The last time I was in Washington D.C., neither was I an American citizen nor was the geology section of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History open. Double whammy. To make up for it, Saturday saw The Dude and me on the National Mall, with me dressed as a cross section of Southern Louisiana. Done and done.
You can smell the power, security, wealth and sense of entitlement in Washington D.C. the moment you cross over from Maryland.
And we have given them that.
We continue to give them the two stifling parties, the House, the Senate, the courts, the executive order, the guns, the lobbyists and all the tools with which to increasingly strip away our power and ability to thrive.
Meanwhile, we scrounge and our future is dying in wars to protect our “freedom.”
We argue about another battle, a pantomime between the forces of Public and Private when they are all in bed together, with everyone getting kickbacks. It is all about a few people making all the money and placating the masses with fractions of scraps, enough to keep us at bay.
We talk about protest, but this country has no culture of meaningful, bring-the-system-to-its-knees revolt and the power structure knows that we may bark a little but will really do anything to prolong a system that benefits us now, who cares what lies down the road.
We worry very well over whether President Obama should be a crafy politician or a wise statesman, when he should be what and why he is one or both at the wrong time. All this while our country moves to the right and the choice we are increasingly forced to make is not between liberals and conservatives but zero-sum business interests and crazy wingnuts with zero-sum business interests.
We force ourselves into ridiculous categories and then try to break free.
They have us where they want us. We are utterly and totally fraked.
So bitching about Jon Stewart telling us not to bitch is much like complaining that the bars of our jail cell are plated in silver and not 24-karat gold (which is admittedly more malleable, but …). All while what you could read from what the man has to say is to stay calm and sane, and not dig ourselves deeper into a pit of nonsense, in order to get the hell out of here.
What he’s telling us is not to turn into that which we hate the most in order to win the false war. Actually, what he was telling us not many of us could hear because of the crappy PA system that only amplified the music, so we simply blissed out to a beautiful day on the Mall surrounded by others in costume with whom you could make actual decent conversation and not have it turn into a shouting match. It was about the crowd.
As of today, I am no longer a second-amendment liberal or a Democrat but an American scientist who votes for candidates that really want to take us forward. And, no, I’m not running for anything other than queen of my side of the bed. I like my sanity.
