The Democratic Party has been striving to let Bernie Sanders down slowly, even as it separates him from his dream. It is like the way upper crust society in Edith Wharton’s “Age of Innocence” separates the protagonist for the scandalous woman he has fallen in love with.
Tag Archives: Presidential Primaries
Time for GOP Moderates To Go to Ground?
As the GOP reels in the wake of Trump’s victory, it might want to model itself on Edgar in “King Lear.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, King Lear, politics, Republican moderates, William Shakespeare Comments closed
The Unbearable Lightness of Donald Trump
Czech author Milan Kundera warned about how dictatorships thrive off of our forgetting. In a “Rolling Stone” article, Charlie Pierce argues that forgetting has led to the rise of Donald Trump.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Donald Trump, forgetting, GOP, history, Milan Kundera, politics, remembering, Unbearable Lightness of Being Comments closed
Trump and Gazing into the Abyss
Ted Cruz said that, if Donald Trump is the GOP nominee, we would be gazing into the abyss. For what this would be like, I turn to Milton, an expert on abysses.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, John Milton, Paradise Lost, politics, Ted Cruz Comments closed
Ted Cruz as Lucifer, “Squat Like a Toad”
After John Boehner compared Sen. Ted Cruz to Lucifer, I went looking through “Paradise Lost” to find passages that would apply. I found a particularly good one but, if you ask me, Cruz more resembles Blifil, Tom Jones’s nemesis.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bram Stoker, Dracula, Henry Fielding, John Boehner, John Milton, Julius Caesar, Lucifer, Paradise Lost, Peter King, politics, Satan, Senate, Ted Cruz, Tom Jones, William Shakespeare Comments closed
History’s Zigzagging Narratives
This Stephen Dunn points out how we see history as a series of narratives. Sometimes our heroes are those “too unhappy to be reasonable.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged historical narrative, history, politics, Stephen Dunn Comments closed
Brecht’s Working Class Revenge Fantasy
Many working class and lower middle class Americans have felt abandoned by the GOP and Democratic establishments. Bertolt Brecht’s “Pirate Jenny” articulates a revenge fantasy that captures some of their anger.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Pirate Jenny", Bernie Sanders, Bertolt Brecht, Donald Trump, politics Comments closed
An ANTidote for Apocalyptic Talk
Depressed by all the doom and gloom being voiced in the presidential primaries? Here’s a Scott Bates poem about an apocalytptic antichrist ant to lighten you mood.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "A Is for Apocalyptic Ant", politics, Scott Bates Comments closed
Is Mitt Romney a Doctor Faustus?
If Mitt Romney sells his soul for the nomination, can he get it back? Christopher Marlowe would say that it doesn’t look good.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Jane Austen, Mitt Romney, politics, Sense and Sensibility Comments closed
