J. D. Salinger. Seymour or Less?

I just saw that Salinger died. He influenced me a lot in the mid-90s, when I went on a Salinger reading binge. I read most of his books back then, liked his writing style, even though the world he conjured didn't really speak to me, I liked his writing style.

I have a few bones to pick with Salinger, but will revisit that another time, since he just died. I always thought that he was his enigmatic character, Seymour. Or that he projected much of himself onto Seymour, for perhaps various reasons he wanted to keep hidden from the world.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/13773

State of the Union?

Obama and the Democrats have really dug themselves into a hole. It's amazing. They need to realize that, unlike the Republican base, who by and large will stay by their leaders so long as they keep goose-stepping to their agenda, with the Democratic base, it is built entirely in progress -- forward momentum, building a better, brighter future for all Americans. And when there is no progress, there is immediate risk of backlash. The GOP understands that if they can prevent the Democrats from getting anything done, they magically get on equal footing with the Democrats, despite their absence of an actual mandate. They keep people believing that government is good for nothing (except when it helps), and that it's the problem, not the solution. Weirdly, it creates the idea that the government is this unaccountable and alien entity, apart from "real" Americans (which embody stalwart Republican values like mandatory prayer in schools, warrantless wiretapping, endless militarism, gutting environmental protections, privatization of public assets, secret wars and sabotaging the Bill of Rights, etc.) The GOP, in their bid to demonize government, work paradoxically to make government as evil as they can -- civil rights fly out the window in favor of a centralized police state where corporate wealth is the only thing to be protected, where the rich are free to enjoy their wealth without the rest of the country having much say about it.

That's been their agenda since about 1964, and it hasn't changed. The Democrats continue to fail to realize this. Movement conservatism isn't going to work with "the enemy" (e.g., anybody that isn't them); it's why movement conservatives excel at forming Marxian blocs that don't budge an inch, forcing the Democrats to give and give and give again.

The Democrats need to do an end run around the Republicans, and grab the unacted-upon social mandate that is there, if only they had the political courage to risk going for it.

They won't do it; if they could have, they would have decades ago. They'll only pretend to do so. It's very frustrating.