In October the two towers of political satire will bring down the polarizing faux "patriots" and restore the mainstream moderate governing motor of American politics days before the mid-term elections.
Over generations of highly polarizing issues, from British taxation to slavery, fascism, communism, and the rise of the Reagan Right, this country has relied on its vast, apathetic and politically moderate middle to drag our wildly gyrating political system back to center.
In spite of the hyperbole whipped up by the anti-regulation corps of the corporatocracy over health care and Wall Street reform last year, and the Fox News continuous bonfire of truth, torched like copies of Catcher in the Rye, the hard-sell of Mr. Obama and this Congress of Democrats as scary Socialists is overkill that is going to fall flat by election time, in large part due to the wake up call of Comedy Central's Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) and Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report)
Were it not for the skin color of our president, and the recent stagnation of the economy by corporate America to soften up the vote in November (See: "Manufacturing a Phony Job Crisis") much of the moderate white voter base would not be even considering lining up behind whack-job Tea Party candidates who make the costumed attendees at Star Trek conventions seem socially and emotionally well adjusted.
Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" and the Colbert "March to Keep Fear Alive" will roll out just days before the election and are going to be not only the Guinness World Record book holders for largest political satire event, but also an enormous wake up call to that vast, disinterested middle of the road vote.
We can't count on the restoration of sanity to the radicalized Right. The brainwashed are already irrevocably in motion. I met one lady who described herself as a "moderate conservative" in a Starbucks in Florida who told me that she couldn't endorse Obama or the Democrats because he was throwing a million dollars at Africans cleaning their genitals when we had people unemployed here.
Forget that's a drop in the bucket of our foreign aid, or that the Republicans would stonewall any reallocation of money to unemployment or the welfare system: The topper is that this was actually an initiative of the George W. Bush Administration as part of its anti-AIDS campaign, one of the few decent things that ol' W did.
Right now the media is trumpeting every poll that shows the Democrats' demise to the rafters. The "journalist" lemmings are aping the "common wisdom" that the Democrats are going to take a big drubbing here. It sells soap, and it caters to fear, something which has been a good ratings driver since Egyptians started dooming elected officials to the wrath of the Gods on papyrus.
Of course, you had people in the 2008 election calling it "too close" and saying that the Republicans were going to stomp the Democrats, mostly because of the incessant drum beat of 24 hour Fox News and Rush-led Right Wing radio programming.
They preach to a small, albeit very noisy choir, but the truth was far different than the hype prior to the election. Even in races which were stone cold Republican strongholds, the GOP took a beating in '08. That was with relatively more sane candidates, and none of the Tea Party twits and their extremist agenda, too.
The day is pivotal in the American political psyche because it's that wake up call that the Democrats and President Obama have been unable to generate. An A-Bomb on Fox News' fear mongering within the 72 hours of critical news time prior to voters hitting the polls.
Add Colbert's razor-sharp mockery of Right-Wing extremism, and you have two seminal events that will wake up the young, and, hopefully, minority voters who came out in 2008, and remind them that their vote does indeed matter.
The Republicans fire the big shots early. They've spread as much hate and fear as they can, and, as much as it has damaged this country, it will not destroy it, or change our character enough, because there are forces with the money and voice to counter it.
They may have a comeback planned to the rally, but there isn't much more fear that they can foment, and Stewart and Colbert have proven that they can put a thermonuclear pin into Roger Ailes' progandist windbag.
Thank you Jon and Stephen, and Viacom, if only for the shear delight that Sumner Redstone seems to get in using their loud, clear voices to stick it to Rupert Murdoch. We'll even forgive Redstone's momentary lapse of reason in giving money to George W. Bush's 2004 presidential campaign.
My shiny two.