School's out for summer, but Congress's been attending summer school. Elected officials are breaking into a sweat carrying out lesson plans. While a rout insists on graduating by handing in the same paper on every subject. They carry cheat sheets and scribble the same answer on every test.
As the savage brawl of ugliness chases its own tail, is it any wonder anyone can jump out of the spin long enough to make some common sense? The politics of power have shifted so askew that the class president has become The Pursued in a terrible game of gotcha by an echo chamber passed down by the Dean of Students desperate to see the president fail. Who propagates that the student body must be saved from the wiles of Ferris and has set out to label him, The Imposter, leading us down the primrose path. He justifies his agenda by rallying his accommodating associates. "He jeopardizes my ability to effectively govern this student body." And then, puts it more bluntly, "Last thing I need in my career is Ferris Bueller disciples running around these halls." Who roots for a guy like that? Who willingly sides with the polyester clad Ed Rooneys of America?
If there's any evidence that The Dean's partisan attacks are still on the prowl it is the scuffle over health care. Team Left sprains its political muscle for the public option, but their training level is no match for team Right's No-to-Everything defense. Because, let's face it, team Right's been flexing a different muscle all along. The Left's impotent track record has them fumbling over their newfound majority status and they're calling for an all out gang bang after the game in order to settle previous scores. If that doesn't dishearten you to look away from what would be the bloody sport of politics-as-usual, I don't know what will.
All hell's broken loose. And there's Ferris. The Day After: The Sequel. Standing his ground between them. No one's got his back, and no referee's in sight.
And those who are beguiled into seeing Ed Rooney as a delusional image of Dirty Harry are duly motivated to misplace their anger at the top of their lungs from the sidelines. With a whole lot of ammo loaded in gibberish, it seems, once again, they are mesmerized by the theatrics of the brawny at heart. What's odd is the audience demographic attending most of these town halls who supposedly reflect the American student body. What happened there? Did the rest homes for the elderly run out of activities for fun hour?
In the theater of economics, a trillion-dollar-deficit plays out a schism of creative differences. Keynesians who dotted on Ferris, ever so, now threaten to pull the plug on the bright light they've been shining on him. Though he's been featured merely months at the playhouse, they threaten to find a stand in for next performance. Even though they themselves haven't studied their lines, and insist on emulating the Supply-siders' villainous characteristics, hoping no one will notice. They chime in their own character assassination of their once beloved Ferris. They seem to have forgotten the spirit by which they chose him for the role in the first place. They want to take the show on the high road. Who needs rehearsals? All Ferris needs to do is be the empty-suited marionette they need him to be. They dare to dream for the sky with a ceiling closing in at their puppet theater.
When Ferris drew the curtain to a Celestial Day and decided to dodge being schooled on European Socialism, he knew he couldn't operate his objectives without his progressive friends who drive roadsters. Because he doesn't even own a clunker! The question is, how does he get his hypochondriac friends to get up from under the covers, stop moping, come over and pick him up?
He keeps his cool. Despite colossal odds against him he covers his bases: "Life moves pretty fast," he concedes, moving forward with the plan. "If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." In the long haul to graduation, he knows he's got to reserve his arsenal for another behemoth hovering over him: His thesis on the subject of Civil Religion.
Like Rooney's secretary, who sits in her perfunctory post pulling pencils out of her hair, so do the networks in order to keep up with the Joneses. The liberal media, famous for making stars out of parasitic activity, aka, the "revolution" being televised, honors some of the highfalutin statements made by their opposition with such an overwhelming response, it's down right embarrassing. Talk about throwing more fuel on the fire. And this includes the slow and steady drone reported in last week's New York Times about the president's town-hall tour, dismissing Ferris's bipartisan efforts as mere career choices and leaving the reader with the suspicion that with the one finger they've got pointing at him they've got ten pointing back at themselves. It's a travesty that with the cutbacks and unemployment rate these so-called reporters still have their jobs.
In the Debate Club, Those on the Right have tested this theory well into practice. Despite an identity crisis following a disastrous presidency that should've had them silenced in misery -- at least for a little while -- they have rebounded advantageously over the Left. Wrong or right, they seem to be the group of fast learners. No wonder they have entitled themselves full scholarship to any school of their choice. Team Left has shown a perfect record of doing just the opposite on key issues, debate after debate, election after election. No matter what analysis du jour they come up with, it is lost on the American student body and evaporates into hot air. So-called progressives are off their gourd seen knitting sweaters at the Netroots conference, as they put a man like Arlen Specter on the spot. When instead, they should take cues from him. Who, at least, has the common sense to stand up -- with his chemotherapy and all -- for his party, no matter how long he's been an active member. Or what the current status of his vital signs is. Americans have proven time and time again to welcome a comeback.
So as the liberal outcry proves to be a mere display of how incredibly enamored they are by the sound of their own voice, rather than, say, grow a pair, it's certainly warranted when the Valedictorian of the right wing, Ann Coulter, is having loads of fun scrawling "PANSY" on liberals' lockers. Her creative euphemisms all over the school hallway are there for all to see. And pretty soon, they stick. Nobody calls them by their real name anymore. No matter how seriously they may now take themselves, when all's said done, and we are afforded some hindsight, that'll be the name floating in their classmates' heads at the class reunion.
The bully mentality may often get a passing grade because of that ostentatious, that put-on "confidence" mistaken for brutal honesty.
But what have we learned in psychology class? What lesson do we note about the bully long after graduation? Those days of daily torture were a mere...
Anyone? Anyone?
A mask for...
Anyone? Anyone?
His own...
Anyone?
Damaged...
