Public policy, social issues, gender politics, religion, civitas, and other taboo topics fall under the hammer of Shava's iconoclasmic force of natural philosophy.
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The next governor of Massachusetts...
Monday, May 16, 2005
9:02 AM
If I had a reasonable denomination greenback for every time I heard Deval Patrick's name and Barack Obama's in the same scentence last weekend at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention, I might be able to give as big a contribution to his campaign as he deserves from my extremely modest coffers.
The comparison is apt, but facile.
Yes, Patrick is a handsome, youthful, vital, eloquent and charismatic man with a lot going on "on the issues" and a firm hold on the Politics of Hope.
He's a child of a single mother in the Chicago ghetto, black, a civil rights activist, and a pragmatic progressive -- as are most Massachusetts Democrats.
He's also an intellectual, a Harvard lawyer, a former Clinton appointee, and has been on Coke's and Texaco's executive committees and boards.
He embodies a bridge across the gulfs that often divide electorate and society -- or at the very least, the factionalism of the Massachusetts Democrats.
What makes him so effective a bridge and not simply subject to sniping from the centrists and progressives?
Deval Patrick is one of those rare people who can speak to the whole human. When you hear him in person, you believe that he is grounded in reality, yet he is exciting, he is speaking truth to power, he makes your heart leap, he says things you would have said had you found the words, and he speaks from values that transcend so many of the petty differences that neurotically divide us. It was divine.
A transcript can not do him justice. He is a treat to hear. The Massachusetts Democrats dutifully -- and often enthusiastically -- clapped and cheered for Kennedy and Dean. Patrick had them responding in one voice, and he brought them to their feet.
I am old enough to remember Bobby Kennedy. Let's make that comparison instead.
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