I don’t recall precisely when the dawning came. It wasn’t exactly a St. Paul-epiphany moment. But it was shortly after the presidential election.
I was probably watching “Hardball” with Chris Mathews, as was my wont during the campaign. And that, typically, would have been after having previously viewed David Gregory on “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” Recall that prior to the election “1600” had been “Race For The Whitehouse.” Seamless labeling update.
By habit, I would pass on “Countdown” with Keith Olbermann and then return to unfinished newspaper editorial pages. But if I wanted to sample some beyond the pale, beyond arrogant, partisan commentary, I’d flip over to “The O’Reilly Factor” to see which opinionated tops were in the “no spin zone.”
Rachael Maddow? She was better when she was merely well prepared, smart, articulate and one among many. Now that she has her own show, she’s compromised by redundancy and show biz shtick.
Anyway, I forget who was on Mathews. Maybe it was Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Or House Minority Leader John Boehner. Or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Or Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Or the curmudgeonly Pat Buchanan. Or the affably beguiling Tom DeLay. Or any of the usual cast of constantly recycled characters — from bloggers to consultants — who have never been elected to anything but can assure political theater by guaranteeing one side of the conflict formula. Sort of the political counterparts of erstwhile quiz show staple Orson Bean, who have made agenda-driven careers out of the chatfest circuit.
Obama, for sure, was under the microscope and in the cross hairs about the tanking economy, our Mideast wars, prospective cabinet choices and what the DOW was already doing in the hours and days after his election. He wasn’t yet president and the long knives were ever sharper. He was President-Elect Barack Hussein Piñata to the disloyal opposition.
And I thought: Wait a minute. This is post-9/11 America. This is the era of global economic meltdown. It was, quite arguably, also a tipping point for the country.
The land of opportunity had become fertile grounds for excess, exploitation and entitlement. Deferred gratification, societal sacrifice? How quaint. Our medically uninsured ran well into eight figures. Our students trailed their international peers in everything but self-esteem. Cheap gas was still our birthright.
The American dream now conjured up images of Homer Simpson at the wheel of a Hummer with Gordon Gecko riding shotgun and the Lehman Brothers in the back seat. Our economy wasn’t generating real wealth.
Moreover, our foreign policy had become arrogant and unilateralist; jingoism was synonymous with patriotism. The moral high ground that was ours internationally on 9/12 had imploded into a geopolitical sinkhole. We were now into our sixth year of occupying an Arab country.
And yet as I watched — addict-like — these paeans to political power, it became utterly obvious: this was business as usual for the all-politics-all-the-time crowd. As if the impact of their 24/7 ubiquity went no farther than water cooler small talk among a few junkies.
The message received: We aren’t in this all together.
Too many partisans, seemingly, are determined to remain in their pragmatically political fox holes. Still polling, still plotting, still pandering to “bases.” Still salivating about a Limbaugh-Palin ticket. Still acting as if this were all a zero-sum political game – not a crucible for America’s future on the only planet we have.
And still hoping the other side doesn’t succeed – when the “other side” is also, alas, us.