Khaki and Camo

June 3, 2003 10:15 AM

Paul Krugman writes that the Bush administration will fight a "khaki election" next year, taking advantage of the general good feeling after the Iraq war. The original khaki election was the British election of 1900, contested during the Boer War. Our armed forces don't really wear khaki so much anymore and I think we need a new term. I suggest calling 2004 the "Camo Election." Any better suggestions?
posted by Mekon (26 comments total)

How about the "Op/Eds-Don't-Make-Good-Posts Election"?
posted by The Michael The at 10:28 AM on June 3, 2003

Hanging Chad II...Revenge For Mommy.

oh and what The Michael The said.
posted by danOstuporStar at 10:33 AM on June 3, 2003

Well, maybe op-eds don't make good posts, but I think the article is still worth discussing.
posted by bshort at 10:34 AM on June 3, 2003

I am a big Paul krugman fan, and I actually foud this link useful, but I still have to agreee with The Michael The. Politicsfilter, or whatever, can be be done properly, but just slappin' up an editorial ain't the way.

bshort:
Maybe it would be better dropped into a thread or as part of a more robust FPP that brings more to the table than one article that a fair number of mefites will stumble across on their own today?

I don't want to derail this thread because of difference of opinion about etiquette. Joe Conasson is sort of predicting increased outrage over this. I won't believe it until I hear Bush say "I am not a war criminal."
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 10:41 AM on June 3, 2003

ease up, FPP police -- the point of the post is the last sentence. i think questions like this put the "Meta" in MeFi despite the mainstream source material. sheeeeeesh.

my suggestion -- the "Flag Lapel Pin Election." or possibly the "Bumper Sticker Election," for all those "God Bless America/Never Forget/Standing Tall/Colors Don't Run/Tumble Dry Low" ones. *shiver*
posted by serafinapekkala at 10:52 AM on June 3, 2003

I say "Lopsided Victory Election" since the Democrats can't seem to find a new candidate to electrify the populace.
posted by swerdloff at 10:57 AM on June 3, 2003

Dear God:

Please let this election be called the "One-Term George W. Bush Presidency" election.

Amen.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:00 AM on June 3, 2003

I'll go for the "wool" (as in over-the-eyes) election.
posted by carter at 11:01 AM on June 3, 2003

How about the "Ordinary Election". [link=PDF]
posted by goethean at 11:03 AM on June 3, 2003

Along the lines of Carter's suggestion, and I do think he's got a more elegant version, but still: "Sheep get sheared" election. As in all the below median income voters who vote for candidates that take their meager income and redistribute it to the rich.
posted by billsaysthis at 11:05 AM on June 3, 2003

I'll just add that I indeed am appreciative of the article, despite my feelings on whether or not it should have been posted. I think Krugman is absolutely right (and I've been saying the same for the past several months) when he says:

"It's no answer to say that Saddam was a murderous tyrant. I could point out that many of the neoconservatives who fomented this war were nonchalant, or worse, about mass murders by Central American death squads in the 1980's. But the important point is that this isn't about Saddam: it's about us. The public was told that Saddam posed an imminent threat. If that claim was fraudulent, the selling of the war is arguably the worst scandal in American political history — worse than Watergate, worse than Iran-contra. Indeed, the idea that we were deceived into war makes many commentators so uncomfortable that they refuse to admit the possibility."

ease up, FPP police -- the point of the post is the last sentence. i think questions like this put the "Meta" in MeFi despite the mainstream source material. sheeeeeesh.

There's also tumultuous internal debate about the appropriateness of questions in FPPs, Serafina, so it's not such a cut and dry issue. Perhaps the distillation of the "best of the web" into one beloved MeFi puts the Meta in Metafilter, and I doubt that this is the best of the web.

On preview: Well played, Mr. Crash Davis.
posted by The Michael The at 11:06 AM on June 3, 2003

Billsaysthis: better than the rich giving to the poor. Those Lucky Duckies!
posted by The Michael The at 11:07 AM on June 3, 2003

"general good feeling"

I'm sorry - where the hell is this good feeling you speak of? I think there's about as much "good feeling" in America right now as there is in that dolorous Violent Femmes song by the same name.
posted by scarabic at 11:46 AM on June 3, 2003

Terror Election.
posted by homunculus at 12:04 PM on June 3, 2003

my suggestion -- the "Flag Lapel Pin Election." or possibly the "Bumper Sticker Election," for all those "God Bless America/Never Forget/Standing Tall/Colors Don't Run/Tumble Dry Low" ones. *shiver*

You know something, I realize as much as anyone that patriotic sentiment can me cynically mnipulated to bad ends, and that GW Bush did just that. But at the same time, it irks me to hear honest love of country dismissed blithely like that. I have a flag pin in my lapel, along with a badge from my freinds paramedic unit. I don't plan on ever forgetting 9-11 either. maybe you ought to acknowledge that a lot of the both the anger and solidarity following 9/11 was legitimate, and try to understand it rather tahn dismiss it with your silly little "*shiver*"

While you pat yourself on the back for having all the current correct opinions, realize that it's cynical dismissive "*yawn*" attitudes like yours that turn people off from progressive politics and into the arms of the GW's of the world.

Yeah, people shouldn't base political decisions on personalites and sentiment, but let's face facts, they do. It's human nature. Your losin' us votes partner. But what do I know, right.
posted by jonmc at 12:19 PM on June 3, 2003

Yeah, people shouldn't base political decisions on personalites and sentiment, but let's face facts, they do. It's human nature. Your losin' us votes partner.

