By Rawlins Gilliland, KERA 90.1 Commentator
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-489411.mp3
Commentary: What happened to good Democrats or Republicans?
Dallas, TX –
I recently watched silver spoon conservative Tucker Carlson's show "The Situation". Carlson challenged President Bush's request that, in the wake of interrupted gasoline supplies, Americans should perhaps drive less and carpool. Master Tucker emphatically espoused that, in a "free-market based economy", if "I have the money to (buy an SUV and) keep it gassed up, then I should be able to drive it as much as I want, whenever I want". So much for, "We're all in this together". How about, "I've got mine, up yours!"
Mr. Carlson's rant unwittingly personifies one prevailing world view of Americans; that we behave like willful trust-fund brats, believing we're entitled to do as we please, simply because we can afford to. I worked twenty years in luxury retail, rolling over on cue for the wealthy. So I know firsthand the presumption of status, rank, class and privilege that is the secret code of upscale GOP elite. But, what about my once loyal Democratic opposition? Lately, both liberal and conservative "values" look flabbier than Anna Nicole before Trim Spa, Baby. Is there anyone on either side I can look up to and believe in?
The day before Katrina struck, I went to Crawford to observe the war protest standoff. Watching that microcosm of our two political parties, I was shocked and disillusioned by both side's seamy spectrum. Without trying, I met Cindy Sheehan after someone told someone I wrote for an NPR affiliate. I dared say that right or wrong, President Bush undoubtedly believes he's doing the right thing. Suddenly I was a pariah, and asked to leave the inner circle.
Typical of late, I felt uncomfortable and unwelcome on either side of that Crawford street. One Pro-Bush sign read: "Our troops should be guarding the Rio Grande, not the Euphrates!" A good line, but, like Tucker Carlson's pronouncement, more telling than the flag waving man leaning against his Chevy Suburban with its "I honk for Jesus" bumper sticker might have intended. The low-end "Deliverance" wing of the Republican devout made me feel like they could consider it patriotic to perform myriad so-called "hate crimes" toward gays, minorities, immigrants, Hillary Clinton, non-Christians, pro-choice advocates, war protestors. Theirs may be the party of Lincoln, but to this crew, the Lincoln Memorial is a car show.
Across the way in La-La Land, at the environmentally concerned' Sheehan tent, I watched as almost no one used the make-shift re-cycle bins. The Sheehan-ites seemed to be reliving a youthful marijuana memory while attending a cheesy hippie style wedding, staged in front of an enthroned Ms. Sheehan, (just before the polyester Prez Martin Sheen spoke.) Many wore "Cindy for President" pins. The sad thing is, they meant it. (I've talked with Ms. Sheehan; Remember Dan Quayle?) These aging Democrats defined themselves at this "love-in" by hating George Bush. Is this all the Democratic Party stands for?
My view from the bridge is this: the Far Right is a far cry from right and the Far Left has been left far behind. Like that overextended man "in debt up to his eyeballs" cries from his riding lawn mower in that TV ad, Somebody help me!"
Rawlins Gilliland is a writer from Dallas.
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