Category Politics

Lighten up, America

Pat Ryan Leave a comment

(You too, Canada; Mexico, you got reason to bitch…good luck).

Things are weird all the time.  “The 60s” didn’t seem strange to me because I was just the right age—not old enough for “the 50s” to have made an impression, so no frame of reference to know that political assassinations, Vietnam, Watergate and the rock ‘n’ roll were unusual.  But life in America has bounced from one weird extreme to another my whole life.

Things in America are weird today: technological advances are changing our lives daily in ways my grandparents couldn’t have imagined, while we struggle to recover from the most severe economic shock to the system since my grandparents were newlyweds; without the courtesy of a declaration of war from Congress we’re still fighting the longest war this country has ever fought, while the dysfunctional political system rewards those who shout the loudest and refuse to play nice, and the dysfunctionaler journalism system stands witlessly amidst the chaos trying to sell me today’s “ordeal” or the latest “narrative.”

And then, some nice people who’ve somehow maintained a sense of humor and a little perspective about life try to give us a break, and a giggle or two, just before the next societal convulsion, and what do they get?  A lot of criticism from a whole range of folks who just don’t get it.

The D.C. publication TBD.com had a great summary yesterday of some of the dirty bathwater being tossed at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for Saturday’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear: that they’ve crossed the line between entertainment and politics (line?), or the location is too sacred to be used in this way (Cordoba House, call for Cordoba House!), or they might offend someone (someone?).

Even when the weird is on high, a laugh can do you a lot of good…could be the best time for one.  Try it out.

Things you do when your team has a bye week

Pat Ryan 1 Comment

First thing this morning I’m heartened to see the Leonard Pitts Jr. column from yesterday’s Miami Herald, and so what if he’s piling on Christine O’Donnell for not understanding the Constitution—the point can’t be made too often that our country is in trouble if we voters don’t really think about what we’re doing when we get to the voting booth.

That this woman is a major party candidate for national office, that she is among the brightest stars of a constellation of like-minded cranks — some of them already in office — tells you all you need to know about this moment in our political life…Somehow we have forgotten the lesson we spent most of the last decade learning at ruinous cost, that faith-based governance, foreign policy by gut instinct, choosing leaders on the basis of which one we’d most like to watch television with, simply does not work.

It’s not  a question of conservative versus liberal:

…this is no conservatism Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater would have recognized. At least their ideology adhered to an interior logic. This ideology adheres to a perverse illogic which posits that the less you know, the more authentic you are. So what triumphs here is not conservatism but rather, mediocrity. The Know Nothings and Flat Earthers are ascendant.

And then while I was looking for a cartoon I saw to fill out this post, I ran into something even better—humor at the expense of our leader, in the form of a show tune!

Enjoy the lazy Sunday…the World Series, Halloween, and STS-133 are coming up the rear view mirror.

All hail the radical middle

Pat Ryan Leave a comment

I don’t write here every day because I promised myself I would try to think about things and then write rather than just explode all over the keyboard when something struck me as odd, inspiring, stupid or funny—Little League World Series developments, of course, being an exception.  And if that sets me apart from that part of the planet that’s always ready to respond to any development with the predigested talking points of some demagogue or another, I can live with that.

The more I think about this weekend’s TDS_RallyPosterRally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive, the more I think it will be a fun and educational way to remind everybody that we, the people who are not exactly pleased with everything that goes on in our government and our economy but haven’t thrown in with the extremist wingnuts du jour and want to talk about ways to make things better, are the center that holds this all together.  As the rally organizers say:

We’re looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn’t be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it’s appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles.

TCR_RallyPosterNow, I think that’s funny.  But I bet you, too, know people who wouldn’t laugh, who consider any deviation from the revealed truth to be treason and heresy, people unwilling to scrape the rust off of their imaginations for an honest discussion about possible alternatives to what they’ve told.  Leonard Pitts Jr. calls them “people who believe what they believe because they believe. Their ignorance is bellicose, determined, an act of sheer will, and there is not enough reason in all the world to budge them from it.”

Rex Huppke in the Chicago Tribune sees us as a sizeable block of Americans who are aware that the emperors on both sides of today’s partisan hissy fit are naked, and are occasionally amused by the spectacle.

…what about those folks who have remained largely on the sidelines during the campaign, chuckling at the often absurd rhetorical volleys of our feuding politicos? This could be their moment to stand up and say, “Hey. You all are acting like jerks. Cut it out.”

I’m sorry I can’t attend this weekend’s rally in Washington, D.C., but I plan to enjoy it from afar.  And I plan to keep thinking about and writing about issues that are important to our future, as Americans and as Earthlings.  A good place to start is among the ideas laid out by political consultant Mark McKinnon, who thinks we need more talk and good will in the political arena to get the radical middle into the game.

They don’t agree on every policy, but they are willing to debate on principles. And consider principled compromise. They recognize hard decisions are ahead. And neither party is stepping up to make the tough decisions.

We could use a little more sanity around here for a change.

UPDATE Oct. 20→

This was published last evening about the same time as my post; Timothy Noah argues that what is likely to happen in the rallies next weekend could feed the animus that Tea Party types feel toward the “elites,” of which he believes Stewart and Colbert will be representative in their eyes, and actually influence the elections in favor of Republicans, which Stewart and Colbert would regret politically if not professionally.

It makes a fella proud to be a Texan

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Cinderella story, comin’ outta nowhere…when you don’t expect it but can really use the boost:

It just so happens that it was a Princeton professor’s column which reminded me today that it was a Texan who stood up and declared to the world with crystal clarity nine years ago that the United States was at war, but not against a religion or its believers:

“The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.  That’s not what Islam is all about.  Islam is peace.  These terrorists don’t represent peace.  They represent evil and war.”

I fervently hope that we all remember that, and not take the easy course of venting pain and frustration on innocents who offer a convenient target.  Quite a few leaders from across the spectrum did speak up in defense of American values last week, to their everlasting credits.

Like a small group in Amarillo did on Saturday: when one of their neighbors decided to take up the cross of Quran burning (pardon the mixed metaphor), they responded with quick show of civil ingenuity:

"Any time you burn books, that’s ignorant," Danielson said.  "For us to burn their religion is showing hate."

Protesters threw their hands on the grill Grisham planned to use to burn the Quran, someone took his lighter and Isom stole the Quran, leaving him with just lighter fluid.

The would-be book burner went on about his business, the local imam offered the address of his mosque so anyone who was interested could come on by, and that was that.  Another lazy Saturday in Texas…gotta love it.

Reality check, comedy break

Pat Ryan Leave a comment

Just two quick notes on what Tunku Varadarajan cleverly calls the “belligerent unenlightenment” of a portion of the American population:

First, the former assistant manager editor at The Wall Street Journal points out that it could be worse:

I am less worried by the fact that a fifth of the inhabitants of this great country believe that Obama is Muslim than by the fact that 60 percent of them are unwilling, or unable, to accept the scientific basis of evolution….Political bias can be a fleeting sickness; profound ignorance, on the other hand, can be incurable.

And second, because it’s just too damn funny not to share, a peek at what one columnist in Great Britain (a friend from an earlier post on a different subject) has to say on the topics of 5600 foot tall mosques, spatial relationships, and trespassing at Buckingham Palace.

According to a recent poll, one in five Americans believes Barack Obama is a Muslim, even though he isn’t.  A quarter of those who believe he’s a Muslim also claimed he talks about his faith too much.  Americans aren’t dumb.  Clearly these particular Americans have either gone insane or been seriously misled.  Where are they getting their information?

Where indeed?