This has been an exceedingly strange Minnesota winter so far. Here it is, the beginning of the end of January, and there’s precious little snow on the ground. I will admit I got out a shovel this evening to clear the walk and the driveway, but mostly I was just pushing the white stuff out of the way. I didn’t even break a sweat. There is something fundamentally wrong with that.
Lately, though, the weather here matches the mood of the country: grey, cold, and bizarre. That’s the only way you can describe watching the political circus that plays all day, every day on the wireless and the boob tube. It's relentless. Instead of the Nine Circles of Hell Dante described in The Inferno, we as a nation are suffering through the Eighteen Ellipses of Egomania. I am not so naïve to believe politics has ever been fundamentally different, but the media has commandeered the process. In 2008, the Dems had 23 primary debates, 21 of which were televised, so this is not new phenomena.
People used to have to read about a debate or the text of a speech in the newspaper; now, the nanosecond the words pass between the lips, they are splashed, usually out of context, across the universe and spun into something that bears no resemblance to what the candidate was actually saying. They're woven into a shroud for truth, designed to conceal rather than illuminate. The political machine recycles old snippets of statements and expects the public to believe these are all relevant when all it does is prove there is nothing new under the sun...or in politicians' heads for that matter. They steal, they mangle, they parody each other's ads. School yard bullies attacking each other.
Lord knows both sides spin like whirligigs. And someone is bound to write in here to complain about my spin, but just for the record, I'm holding both sides accountable for the morass. And I am taking the press equally to task as the enablers of the debacle. I don't think anyone anticipated this overuse of the 1 nanosecond sound bite cycle when they invented the internet.
Last night, however, I saw something that just about put me over the edge.
It was a Rick Santorum ad and it just burned my butt raw. Those pathetic, thieving, vulgar pigs ripped off the iconic Apple Big Brother ad and called it REBELLION.
I was physically ill, and I was mad that Steve Jobs isn't alive to sue their sorry asses for plagiarism right into the next decade. One of the most brilliant, visceral visual images that celebrated need for independent thought and creativity was twisted into something grotesque in support of a man who has pledged to curtail your biological rights. This is a guy who claims he wants to reduce spending, cut taxes, all the while preparing to start yet a THIRD unfunded land war in Asia. What happened to investing in America? Or is it only about paying dividends?
Folks, the rebellion he's gonna get is not the one he's pitching. This one is going to squash him and his misogynistic, anti-education, anti-economic recovery propaganda right into the trash where he...and it belongs.
I'm watching the debate as Sanctamonium makes his case for a preemptive strike against Iran. Is this guy living under a rock? Has he learned no lesson from the past? He talks about smaller government and less spending, but nowhere does he mention how he's going to pay for a war in Iran. Does he think the Air Force can just drop a couple of bombs and that's that?
Wars aren't like that and if he hasn't had that lesson yet, someone should foot his bill for a holiday in Kabul and Baghdad. Wars are not sanitary, antiseptic Cinema Scope epics. When people in real wars fall over, they usually don't get up again. And they cost money. Lots and lots of money. And then the soldiers muster out and they need jobs. And on. And on.
I don't know if I can take listening to another debate. And I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps we are as dumb as the Toontown candidates think we are. They keep repeating the same things over and over and over, as if by saying them, somehow they are true.
Great. That's all we need. A velveteen rabbit in the White House.
Folks, the rebellion he's gonna get is not the one he's pitching. This one is going to squash him and his misogynistic, anti-education, anti-economic recovery propaganda right into the trash where he...and it belongs.
I'm watching the debate as Sanctamonium makes his case for a preemptive strike against Iran. Is this guy living under a rock? Has he learned no lesson from the past? He talks about smaller government and less spending, but nowhere does he mention how he's going to pay for a war in Iran. Does he think the Air Force can just drop a couple of bombs and that's that?
Wars aren't like that and if he hasn't had that lesson yet, someone should foot his bill for a holiday in Kabul and Baghdad. Wars are not sanitary, antiseptic Cinema Scope epics. When people in real wars fall over, they usually don't get up again. And they cost money. Lots and lots of money. And then the soldiers muster out and they need jobs. And on. And on.
I don't know if I can take listening to another debate. And I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps we are as dumb as the Toontown candidates think we are. They keep repeating the same things over and over and over, as if by saying them, somehow they are true.
Great. That's all we need. A velveteen rabbit in the White House.
Wifely Person's Tip O' The Week
If your name is Sidney and
January 28th happens to be your 91st birthday...
many, many happy returns of the day!
Republicans have always been good at this, haven't they? And it would have been awesome to see the equally but differently megalomaniacal Mr. Jobs go after Mr. Santorum's Neighborhood. But take heart -- the same organization that put up this video created a "Conservatives United Moneybomb". Look at the acronym. :-) Then go listen to the soundclip I embedded at B@B from Air America's Morning Sedition program from 2005. Life truly IS satire.
ReplyDeleteDespite your reaction to the Santorum rip-off, it is a very effective ad. It makes its point very well and will undoubtedly have impact on some voters. Be thankful it didn't include a C.U.M. shot at the end.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, WP, where I live the official beginning of the end of January is not until the 25th.
And I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps we are as dumb as the Toontown candidates think we are. They keep repeating the same things over and over and over, as if by saying them, somehow they are true.
ReplyDeleteNO IF about it-- repeating over and over becomes habitual and we believe, yes we believe! This is an Obama tactic that works very well. Look, all that these politicians do is talk. They don't subscribe to the same accountability standards as human beings do. They also have several different ways to add and subtract. What a shell game.
=doug=
I'd like to know what the actors knew about the ad they were appearing in. After all, the card and monitors were green screened in. How ironic.
ReplyDeleteAnd what's with the pink? Is that Santorum's official color? I would have liked the actors to pull off their sweatshirts to reveal pink sweater vests.
The funny thing about the add is the big, Orwellian setup then a video clip of just another bitter old white guy. I believe the part about the tired, brain-dead voters slogging to the polls.
ReplyDelete