Ego,
Right.
Now apply the same idea to the subject of Civic Religion, where Ferris will be tested through the run of his presidency. The greatest trick the devil ever played is to convince the world he didn't exist, right? And right now right-wingers are masking their impotent congressional power with self-righteous indignation by turning up the heat to a full on heist of the family jewels: Our national language.
With such intolerant rhetoric one can't help but wonder what god some of these "religious" folk pray to? What version of the Bible are they reading to brand out such a cold-hearted Jesus?
Which is one of the questions posed to Ms. Coulter by one Young Republican at a speech for the Young Americans Foundation a couple of weeks ago. Someone at an airport saw the questioner, reading one of Ms. Coulter's books and said to the young lady,
"You're a Republican? You're so young. You know what that means, right? It means you are born without a heart."
The existential implication shook the questioner. But Ms. Coulter -- as always -- put on her poker face and dismissed the question by diverting her answer.
"That surprises me," she joshed after a pause. "Airports are like book signings for me."
Adding,
"people at airports, those are people with jobs. And people with jobs: Those are my people."
Course they are. More for you, my pre-t-tee! Who, by the way, managed to lead any given question down the opportunistic path in the direction of the validity of each of her books.
News flash: Greed is NOT a virtue.
In Matthew: 7: 21-23, the Bible says,
Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22: Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23: Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!
The philosophical differences appealed by the boisterous fashion as of late demands some reflection. With the defenders of capitalism and a Colonial revival underway spurred on by the Libertarian caucus, we can't even jump right into history unless we process some of these words thrown out there through Language Arts class first. For now, let's touch up on a couple. The word "liberalism" for one, if only to be reminded that it is also defined by laissez-faire, free market economic theory, as well. And when we look up the word "liberal" vs. the word "republican" a helpful device to remember is unconventional vs. traditional. Both are founded in democracy and operate within constitutional boundaries. But a liberal is also defined by tolerance and reform, which seems to be the dividing line that drives this partisan debate. Let's not forget, then, that it was in the name of tolerance and reform that our forefathers wrote the unconventional and radically minded Constitution. They wrote it as they dreamed of a perfect nation ... a nation yet to be realized.
Even Ayn Rand admitted that certain provisions, amendments and loopholes have stood in the way of absolute, unregulated capitalism. So when there's a backlash against Big Bad Government stepping in, once again, to force us to be "good" because of our innately "bad" nature, we ought to make important distinctions on the side of her much ballyhooed Virtue of Selfishness. Granted,
"If we have a bad nature, then we have no self-esteem. And when we have no self-esteem any demagogue can order us around, because we wouldn't consider ourselves valuable enough to be free,"
as she herself said on an appearance on the Phil Donahue show in the early Seventies.
"You will be anxious to follow anyone, because you don't trust yourself."
Isn't this a perfect antidote for the woman, a constituent of senator Barney Frank, who held a poster of the president rendered as a Nazi? When in fact there's another demagogue she apparently can't seem to get out of her mind. Who, indeed, does fit the bill by description of fascism in the name of religion. Kudos to Barney for his scrupulous reply.
Though Ayn Rand was an atheist, on the subject of collectivism vs. the individual another important distinction is lost on the religious lot who has unearthed portions of her philosophy today to wring out arguments.
"Don't get me wrong,"
Rand distinguished,
"Today's conservatives are worse than today's liberals. I believe it's religious conservatives that will destroy this country."
(More on this subject next class, where we'll discuss the topic of Liberty.)
Today's debate over health care is a moral debate. Though that factor, too, seems to be lost behind political rhetoric. As we attempt to rationalize some of what we hear let's not forget to take a breath before we swallow some of these unwarranted accusations made against Ferris. Irrational government spending was institutionalized by the hacks of the previous administration, and this, in the name of religion and sealed by the tenets of unregulated capitalism. Checks and balances are what the Constitution calls for in times, such as The Weird Times we are living in. There is a time and a place for everything. We got behind the Patriot Act under the guise of freedom when we were actually being duped, and continued to be duped for the duration, which seemed like a lifetime. Shouldn't we then get behind a president who actually cares for this country and give him a shot and allow him to see through some of the items on his agenda? Can't have an FDR presidency without FDR loyalty. Can we find another outlet for our wounded ego? Remember. That's what bullies do. And we're already seeing that sham play out; do we really need to follow suit? Shouldn't we, then, wake up to the fact that we should stop emulating those who are attacking Ferris for the very achievements that we have voted him in, in the first place?
Ayn Rand, who became an American by choice, was an outsider who embraced the profound value of our democracy because she had seen the other extreme with her own eyes. I doubt she'd crucify Ferris as some of the exponents of her theory have today. She diagnosed the sickness of our free society in her time. But this isn't her time. Those are the same people who trace around our constitutional value system in order to project their point-of-view to the disarmed masses. And Ayn Rand would say of them,
"In fact people who preach that they are the ones who are mawkish about the evil people, the failures, the liars, the cheats, everybody who is weak."
Sarah Palin, et al? (My sincere apologies for even mentioning that name.)
Whatever's left of summer recess the revisionism of the Right continues full throttle, and I'd like to leave you with an Edmund Burke quote to provide some food for thought before school comes back to session:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Maybe Ferris shouldn't have been as soft on the opposition. Mistakes are made. But considering his A-game performance thus far, is this grounds for such disapproval? It takes hard work to accomplish virtue. Ayn Rand illustrated this point in saying,
"People will attack you for exercising your ability, for hard work, for ambition. They will want to make you feel guilty of it."
I think Ferris understands what she meant by that, all too well.