Diary of a Mad Editor

Archive for the ‘Happy Horseshit’ Category

The Politics of Fear, Loathing and Division

One of the more absurd moments of this campaign season, for me, was during the second Presidential debate, when John McCain attempted to recast himself as a modern-day Teddy Roosevelt. What made it so absurd is that the Republican Party has, over the last 40 years, gradually lost its mind, its heart and its soul. I’m sure if T.R. were alive today to see what has become of his Grand Old Party, he’d be furious and sick at the sight of it. Ever since Nixon gave voice to the “Silent Majority” and lobbed the first bombs in what has come to be known as the “Culture Wars,” we’ve seen this country divided more dangerously and saliently than at any time since the Civil War. Even during the Reagan Era, the country wasn’t as divided as it is today.

Then along comes a smart, relatively young, capable, multi-racial candidate in the guise of Barack Obama who has made a career out of the idea of political and cultural reconciliation and has, in fact, staked his whole candidacy on the notion that the American people are ready for that to happen.

And he was doing swimmingly until John McCain decided to whip out the old Republican book of down and dirty campaign strategy when it became clear he couldn’t win this election on the merits of his own policy positions and ideas. Over the past several weeks, John McCain, his VP selection Sarah Palin, his surrogates and an army of ultra-conservative right wing pundits have unleashed an almost unprecedented litany of attacks on Obama characterized by words, images and tactics that seek to demonize and de-Americanize him.

It’s sad, really. Sad for this country and by extention, for the world. Even though the Republican playbook has a track record of winning elections for conservative candidates, it has an abysmal record for accomplishing anything good for the country. The last eight years are the surest proof of this. The politics of fear, loathing and division hasn’t solved one major problem or made a single person’s life better. It has produced a more cynical, apathetic electorate and a generation of politicians who talk to the citizens they serve as if they were a bunch of children instead of speaking to them like adults. This isn’t the democracy we were promised in our youth. This isn’t the democracy true patriots have fought and bled and died for throughout our short, but tortured history. It is, instead, a betrayal of that promise of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” An act of the most scurrilous form of treason.

He Must’ve Written His Story in Crayon

I think I mentioned in a blog awhile back that editors of literary magazines gossip about writers just like writers trade gossip about editors. Yes we do. We chat about writers we like and writers who are difficult, dreadfully untalented or a few cans short of a six-pack. And so, it wasn’t much of a surprise when Cindy Rosmus, editor of Yellow Mama emailed me today to ask me if I’d ever heard of a guy named Dean Grondo:

John:
Attached is the correspondence between me & this complete asshole whose story I rejected on 9/4.
Ever hear of this jerk?
If not, be forewarned!

I hadn’t heard of him. Cindy was irked to say the least about a rude response to a rejection she’d sent him. Apparently, he’d submitted a story. I haven’t read the story so I cannot attest to the fairness of the initial rejection — although, knowing Cindy, I suspect she had good reason to give the man the big kiss-off:

Dear DC:

Thanks for sending “You Have God to Be Kidding.” Sorry, but I can’t use it for YELLOW MAMA.
Good luck placing it elsewhere.

Sincerely,

Cindy Rosmus,

YELLOW MAMA

But, this guy responded with the following:

Every 6 weeks it’s the same fucking thing! I send these goddamned “What happened to my story?” flares out to you incompetant assholes who wouldn’t know how to publish a fucking Bazooka Joe gum wrapper! So: WHERE’S MY STORY?! DID YOU USE IT? WHERE’S FUCKING THE MONEY!? Due to time constraints I’m forced to use this form letter and I offer my apoligy for this.
Dean Grondo

PS: YOU GOT MY ADDRESS FOR THE MONEY?!

Nice, huh . . . Way to impress an editor, guy. Seriously, I don’t know what I find more insulting — his tone or the fact that he seems to be an illiterate fucktard.

Cindy responded:

Dear DC:

Check the date on this. You’ll see I didn’t wait 6 weeks, just 5 days and I am not an “incompetent asshole. ”

That is no way way to write a query letter.

Cindy Rosmus.

