Wednesday, July 17, 2019

#198 / Why We Climb The Mountain



According to an article in Vox, President Obama "really, really, really" hated New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who is pictured above. What was Obama's beef with Dowd? That her political commentaries were focused on personality, not policy. 

Based on Dowd's column in the July 14, 2019, edition of The Times, I bet that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may not be that happy with Dowd either. Dowd's column was headlined, "Scaling Wokeback Mountain." As Dowd begins the column, she describes her recent visit to the gym, where her workout on a spin bike exposed her to the thoughts of a video peleton instructor: 

You climb the mountain to see the world. You don’t climb the mountain so the world can see you.

You are correct if you surmise that Dowd is suggesting in her column that Ocasio-Cortez has climbed the mountain of political success for exactly the wrong reason. 

Having recently written on the "politics of forgiveness," in which I deeply believe, I would like to suggest that we all practice a little forgiveness for Ocasio-Cortez. Let's forgive her recent comments about Nancy Pelosi, in which Ocasio-Cortez essentially called Pelosi a racist. This was not Ocasio-Cortez' finest moment, but I would like to hope that she will figure that out and that Ocasio-Cortez will learn from her mistakes, as we all must learn from our own. I note that Bernie Sanders seems to echo this sentiment.

On the other hand, I think we need to show a little forgiveness to Pelosi, too. Many people, including Sanders, didn't really like the way that Pelosi struck back at Ocasio-Cortez. If you can get through the paywall, to read Dowd's column, see if you don't agree with her. Dowd is advising the Democrats, from Bernie Sanders' revolutionaries to the backers of Joe Biden, that the leaders of the Democratic Party, from all of the various perspectives, need to be able to forgive each other, and to work together. If they can't - if they don't - we all know what will happen!

That's not a pretty thought!! 


Image Credit:
https://www.vox.com/2015/2/11/8019227/obama-maureen-dowd-axelrod


No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comment!