Ciceronian Review

Bromwich Obama

The November 18 issue of LRB has a long article by David Bromwich on Obama and the recent election: The Fastidious President.  I am among those disappointed with the President, and Bromwich seems to have a good account of what has gone wrong with the administration and Obama's term thus far.  It is one thing not to accomplish all that was promised -- it is a political process and one expects compromises and losses  -- it i something else to rely on bad strategies and to reverse course on key policy positions.  I would put more weight on the disaster that Rahm Emanuel turned out to be as chief of staff.  Obama did no campaigning until the end of the campaign season.  He was not speaking out during the proces for adoption of health care reform.  Why no major speeches?  Why refrain from pointing out the ideas taken from Republicans, why sit int he White House and ignore the reality that it is a political process? 

What rankles most with me is the volte-face on torture and the rule of law.  Nothing there explained by trying to be above politics or post-partisan.  It is strikes me as abandoning principle, and for no other good. 

Natural Justice

I have just started reading Binmore's Natural Justice.  Any book that starts by suggesting that Kant is fraud begins well.  The Categorical Imperative, whichever of the three mutually inconsistent formulations one turns to, can stand only light examination and offers nothiing in the way of guidance.  All that talk of universalization covers up the immediate problem that universalization cannot work.  But, let's not get too high on the horse.  I stuck with the moral theory a lot longer than the metaphysics, and longer than I should have.  And, having begun with the inimitable Davey the Fat Boy Hume, it is hard to find and excuse that is creditable.  

On the other hand, Binmore, at the beginning at least, seems happy to rewrite some bits of recent intellectual history.  The bad odor of sociobiology is largely due to the completely inane deployment of evolutionary theory to justify everything that happened past the window.  The prevalence of "just so" stories was larely a collection of bad stories and a indefensible commitment to the notoion that every aspect of every social practice was justified by some evolutionary tall tale.  It took some time for the valuable elements to escape.  Well, quite a bunch of opinions for only having read about 10 pages of the book.     

The Republican Turn to Eurosquid

It appears that the, protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, the Republican Party has adopted Berlusconi as a model of politics.  Since the rise of Berlusconi, Italian politics has become the longest running theater piece in the Western World, a heady mixture of Artaud and Beckett, but in well-cut suits.  It looks like the Republican Party has followed in style.  Here in Zion we will be electing a senator who thinks we should not be permitted to elect senators.  Nevada may elect a senator who thinks it inappropriate to answer questions about policy issues until after the election.  Louisiana will elect a senator who really follows Berlusconi, hiring his own prostitutes on tax-payer dollars.  And in Alaska (the most socialist and welfare dependent state in the Union) we will get a senator who thinks no one other than his family should get federal aid.  It is like a Jules Ffiefer play.

Advertising -- someday the Demoncrats will get it into their heads that campaigns are about advertising.