Listen to Bruno

[gauguin57]

I was inspired by tonight's "West Wing" rerun on Bravo.

In it, Bartlett political consultant Bruno Gianelli (as played by Ron Silver) tries to get the Dems to get fired up for the election ... to fight fire with fire ... yelling:

"You all need some therapy. Because somebody came along and said, 'liberal means soft on crime, soft on drugs, soft on Communism, soft on defense, and we're going to tax you back to the stone age because people shouldn't have to work if they don't want to.' And instead of saying 'Well, excuse me, you right-wing reactionary, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun 'Leave it to Beaver' trip back to the '50s ... we cowered in the corner and said, 'Please don't hurt me'. NO MORE! ..."

Yeah. No More! I'm sick of our party being a public punching bag. I saw George McGovern on TV the other night, commenting on Al Gore's speech and on the Bush Administration's wrongheaded Middle East policy, and I thought, "We've lost our way. Somewhere, as we wander through the tower of Babel that is the 2004 Democratic candidate contingent, we have lost our way." I'm sick of us being made out to be some sort of anti-American, anti-patriot FOOLS because we don't kiss Repug ASS (and hate all that the Bush Crime Family stands for)!

Phooey! I long to be EXCITED by our party -- by a candidate -- as I was when I was younger. Before the escalation in this NASTINESS and HATRED we can't seem to escape.

Help me, Candidate Mosleybraunmrkerrydeansharptonkucinichclarkliebermanedwardsgephardt

:kick:

[Dudley_DUright]

1. Yes I love that speech!

What is really fun about the rant is that the actor delivering it, Ron Silver, is actually a pretty right wing republican (he has sat in for Novak and Carlson on the right on Crossfire).

[bearfartinthewoods]

2. i saw that too...freakin awesome

:kick:

kick that donkey!!

[gauguin57]

3. i think silver

used to be a liberal, and had a lobotomy and went repug ...

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Here we are now, entertain us

I've been bitching about this for a couple of years. People expect that politics and politicians will do stuff for them. One of the things I heard almost daily from the Naderites in 2000 was "Gore has to earn my vote!" as if politicians ought to actively court every single voter. As if politicians ought to perform like rodeo clowns. People want the political process to treat them as passive consumers, in a way identical to the mass media.

"ENTERTAIN ME!"

And they trained us well, didn't they?

Sorry! If the political process is to be transformed or even just reformed, the activity is going to have to come from the public itself. And most of that activity won't be exciting, it may even be deadly-dull -- stuff like getting elected to the local school board, or becoming a thorn in the side of the local community council, or whatever.

This is exactly how the Conservatives have done it. They took advantage of the emotionalistic streak in their "base" and fed them a steady stream of activism suggestions. During the same eras, lefties were way too hip, worldly-wise and ironic to do anything except say, "they're all crooked!"

My apologies if this comes off as a bit rough. I understand your sentiments, and I've shared them for a long time. I, too, long to be excited, but I've given up the hope that it will happen without me doing any of the exciting. It's a god-awful mind-fuck, and it's one of the things that have kept us enslaved without the necessity of chains and cells and locks.

Keep fighting!

--bkl