It's Open Season on Sane Political Discourse
Stop what you're doing for a second and lean in real close. If you follow politics in the United States, what I'm about to say next won't come as a big surprise: we've gone totally berserk, or at least some of us have. But bear with me.
You've got a GOP candidate in Colorado saying that the rental bike program in Denver is the first step to a UN takeover of our freedoms. You've got Sharron Angle in Nevada saying that the Democratic agenda is violating the First Commandment, which I guess is some kind of improvement as they're usually accused of violating the First Amendment or something. You've got Michelle Bachmann in Minnesota, well, okay, she's just out of her mind.
My point in all this is simple: take a moment of zen and recall if you will the relative sanity and calm that was kooky politics in 2004-2006. Yes, indeed, when all we had to laugh about was Dick Cheney saying that "deficits don't matter" and Max Cleland being defeated when called unpatriotic. Never mind that he lost all his limbs fighting for his country in Vietnam.
What we're seeing right now--the UN bike conspiracy, the frothing at the mouth about a "mosque" being built two blocks from Ground Zero, 40% of Republicans believing that Obama wasn't born in the United States (these same people don't raise an eyebrow when told that McCain was born in the Republic of Panama), Glenn Beck equating progressives with Nazis, the whole bit--just goes to show that this is as good as it's gonna get.
In 10 years--hell, in 5 years--we're going to look back at this election cycle and long for its dulcet tones and relative calm and sanity. Mark my words.
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