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December 17, 2006
Serious Suggestions for 2007
1. Republicans: Bring back Don Rumsfeld. He's enormously talented, a national treasure, maybe indispensable. He's not evil, or a knee-jerk partisan; he correctly gets that civil rights are different in a war, and just needs to clean up his act a bit. He is a different breed than Cheney, Rice or Wolfowitz and has loads more real character and strength than Colin Powell. (Take a good look, too. Rummy "is us"--like him or not.) Forget about his age. He's too smart to waste, not ready for retirement.
2. Democrats: Consider a Joe Biden-Hillary Clinton ticket in 2008. It might work, if Senator Biden can get past certain old baggage with the voters. Hillary Rodham Clinton can't win--maybe not ever, but certainly not in 2008--and Biden has that Bill Clinton/President Bush-esque gift of connection with voters that HRC lacks and will continue to lack. A natural politician, Joe Biden actually likes other people, and it shows.
3. Consider a system of nationwide reciprocity in lawyer licensing. Let NY counsel freely invade CA if they need to to work there for longstanding clients as long as they agree to CA bar discipline.
4. Take a stand. Discourage "required" gender-neutral speech. Enough is enough. Let nature take its course. Words come into the arsenal of real English when they are ready. Quit forcing the issue. Resist "chairperson".
5. In the alternative, set aside a "required" day where everyone must smoke, smoke heavily, and smoke Camel non-filters.
6. In the alternative, set aside a day in the workplace on which everyone must talk to one another like Elvis ("thankyouvirymutch, for that e-mail, little honeys..."). And on that day, flirt in the workplace--and openly. Refuse to be a Dweeb.
7. Work very hard at anything you care about. Plan. Pray. And...swear and curse more--but only at work, and only on the record. More Howard, less Conan, less Rosie. More Parker Posey, less anyone named Brittany, Justin or other Gen X names. More Annabeth Gish. More Ellen Bry. Everyone in U.S. must acknowledge in writing that the simplest woman is 10 times more complex than any man.
8. Joking about any client is now a firing offense.
9. Stop Political and Cultural Stereotyping--and other Drive-By Cartoon-ings.
If you are a Democrat, please talk--really talk--to a Republican. And vice versa. Humans are complex and have all manner of reasons for voting or thinking the way they do. Resist the temptation to reduce people to political stereotypes in order to feel warm, fuzzy and self-righteous about your own ferverently-held beliefs, choices and situation. Be fairer. We all fall short here--even international and ecumenical WAC?, on his best day, harbors unfair prejudices and misapprehensions. Its smartest, best-read and best-travelled GOP and Dem friends do, too.
And the most gifted Americans also screw this one up royally, by conveniently reducing people with whom they disagree to cartoons and stock characters from bad morality plays. This past year one of my client reps, Julie McGuire (of Hull McGuire) and I had dinner with a wonderful and engaging poet and Pulitzer Prize winner. As he admitted, and movingly confessed, he was insular and isolated with other writers, academics and friends at Princeton and at his other home in Paris to a degree that my law partner Julie McGuire, was "the first Republican" he had talked with in many, many years. He seemed genuinely shocked (1) that he liked Julie, (2) that she was first in her class at Carnegie-Mellon in Mathematics and Business before entering law school (in which she was also first in her class), (3) that she had ever read James Joyce and (4) that she is both religious and spiritual, and very kind. Republicans, he had always felt, must be shallow, insensitive, patriotic in a goofy way, way dumb and just plain mean.
That, ladies and gentleman, is cultural insanity. And we are all doing it this decade in some degree. Americans are smarter than that. The culture war in America has become a drug too many of us need to feel Moral, Part of The Correct Sub-Tribe, and Right. Being Right is expensive, and will stunt your growth. Avoid contempt prior to investigation. Stop turning one another into cartoons. If you are a "D", start with George Bush, one of our most "American"--the good stuff/the bad stuff, warts and all--presidents ever (like Rumsfeld, Bush is us.) If an "R", re-evaluate Wild Bill Clinton, a visionary, inspirational and at heart a genuinely pro-people guy who, like Rummy, was damn funny with reporters.
10. Finally, and more importantly, Do Grow. Have a difficult but worthwhile relationshp. Read Hunter Thompson, and Francois Villon. Travel. Talk to people who aren't like you at all. Leave a legacy. Be original in some productive way. And at least play your old Yardbirds, John Mayall, Byrds and Kinks albums. Loud.
But get out of your cars and dance. Have a great 2007.
Posted by JD Hull at December 17, 2006 11:41 PM
Comments
A big "Amen" to ## 3, 5 (I would allow cigars in lieu of Camels), 6 (especially the flirting part), 7 (double-Amen for Parker Posey), and 10 -- any decent Orleanian would agree with # 10.
# 4 I take a little issue with. We should strive for sensitivity and politeness. That said, most women I know don't mind words like "chairman." (Please note that I'm taking all this seriously, including the items approved above.)
# 8 isn't a problem for me. All my clients are terrific.
# 9: I'm ashamed to say I don't have any albums by those artists. May I play my Bob Dylan and Buddy Guy albums loud?
Posted by: Ray Ward at December 15, 2006 06:06 PM
Rumsfeld . . .
JD, Rumsfeld got up everyone morning and thanked his lucky stars that one person in government was more incompetent than he was--Shrub Bush, the absolute worst President we have ever seen.
All that Rumsfeld did in Iraq was accelerate history--the end of Saddam Hussein was going to bring about a Sunni/Shiite civil war. He left office because he neither understood: (1) that was all he was doing and (2) that we--the USA--were less prepared for an accelerated history than others
And, what happened to all your suck up to the Europeans posts where your rained on Rumsfeld?
Posted by: Moe Levine at December 15, 2006 09:13 PM
Ray--Buddy Guy must be played loud. Bob Dylan, a little loud. I changed the ## on the post before I saw your comment--hope I didn't crew things up. Dan
Moe--I always liked Rumsfeld, never dissed him, and have defended him in conversations when in Europe, where I spend several weeks a year working. I just admire him--I can't say that about any other Bush person. Very accomplished guy. Dan
Posted by: Dan Hull at December 16, 2006 10:56 PM
Dan,
Only as lawyer could draw a line between Rummie and every other member of the Bush administration
It would have been interesting to see you attempt to defend him in Europe
All my best for the Holidays,
Moe
Posted by: Moe Levine at December 17, 2006 01:40 PM