The Mesi candidacy, then, is neither Heaven nor Hell. His candidacy will neither make us nor break us. I am neither exhilarated nor defeated. Yet I still do find it depressing and demoralizing if this is the best the Democratic Party has to offer. Neither Heaven nor Heaven, just some nihilistic political never-neverland.
At best his candidacy is mercenary. More mediocrity in a progressively mediocre, if not defeated democracy. And I think I’m being generous with that appraisal.
Where is his self-proclaimed “strong leadership” leading us? Down a visionless path charted by empty clichés and guaranteed by virtues which he may only have exhibited in relevant form in the boxing ring. He campaigns with slogans that rival the ads of pharmaceutical companies for vagueness, empty promise and deliriously inappropriate good cheer. But the drug ads are at least more honest in that they do now warn of side effects some of which can kill you. Mesi’s promotions do not carry such cautions with respect to the deleterious effects such minions can have on participatory democracy.
Just one more note on his claim to be an “independent voice.” What is he independent of? Certainly not the uses the democratic party would make of him. Certainly not the egregiously banal campaign commonplaces that merciless bore and alienate an already disenfranchised mass of non-beleivers in the “system.” Could meaning and language, thought and communication been any more deeply eviscerated? Stick around for the Mesi show.
Despite the picture of democracy that one could paint given the impending Mesi candidacy and all that suggests regarding our sorry state of political affairs, there are possibilities of action and thought. It’s just that the Mesi phenomenon does not point in that direction. Thus through the lens of his hopefulness and bright-eyed boyishness we cannot see such potential for a creative politics. He will join the ranks of the fledgling functionaries, some of whom, like a few of the pro athletes of recent times, may survive and make a mark for himself, carve out a career and maybe even do some good. I’m not holding my breath.
It is more likely that he will disappear among the business oligarchs or corporate-controlled careerists yet possibly some day “succeed” as a mouthpiece of some newfound elitist and autocratic cabal, kind of like George Bush. What a country!
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