Monday, June 1, 2009

An Elitist, a Pragmatist, and an Ideologue Walk Into a Bar …

The seismic shifts in our society have rendered right vs. left thinking as archaic as a flat earth map. It's time for those in the media using it to navigate this revolutionary era to catch up with the public -- and the new realities.

From Arianna's keyboard to Rupert Murdoch's ears, though I doubt that's going to happen.

When are we going to realize that complex societies cannot be reduced to simply two extreme ideologies? Maybe that sells on drive time radio shows (and obviously it does, for now), but it's not how people live their lives. The majority of people have a contradictory, complex set of beliefs and ideas that rarely fit into a 30-second sound bite.

Of late, on errand days, I've been listening to right wing radio. I'm done with that. It's so idiotic in how the hosts control the argument so completely to package an outrageous viewpoint to enrage their audiences. I realized I was completely done when I heard one of them (Hannity or Ingram, can't recall) criticizing Obama because he didn't take ketchup on his burger. Seriously? Really? This is worthy of conversation?

He was called an elitist and once again, I ask, what is wrong with that? What is wrong with enjoying the finer things in life when you can? The finer things don't always mean more expensive. Anyone who has had spectacular Southern greens can attest to that. But to like wine, better condiments, tastier natural foods, and actual literature and art is to be a more evolved human being. That doesn't mean you have to live in New York or Paris, it just means that Wonder Bread sucks.

And you know what else sucks? A man getting assassinated for performing a legal service and a bunch of people not caring because of their ideology. What else sucks is a group of people who said absolutely nothing against the economic policies of the last eight years and offering absolutely nothing realistic about fixing it now that they're out of power. What else sucks is that the profits of McDonalds and Wal Mart are up because of this recession and its effect on the rise of the organic food movement that was finally getting traction.

What doesn't suck is that despite the recession, something like Pet Airways is launching. Call us crazy cat ladies, I don't care, but it just isn't cool to not treat your pets well anymore. I am absolutely elated that despite hard economic times, something like this can launch. It also doesn't suck that our own Emperor Palpatine is advocating for gay marriage. I also firmly believe that everything that has happened with same sex marriage in the last ten years has been to angle it to the Supreme Court to be struck down as separate but equal is unconstituational.

Which begs the question, why is it so horrible when the Supreme Court does its job? Its job is to be an independent body ruling on the constitutionality of legislations. The Supreme Court is designed to be independent of the will of the people. Because the will of the people isn't always constitutional, even when it's popular. Separate but equal was highly popular in its day, but it wasn't constitutional. Wanting to legislate how two adults have sex may have been the will of the people in Texas, but that doesn't make it constitutional.

That doesn't mean I like Sotomoyer. I don't, for two reasons. One is that she ruled against a family member in an appeal. Bitch ;-). The other is that I don't want another Catholic on the bench. There are too many. But she'll get confirmed and maybe she should. That's the prerogative of the president as long as the Senate doesn't find something to block confirmation. God knows after Scalia my bar for opposing justices is pretty damn low.

All in all, I believe in pragmatism not ideology when it comes to governing. I as an individual can afford to have an ideology. But I'm not trying to govern 50 states and 300 million people. Someone in that position—particularly with the economy tanking all around us and two wars to fight and quite potentially who knows what else coming with Iran, North Korea, and Israel/Palestine—cannot afford to be tied to a pure ideology no matter how much money can be made trying to sell one.