YELLOW MAMA

Apparently, this cretin is starting to get a bit of a reputation for this sort of behavior with editors who reject his work. One editor (who didn’t want to be named on this blog) reported his own encounter with Dean Grondo this way:

. . . he sent me something once, and I told him in a very polite way I couldn’t use it, and he called me, quote: ”An unprofessional faggot punk.” I told him, he was an unprofessional asshole, and he replied ”You wouldn’t say that to my face.”
To which I replied, ”Oh, yes, I WOULD.”
Stay clear of him. I think he is unbalanced. “

Unbalanced? Who knows? But he’s certainly not an uncommon occurence in the small press and he’s certainly not original. What he is, truly, is dumb, dumb, dumb. Just a widdle ole baby kicking and screaming in his widdle ole baby bedding. And that’s too bad. It’s counter-productive for any writer to take a rejection personally. Getting one rejection from an editor doesn’t necessarily mean that everything you will submit to that editor will be rejected in the future. So, who really loses when a writer, having gotten a rejection, responds with an insult? The editor? No. Hell no! An editor has plenty of material to choose from, so he doesn’t need your work in particular. He will just stick your name on his personal blacklist and probably warn other editors about your dumb ass — and they’ll tell 2 editor friends and they’ll tell 2 editor friends and so on . . . and so on . . . . You will get the reputation for being an asshole. Even if you are a decent writer, you will eventually get to a point where almost no one will read your work. And if you are a shit writer and you have the personality to match . . . well, you see my point, don’t you. So let that be a lesson to you, Dean Grondo. Were I you, I’d write a nice, long apology letter to Cindy and any other editor you’ve ticked-off with plenty of ass-kissing and groveling. Blame your behavior on an aneurysm or a personality disorder. Who gives a fuck? Just get your mind right if you want to be a writer and be taken seriously and respected.

McCain Needed to Beat Obama to the Pavement, But All He Did Was Knock Himself Out

If McCain had a chinaman’s chance of winning this election (and I really can’t see it), it rested largely on his performance in the three debates. He had to do a number of things: He had to make Obama seem like an unacceptable choice for President. He had to make himself out to be the clear choice for President. He had to completely sever himself from George W. Bush’s record. And, lastly he had to connect with average Americans on the core issues affecting their lives. Sadly for McCain the third time was not the charm.

Instead of presenting a cogent argument for his candidacy, John McCain invoked the name “Joe the Plumber” a number of times and attacked Obama on William Ayers and Acorn and taxes and the usual Republican talking points. Obama, for his part, provided a reasonable explanation of these tangential relationships. McCain tried to turn it around by making himself seem like the victim of negative attacks, whining about John Lewis’ comments comparing the McCain-Palin playbook to George Wallace’s and accusing Obama of negative attacks seeming hurt and angry at the injustice of it all. I don’t think this will play well with most voters. There is no logical comparison between Obama’s negative attack ads on policy issues and McCain’s false character assassinations. Nor did McCain disavow the wingnuts of his party — rather, he embraced them.

McCain didn’t really distance himself from George Bush either, though he tried. He got one good zinger in there about that, suggesting that “if [Obama] wanted to run against Bush, [he] should have run against him four years ago.” Nice line, but then, a moment later Obama pointed out that McCain’s policies are clearly more like Bush’s than not. McCain said nothing about his own plans for the country that contradicted this, and for the second time he failed to deny that his health care plan essentially includes a new tax on benefits. McCain also stepped in it, tangling with Obama on the abortion issue. McCain has, throughout his career, had a reputation for being anti-woman. His ill-conceived choice of Sarah Palin and the manner in which she’s serviced his campaign hasn’t really helped his credibility. His extreme pro-life stance and the manner in which he argued it during this last debate was nothing if not condescending and hurtful to women. Consider that most women in this country are pro-choice and that all women, regardless of their stance on abortion have a big stake in health policies that affect their bodies. A male politician cannot afford to be seen as a cranky misogynist when talking about women’s issues. Even George Bush was saavy enough to know how to talk about Roe v. Wade without coming across as a hater.

Obama, with his usual zen calm, didn’t fight to knockout or humiliate McCain. Again, he didn’t really have to. All he had to do was look presidential, take apart McCain’s often testy and ludicrous attacks and let McCain run his mouth empty. Obama was there to maintain his lead. McCain was there to argue for his political life. He didn’t make the sale. I believe if there was a knockout to be had in this debate, McCain knocked himself out. McCain’s people are probably counting on the “Bradley Effect” to salvage their guy’s hopes after tonight. I don’t think the “Bradley Effect” will have much of an effect. I think if it applied this year, than Obama would’ve lost the primary to Hillary and any residual racism is probably already reflected in the polls (i.e. if you’re a racist, you’re probably already in the bag for McCain).