This seems pretty close to a contradiction to me.

<paraphrase>People shouldn't vote irrationally, but hey do, and that's ok.</paraphrase>
posted by goethean at 12:26 PM on June 3, 2003

I think complaining about FPP's is even more boring than op/ed links. Saying {inserttopic}filter even moreso. If you aren't interested, don't comment.
posted by McBain at 12:38 PM on June 3, 2003

a) right on, McBain.

b) The Michael The -- i am not against internal debate, but shouldn't the debate then take place internally? as for what constitutes "the best," we each have an opinion on this, that's the point. should there be a vetting process before a panel of proper hipsters to approve FPPs? argh, i am breaking my own rule...

c) jonmc -- i think you misunderstood me. substituting "flag pin" for "khaki election" was meant to indicate which *symbol* of patriotic feeling the Bush re-election team might exploit to [take] advantage of the general good feeling after the Iraq war, as the original post says. i certainly believe people wear pins or display flags, etc., as an expression of their sincere love of country, which, believe it or not, i have too. but i think this sincere love of country is being conflated with the Bush agenda in general, and the flag pins and paraphernalia have, for better or worse, taken on some of that negative meaning too, i.e. symbolizing an inflexible, conservative, pro-war, with-us-or-against-us viewpoint. i think the Bush re-election team will only try to enhance that meaning in order to secure a second Bush term. far from trying to "dismiss" patriotism, i'm saying that its meaning is being manipulated and repackaged to the electorate. i am also not saying that the "anger and solidarity" after the 2001 terrorist attacks is invalid at all -- that feeling was similarly manipulated by Bush to push his agenda (curtailing civil liberties, wrecking foreign policy, etc.), and i think the electorate is being encouraged to think about those events in the simplest possible terms. when i see a sticker that says "Never Forget 9/11 -- America, Still #1!" (and it is right outside my office window here), i don't feel a welling of pride, i feel disgusted that this is how some choose to display their pride, in terms of some myth of American global supremacy...and also disgusted that someone sold that sticker for $5.

perhaps you and i disagree about this deeper issue, and i admit my post was sort of cheeky, but i don't think it's fair for you to write me up as a silly, yawning and self-congratulatory liberal when you don't even know me -- and if you wanted me to clarify further, you could've just asked.
posted by serafinapekkala at 1:29 PM on June 3, 2003

While you pat yourself on the back for having all the current correct opinions, realize that it's cynical dismissive "*yawn*" attitudes like yours that turn people off from progressive politics and into the arms of the GW's of the world.

The idea that those opposed to the war (or on "the left", or however you want to characterize those opposed to the vibe coming out of Washington) are the only ones being "dismissive" of the other side is laughable. Bush & Co (and many of the average Americans who support him and his war) leave no room for debate. If you don't agree, you're Unamerican. It's all about which dismissive side you choose, and which side you choose to dismiss.
posted by jpoulos at 1:53 PM on June 3, 2003

I doubt that this is the best of the web.

Krugman columns are one of the few things i find myself returning to on the web without fail. if you ask me ... Matthew should add a bot and put them up as an FPP as soon as they go live at midnight EST.

Krugman has a book coming out too. FYI.
posted by specialk420 at 2:26 PM on June 3, 2003

How about "The agitprop election"? Or perhaps "The triumph of the 'Big Lie' election"?

I'm devoted to Krugman's op-ed column and tend to agree with his tightly argued positions. But this one seems a bit speculative to me. Deflation? Further terrorism? An Iraqi guerrilla war of attrition against the occupying US troops? Any or all of these events are possible (and more).

I think it's a bit early for these sort of predictions. Perhaps things will go swimmingly in the next year. Perhaps they will not.
posted by troutfishing at 3:12 PM on June 3, 2003

How about the "holy shit, I can't believe that some website called 'Metafilter' ran a successful write-in campaign for Pauly Shore" election?

It really makes you think...
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 3:22 PM on June 3, 2003

Mr. Reilly, I think that would also be known as the "Thank God For Small Favors, Such As Yahoo Serious Being Ineligible To Serve" election.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:48 PM on June 3, 2003

I long for the "all our exes live in texas" election, but my worst fears are for an asleep at the wheel election.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:32 PM on June 3, 2003

In Korea, they say 'erection.'

No, really.

I was hoping to do something with 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the Bush,' but now I'm all hot and bothered.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:32 AM on June 4, 2003

I realize as much as anyone that patriotic sentiment can me cynically mnipulated to bad ends, and that GW Bush did just that. But at the same time, it irks me to hear honest love of country dismissed blithely like that.

You know, jonmc, I think you have a point here, but I want to ask you something. Honest love of country, for me, starts to go sour when I see it morphing into nationalism; I was as affected by 9/11 as anyone, but the moment I heard people justifying the war in Iraq on the basis of, "They attacked us, we're justified in going after them" - then I saw 9/11 being turned into some sort of blanket justification for going after Arabs, any and all Arabs.

And it really pisses me off that legitimate outrage has been co-opted by pinheads who don't know the difference between Iraqis and Saudi nationals, or who couldn't care less because they're all Arabs and thus, all the same.

In the aftermath of 9/11 I got all misty at the idea of the flag. Now when I see it flying from someone's car, I think, there goes a jingo.

That might be the wrong attitude to take, but dammit, patriotism is too often being used as a cover for stupidity or racism. And as someone who tries hard not to be stupid or racist, I resent the way the flag has been hijacked.
posted by kgasmart at 10:48 AM on June 4, 2003