David, did you ever try your hand at political speech writing? You matched up a tumultuous moment in time with a poetic description and an aspirational call to action, all with an eye toward history.
I’ll bet you could go far with that and your candidates would blaze to glorious victory on the wings of your words. Mild-mannered Substack author by day, king-maker extraordinaire by night.
Just saying. The unexamined life is not worth living, and the country could use a few sane folks to keep the ship of state from running off the rails, if I may mince a metaphor.
I haven't, although I almost took a job doing exactly that after the Times fired me. Thanks for your kind words, that was very uplifting to read. I wasn't sure this piece would resonate with folks. And in fact, I felt the same way about my recent letter exchange with Ben Carlson, "On Conversion," yet folks loved it. So I might be a good writer, but I'm clearly not a good predictor of what will resonate. Maybe I should just think less and write more.
Of course, If you took my advice, some would surely call you a shill, an amoral hired gun, a money-grubbing sell-out and much, much worse, all well deserved.
The difference I find with your writing is that your writing clearly displays that you put so much thought into it. Your column is as If you put more thought per written word on the page than other writers. You would never phone in even a prepositional phrase. Your writing comes across as well-crafted having thought hard about issues from many angles, so the end result is clear and concise. I mean this as the highest compliment.
Thanks, Kurt. I take it as the highest compliment. And I do put thought into my writing. Often, what you end up reading is a conversation I've been having with myself for days or weeks.
You wrote, “the offensive and often racist rhetoric of the far-right populist Hubert Humphrey.” Did you mean George Wallace? Hubert Humphrey may have been a chunky White boy, but I don’t think anyone ever accused him of racism or being far right.
Right, there is the story about Hubert Horatio Humphrey going to LBJ’s ranch to interview for the veep slot. LBJ took HHH to shoot game. He was a dove on the war but wanted the job. If he didn’t shoot he wouldn’t get the job. So with tears streaming down his face, as he told it, he shot those critters, not quite the gun-weilding far-right populist.
A major difference between Vietnam War protests (of which I was one) and pro-Palestinian demonstrations is that in the 1960’s and 70’s there were very few (maybe none) Vietnamese protesting. Today, THOUSANDS of Arabs and Palestinians are here, in this country protesting against a war the US is not fighting.
David, did you ever try your hand at political speech writing? You matched up a tumultuous moment in time with a poetic description and an aspirational call to action, all with an eye toward history.
I’ll bet you could go far with that and your candidates would blaze to glorious victory on the wings of your words. Mild-mannered Substack author by day, king-maker extraordinaire by night.
Just saying. The unexamined life is not worth living, and the country could use a few sane folks to keep the ship of state from running off the rails, if I may mince a metaphor.
I haven't, although I almost took a job doing exactly that after the Times fired me. Thanks for your kind words, that was very uplifting to read. I wasn't sure this piece would resonate with folks. And in fact, I felt the same way about my recent letter exchange with Ben Carlson, "On Conversion," yet folks loved it. So I might be a good writer, but I'm clearly not a good predictor of what will resonate. Maybe I should just think less and write more.
Of course, If you took my advice, some would surely call you a shill, an amoral hired gun, a money-grubbing sell-out and much, much worse, all well deserved.
The difference I find with your writing is that your writing clearly displays that you put so much thought into it. Your column is as If you put more thought per written word on the page than other writers. You would never phone in even a prepositional phrase. Your writing comes across as well-crafted having thought hard about issues from many angles, so the end result is clear and concise. I mean this as the highest compliment.
Thanks, Kurt. I take it as the highest compliment. And I do put thought into my writing. Often, what you end up reading is a conversation I've been having with myself for days or weeks.
You wrote, “the offensive and often racist rhetoric of the far-right populist Hubert Humphrey.” Did you mean George Wallace? Hubert Humphrey may have been a chunky White boy, but I don’t think anyone ever accused him of racism or being far right.
Maddog, yes, George Wallace. Good grief. Thanks for the copy edit. Corrected!
Right, there is the story about Hubert Horatio Humphrey going to LBJ’s ranch to interview for the veep slot. LBJ took HHH to shoot game. He was a dove on the war but wanted the job. If he didn’t shoot he wouldn’t get the job. So with tears streaming down his face, as he told it, he shot those critters, not quite the gun-weilding far-right populist.
A major difference between Vietnam War protests (of which I was one) and pro-Palestinian demonstrations is that in the 1960’s and 70’s there were very few (maybe none) Vietnamese protesting. Today, THOUSANDS of Arabs and Palestinians are here, in this country protesting against a war the US is not fighting.
good point
In 1950 Richard Nixon was elected United States Senator from California, not a “state senator “.
Thanks, RGL. Updated.