Golf – I don’t do it. I might even go so far as to say that I have an aversion to it. I am at an age at which the time and money needed to bring me from a fumbling novice to someone other people might actually want to play with is prohibitive. That, and it seems very bourgeoisie to me. Give me the ocean, give me the mountains and I will leave the country clubs to you.
Despite my aversion, I do enjoy the word ‘mulligan.’ It’s essentially a do-over. From Merriam Webster: a free shot sometimes given a golfer in informal play when the previous shot was poorly played. I love the last part – ‘when the previous shot was poorly played.’
We are approaching a transition in our country from the man who is viewed as one of the worst, if not the worst, President we have ever had to…someone else. Bush’s job ratings are bad, really really bad. Let’s just say ‘America, that shot was poorly played – Mulligan anyone?!?’
McCain would like to think he is different, better perhaps. Therefore, we have a national game of ‘Avoid Bush Like the Plague’ going on in the GOP. Unfortunately for Old John McCain he is losing. McCain is not a mulligan. He is par for the course, the GW Bush Course to be exact. It is a country club for out-of-touch Washington elitists drunk on their own power and certain that, through their ongoing machinations, they can bend public opinion to their will. McCain will tee off right next to the spot at which Bush walked off and continue his policies of international ineptitude and domestic deception. Perhaps Scott McClellan, former Bush Press Secretary, says it best in his upcoming book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, when he talks about the way the Bush administration handled the Iraq war and ominously foreshadows the means by which McCain will attempt to keep us on the same course:
Having gotten this far by vigorously seeking to manipulate public approval to our advantage – most notably in our political propaganda campaign to sell the war – we assumed the same approach would continue to work in our favor and help us overcome any challenges ahead.
We should all be terrified that so many within the Bush inner-circle have since come forward with their regrets and confessions and each is painted as “disgruntled.” Moreover, we should expect nothing better from McCain: same plan, same tactics, same endless display of triple bogeys and same old excuses for such poorly played shots.
We can have our mulligan though, our fresh start. We can address our wrongs, accept responsibility and make a new plan focused on peace and international relations. Don’t get me wrong here – I am not an America-hating liberal. We have done many things correctly, admirably and we deserve respect and recognition for our successes just as much as we deserve chastisement for our failures, but we must move beyond the Bush-McCain model of denial and deception. We can view the world as one people and treat all with respect. That is a true showing of power and confidence.
Contrary to the loud cries of the minions of Bush-McCain, the rest of the world does not hate us. There are certainly those out there who do, but many are waiting for a time when the US will once again be cooperative and collaborative in our policies and actions. Nations such as Germany see great promise in a new leadership in America:
After the Bush era, Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democrats can easily imagine working together with a liberal Democrat in the White House. And Norbert Röttgen, chief whip for the Christian Democrats in parliament, sees Obama as the messenger of a new wave of politics that could also provide a model for Germany.
“Germany is Obamaland,” says Karsten Voigt, the German government’s coordinator for trans-Atlantic relations. He says Germans see the African-American senator as a kind of “mixture of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.”
He’s perceived here as peace-loving and cooperative, and those are the kind of traits Germans admire in a foreign politician.
We can admit our poorly played shots, admonish our war-mongering Bush-McCain leaders and move forward with a new vision and a stronger bond with our allies. We can embrace peace and cooperation without feeling insecure about emasculating ourselves on an international stage.
And that is a large part of what the last eight years have been about, insecurity. Will it be considered ironic that a President, GW Bush, who focused so much of his attention on making us secure really exposed all of our national insecurities for everyone to see? The Bush-McCain model is akin to the man next to you at the red light with the really big and really loud truck who is revving the engine for everyone to hear. What is he compensating for and, better yet, what were we?
Bush-McCain acolytes scowl and hurl accusations of weakness at concepts such as talking with both your allies and your enemies. These are the heretical ways of pansies, wusses if you will. Bush-McCain will not tolerate those of us who wish to pause and thoughtfully ruminate over a situation. We will be labeled as weak, meek and geek.
There was an interesting article about nerds and geeks in the New York Times recently. David Brooks made the point that:
George Bush plays an interesting role in the tale of nerd ascent. With his professed disdain for intellectual things, he’s energized and alienated the entire geek cohort, and with it most college-educated Americans under 30.
I believe he is correct. Bush-McCain is the old, over compensating and irrational ways to which we must turn our backs. We don’t have to go on suffering for their sins. Those of us viewed as weak, meek and geek can use our gray matter and give a fresh new perspective to the challenges that lay ahead.
We have suffered through a few really poor rounds, but we now have the chance to take our mulligan. We can admit that our last shot was piss-poor and get our do-over. We are not asking that people forget that last shot – just that we get a chance to try again, a chance to prove ourselves.
Is that weak? Is that meek? Is it geek? I see no weakness in taking such action, but I am willing to admit that, since we will be relying more on our minds than our brute strength, it is a little geek. I am okay with that. I am really okay with that.
Brooks was correct in his column on nerd and geekdom, “For as it is written, the last shall be first and the geek shall inherit the earth.”
I’m okay with that too.
Mulligan anyone??
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