Twisted Logic reflects on Colin Powell's Passing
Shawn St. Peter & Josh Ayer • October 18, 2021
Twisted Logic Reflects on Colin Powell's Passing today:
From Shawn: Colin Powell will always remain a symbol of a lost time to me. He served in the Army for 35 years, and served at Ronald Reagan’s National Security Advisor, Command in Chief, Forces Command, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of Staff. And I know many liberals are now calling him a war criminal for his roll in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but for me, I will remember him always being considered a Presidential candidate by both political parties. He was considered a potential vice-presidential candidate for both the republicans and the democrats in 1992, and didn’t declare is political party until 1995. He never wanted the presidency, and because of that, he would have been ill suited for the role. But looking back of the last 30 years, I can’t help but think about how far we have gone, from one man being possibly considered for VP by both parties to both parties being so far apart today.
From Ras: When I turned 18 in 1996, I hoped that my first ever presidential vote would be for Colin Powell. Even as I was still working out my political identity – which would span both parties over the years – I recognized and admired in him a capacity for aligning himself with directness, common sense, and logic unbound by passion or politics. In these ways, he resonated with me. Common sense notwithstanding, I just now checked to see if he, like me, was an Aries. He was.
The same traits which inspired and resonated with me also served to make General Powell a favorite among Democrats and Republicans alike. He was an exemplar of how color-blind politics should work, becoming both the youngest and first Black American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, neither because of nor in spite of his race. It was this same meritocratic standard which led to his appointment by three U.S. Presidents as Deputy National Security Advisor, National Security Advisor, and Secretary of State, as well as the popular pick for Presidential candidate and twice, for Vice President. To his credit and our loss, he chose not to run.
In the wake of his passing, I commend almost all major media outlets for their unpoliticized, non-partisan representation of General Powell. These are a visceral and, I suspect, conscious tribute to a life and career which exemplified bipartisanship and apolitical leadership. Even the Biden Administration honored him thus. Only CNN stands alone in politicizing his passing, using the loss of this great American hero as a platform upon which to reinforce their COVID fearmongering, mischaracterization of the 6 January Capitol incident, and abiding demonization of Trump and the Right Wing. This comes as no surprise.
While I may well be doing the same by mentioning CNN’s distasteful pirating of Powell’s passing, I suspect that General Powell himself would not, in the abstract, shy away from doing the same. Following his public career, he readily offered publicly both praise and criticism of the systems he felt deserved either, irrespective of political affiliation. With that in mind, then, let his life and legacy be a clarion call to voicing our rationality and refuting blind partisan- and identity politics, or we will never see his like again.
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Note – this article was written by ChatGPT. I asked it to write an explainer post for my website in the style of Malcolm Gladwell. As part of this week’s podcast, I had ChatGPT co-produce it with me. It came up with script suggestions. I asked it to help me write an explainer companion post for the website. I did not really like the first one it wrote, and so I tried asking for different types of articles, asking for a particular style(witty, snarky, etc) or well know writers (Bill Simmons, Malcolm Gladwell). The below is the one by Gladwell, which I liked the best.
I have made no edits.
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