For my 60th birthday--an early gift if ever there was one, as I won't hit 60 for 10 or 15 years--my son and daughter-in-law gave me a fake magazine cover-ish thing called Happy 60th Birthday. Among the faux headlines was On The Tube: How Many Commercials Can He Mute? Well, all of 'em in general, if I had my way, but in election season there's no question. Except that this year even hitting "mute" isn't enough: I can't even bear to look at the goddam ads anymore. I'm this close to pulling an Elvis and shooting my TV set.
You've all seen them, especially if you live in a "swing" (not to be confused with "swinging") state, with what are deemed to be close and important races by the pundits who are wrong almost as often as weather forecasters, and I'll bet you're as sick of them as I am. I'm almost to the point of not caring who wins, or disenfranchising myself, although of course I won't. I do believe that the D's are better than the R's, and one main reason is the shadowy figures who lurk behind the scenes, financing each party. Although none is straight-up running for office, I'll take Tom Steyer over the Koch Bros. every day of the week.
The blame for all of these negative ads, ads that can only lead one to conclude that no one, not one single person, is fit to hold office in this country today, rests, of course, squarely on the shoulders of the incredibly, dismayingly, unabashedly partisan shoulders of the Roberts Supreme Court and the ironically named "Citizens United" decision, which of course decided that corporations are people, money is speech, up is down, and war is peace. Well, maybe not actually those last two, but it might as well have.
Which has led us to this point, where so-called "dark money," money given by shadowy, nameless and faceless figures who may give as much as they like to make ads that can say virtually whatever they want, veracity be damned, is what drives our electoral process. My two favorite catch phrases this season are "Wrong for (blank)" and "Too extreme for (fill in the state);" so it'll show a picture of (forgive me--unflattering characterization coming up) Annie Kuster, Carol Shea-Porter or Jeanne Shaheen, the first two of which look like typical slightly frumpy soccer mom or grandmom types, the third just like a somewhat stern grandma, and we're expected to believe that they're "extreme." The worst thing I can imagine them doing is burning cookies or banana bread for a school bake sale. This is hardly to say that they're incapable; what I mean to say is that calling them extremist is mind-bogglingly absurd, on the order of saying Scott Brown is not a carpet-bagging opportunist. I'm Mark Edson, and I approved that sentence.
Their opponents, of course, favor things like shutting down the Dept. of Education, essentially banning abortion, doing away with universal healthcare, Medicaid/Medicare, infrastructure support, denying climate change and science in general in order to bolster corporate bottom lines, a return to Jim Crow, and in their spare time starting another war in the Middle East. Those are apparently New Hampshire's normative values, mainline Main Street beliefs. If that's mainstream, then I'm with Barry Goldwater, the father of modern Conservatism, Reagan with a modicum of intelligence who said, at the 1964 Republican National Convention, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."
The playlist for this week's show:
Campaign Trail John Gorka
Campaigner Neil Young
Political World Dylan
A Apolitical Blues Little Feat
Political Mark Germino
Political Science Randy Newman
Political Poachers America
Citizen Fighter Robert Pollard
Citizen Of The Planet Simon & Garfunkel
Model Citizen Peter Gammons
Truly Fine Citizen Moby Grape
United We Stand Brotherhood Of Man
Extreme Measures Tony Williams
A Token Of My Extreme Frank Zappa
Elected Alice Cooper
Money Pink Floyd
What Are Their Names David Crosby
Lies The Knickerbockers
Lies J. J. Cale
Lies Manassas
Lies Rolling Stones
Everybody's Wrong Buffalo Springfield
For Shame Of Doing Wrong Richard & Linda Thompson
Mr. Wrong Sade
Some Right, Some Wrong Mose Allison
World Gone Wrong Dylan
Wrong Direction Ian McLagan and The Bump Band
You Been Doing Something Wrong... David Lindley
I Wanna Grow Up To Be A Politician The Byrds
Politician Cream
Hope to see you Tuesday, mid-term Election Day, from noon till two at 91.5 FM, wool.fm on Al Gore's creation.
The preceding has been paid for by the Committee to Hijack Democracy.
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