all new personnel. If I was light-hearted in any of the above discourse, I’m dead serious about this. If the Democrats lose in 2008, get rid of them for good. Forget about Hillary in 2012; That’s not even an issue at that point. If an opposition party can’t win after the appalling two terms of rule by Bush and Cheney, who with all probability will go down as the worst President and Vice President in history, it doesn’t deserve to exist.

Bitter? Moi?

August Recipe: Chilled Cherry Soup

I had an idea, because I get a kick at being able to get fruits and vegetables at Granville Island Market in season and then build a meal or two around that ingredient (like the Iron Chefs, but not every dish on the menu). So I’m going to try and make this a monthly post (well, we’ll see if I can when January and February roll around, but for the time being, I think I’m probably good until November).

This month, we’ve seen a lot of blueberries and cherries at the market. Most of the cherries have been the sweet ‘Lapin’ variety, but just yesterday I saw one vendor who had Sour ‘Hungarian’ Cherries. I knew immediately that this was my chance to make the Eastern European chilled cherry soup that I remember having as a teenager. I’ve also been wanting to do my part to support the Okanagan cherry farmers, who lately have had some really tough times due to weather problems and, of course, rising fuel costs.

So here’s the recipe:

Hungarian Chilled Cherry Soup

(mostly from Joy of Cooking, with a few adjustments)

Ingredients

6 cups of pitted cherries: 4 cups sour ‘Hungarian’, 2 cups sweet ‘Lapin’.
2 cups Gewurtztraminer wine (or any other dry but interesting white wine, like an Australian or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc)
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
mint leaves and sour cream for garnish

Directions

Add half of the cherries to a large pot with 2 cups of water and the 2 cups of white wine. Bring to a boil and cook until the cherries are just tender (about 15 minutes). Purée either with a mini-blender in the pot (easiest) or separately in a food processor until it is smooth and return to the pot. In another bowl, mix sugar and cornstarch. Add some of the cooked cherry soup to it and mix until it is a smooth paste with most of the sugar and cornstarch semi-dissolved. Add that to the pot and stir.

Add the other half of the cherries, along with the lemon juice, orange juice and grated orange rind. Cook for another 10 minutes or so, for the newer cherries to get a little more tender. Taste; if it is too sweet, add lemon juice. If too sour, add sugar. Let cool and chill before serving.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some mint leaves. It can be either served as a soup before the meal or as a dessert.

We had it tonight, followed by some Turkey Schnitzel, Farfel (which is not Farfalle, the bow-tie pasta, but a barley-shaped pasta that I serve with a little butter, salt and pepper and paprika), and some cole slaw. Not 100% authentic there, but we wanted some cold cabbage for the summer night. Cucumber salad with a sweet vinaigrette and fresh dill would probably work just as well. As our (nearly) neighbor in Cambridge, Julia Child would say, ‘Bon Appetit’.

South Park Creators Get Zen (via Alan Watts)

Life is like a musical performance, suggested the philosopher and author Alan Watts. The cut-out animators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, known for their acerbic (if shrilly-voiced) cartoon South Park decided to animate his mini-lecture, to great effect:

What a remarkable little clip! I found this via the blog of another Matt,  Dancing Matt, whose YouTube videos I also admire. Good thoughts for a warm, summer morning in August.

Job Hunting and Food Shopping 101

You always hear the same thing from employment offices, career management counselors, and books like ‘What Color is Your Parachute’ (I guess it’s spelled with an extra ‘u’ in the Canadian printing): The best way to find a job is Network. So, since I finished my contract at IBM, that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing. It takes patience, perseverance, and sometimes I felt as if I was just spinning my wheels. Finally, this week, it looks like I’m starting to break through. I got a nibble here, a nibble there. Nothing permanent, and nothing that I could say is ‘The Big Break’, but it’s starting to look like I’ll be employed again, if not this month, probably next month. Don’t want to jinx it by writing any more about it at this point.

So, what have I been doing this summer (besides Networking)? There was the Gay Pride Parade (took a lot of photos of that), berry-picking on Westham Island (Tayberries and blueberries), a lecture and piano recital by Sarah Davis Buechner, my friend from childhood who is now an internationally famous concert pianist, and a bunch of meetups; one for Bloggers and another for Graphic/Web Designers. I’ve been to the Library a couple of times, but haven’t gone to the movies. I’ve been adding a lot of music to my iTunes library, partly in preparation for when CBC Radio 2’s Classical Music is snuffed out (Labor Day, I think is the day the music will die). Internet radio and my collection will sadly have to suffice until Vancouver gets a radio station that carries that sort of music (I’m not holding my breath, though).

I have been to Granville Island quite a bit; nearly daily in fact. Several vendors have begun to recognize me, and I frequently get to make some small talk with them. The other day, one of them asked if I worked on the Island (apparently people who do get a discount). Perhaps some day I will (there are quite a few businesses that are located there).

It’s taken a while, but I now know where to get the best mushrooms, who has the freshest cantaloupes and the which butcher has the best steak (or the best meatloaf). It’s really terrific to be able to find something that’s fresh, in season, and bring it home and make dinner around it. Summertime has brought bushels of cherries and blueberries to the market (and I got a cherry-pitter so that we can get many of them and freeze them for those days in February when we really need them), as well as heirloom tomatoes of every shape, size and colour combination). Seafood continues to be excellent (although sometimes pricey), and turkey is still amazingly good (and definitely not just for Thanksgiving!).

It’s been a quiet summer, but I bet that soon, it won’t be so quiet. Family will be visiting in a couple of weeks, and I’ll be very surprised if I’m not doing a commute of some sort within that same span of time.

The end of the summer is always heralded by the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition), a great big ‘county fair’ that takes place on the Eastern border of Vancouver. There’ll be another fascinating BarCamp, the self-organizing conference that this year I’m helping (a little) to organize. Soon after that is the Fringe Festival,  a couple of film festivals, the start of the Symphony’s season, and the other annual events that make for for a full year in our lives here in Vancouver.  The ongoing succession of the year’s events is a comfort, partly because of the rhythm of it, but also because there is always something to look forward to.