The Politics of Pablum

by Reg Green

We’re told the upcoming midterm elections are the most consequential of the decade — or our lifetimes (depending on how desperate the speaker is to be on the winning side) but you’d scarcely know it from the slogans being flung around that are of such generalized pablum that both parties could switch sides without anyone noticing. The only thing that can be said for them is that they are fully in line with the traditional inanities of their kind, like John Kerry’s “Bring it on” or the one plucked from the air by candidate Obama’s team, “Yes, we can,” which Christopher Hitchens said sounded like parents trying to potty-train a slow-learning child.