Instead of writing anything today, I've selected some recomended reading for you to chew on. The first piece is by Kurt Anderson for New York Magazine, titled, "The Purple Party," and is about the rising tide of discontent amongst Americans with both Democrats and Republicans, and the potential for a legitimate third party challenge to the status quo.
We are people without a party. We open-minded, openhearted moderates are alienated from the two big parties because backward-looking ideologues and p.c. hypocrites are effectively in charge of both. Both are under the sway of old-school clods who consistently default to government intrusion where it doesn’t belong—who want to demonize video-game makers and criminalize abortion and hate speech and flag-burning, who are committed to maintaining the status quos of the public schools and health-care system, and who decline to make the hard choices necessary (such as enacting a high gasoline tax or encouraging nuclear energy) to move the country onto a sustainable energy track. Both line up to reject sensible, carefully negotiated international treaties when there’s too much sacrifice involved and their special-interest sugar daddies object—the Kyoto Protocol for the Republicans, the Central American Free Trade Agreement for the Democrats. Read the article here
The second piece is an essay by Ana Marie Cox of the Wonkette, titled "Lobbyists in Love," on the power couples of washington D.C. and conflicts of interest that make them interesting. I figured it's kind of relevant to our little ol' land of entrapment.
For many in Washington--Congressmen and Senators especially--being married to someone in the de facto auxiliary club of this company town means the spouse doesn't live in the city at all. A lobbyist friend (people do have them, even now) recently rattled off six current and former legislators who had come to Washington married to a "high school sweetheart type" back home and then found themselves married a second time to someone a little more "in the game"--a staff member or lobbyist, usually. My friend added, for emphasis, "Newt Gingrich has done it at least twice." People don't just want not to be "the wife"--they also don't want to be married to her.
That's because, along with whatever dream it is that brings people to Washington in the first place (universal health care, peace in the Middle East, unlimited think-tank cheese plates), one of the perks is the power marriage. Few are aiming for a truly high-wattage pairing on a par with Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn's or James Carville and Mary Matalin's. The hope is to be an equal partner in a couple where you make a difference while also making loads of money and not getting indicted, if you can manage it. Both of you don't have to be famous; you just both have to have a slot in the gigantic circuit board of connections that make Washington go. Perhaps it's less a power marriage than a power-grid one. Read the rest here
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