WHO LOST AMERICA: “Challenge to democracy!”

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2012

Epilogue—A challenge seemingly lost: “But here is the challenge to our democracy,” President Roosevelt said.

He said it in his second inaugural address, in January 1937. The challenge he saw was quite large:

ROOSEVELT (1/20/37): But here is the challenge to our democracy.

In this nation, I see tens of millions of its citizens—a substantial part of its whole population—who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life.

I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day.

I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions labeled indecent by a so-called polite society half a century ago.

I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children.

I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and by their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions.

I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

Roosevelt saw a profoundly challenged nation. “But it is not in despair that I paint you that picture,” he said. “I paint it for you in hope.”

That was Roosevelt, four years along. Today, we too see a failing nation.

We don’t share that sense of hope.

As Roosevelt looked out, he saw a nation ill-clad, ill-nourished. We see a nation driven by the agents of power—a nation whose established elites can’t reason, think, analyze, feel.

As we speak, power is trying to take back the White House. They’re doing so on a playing field that is littered with the hapless elites of the mainstream press corps and the corporate pseudo-left.

Consider one game the children played last night on The One True Channel.

Obama and Romney had just traded jokes at the Al Smith Dinner. Truth to tell, Romney got bigger laughs—and he had some very good jokes.

Rachel had aired the whole darn thing! In its wake, she knew her job:

She had to serve us our comfort food! She brought out the less than insightful W. Kamau Bell. As they finished serving their poo-poo platter, we were allowed to eat this:

MADDOW (10/18/12): [Romney’s opening joke] was very, very funny.

BELL: But then he reset to Romney face.

MADDOW: Looked very stern while delivering that very funny joke.

BELL: It looks like a guy in a movie who's been stabbed and trying not to show it. The stern Romney face, why are you in so much pain? You’re killing! Enjoy the moment!

[...]

MADDOW: What’s the relationship between likability and ability to develop, deliver a joke in this kind of context?

BELL: I mean, you don’t have to be likable to be funny. A lot of comedians are horrible, horrible people. It’s about how comfortable you are in your own skin.

MADDOW: Yes.

BELL: And I think that’s the thing with Romney. Like the jokes are professional jokes, comedians wrote them, but he still doesn`t seem to be comfortable in his skin.

MADDOW: Yes, authenticity is everything on television and in politics, and in comedy, I think. I think that awkwardness is the thing he’s got to stretch on all of these.

There! Truth to tell, Romney had killed. But Rachel and her compliant guest read us one of our favorite stories as we got into our jammies.

Candidate Romney isn’t authentic! He isn’t comfortable in his own skin!

The children had a bit more time to assemble their “thoughts” before speaking with Lawrence. This let them become even more convinced of Obama’s obvious greatness.

Here’s how their reassuring chat finished up:

LAWRENCE (10/18/12): [Obama’s] line was, “I don’t have a joke for that,” which turned out to be a great joke. That was a beautifully written joke.

JONATHAN: Right. I mean, so I mean— Whoever helped the president come up with his material deserves an A-plus. I think Romney needs to understand the difference between a roast and the Al Smith Dinner.

LAWRENCE: Normally, the candidates for president, they go outside to get professional comedy writing up on these things. But I got to say, the Obama speech writers are the most talented comic speechwriters that have ever had desks in the White House. So, I’m not sure how much they had to get from the outside.

Krystal Ball and Jonathan Capehart, thank you both for joining me tonight.

KRYSTAL: Thanks, Lawrence!

There! After we saw Romney get those big laughs, the children helped us settle down before going nighty-night.

The children are hirelings of corporate suits—and they’re bad for progressive interests. When that is the best we progressives can do, Power and Wealth simply cuff us aside with the back of their cuff-linked hand.

In the rest of our posts today and tomorrow, we’re going to show you some of the ways we’re currently losing our challenge—the challenge which serves as a successor to the one FDR described.

Roosevelt worried about food and shelter. We’ll suggest that you should worry about inanity and the lack of intellectual prowess.

We know! You don’t like to talk about that! You’d better rethink and restart!

We see four major players in the field as our nation is swept away by the corporate-fueled dumbness of its discourse:

Wealth and Power: At present, Wealth and Power are attacking Obama in a way we haven’t seen since the days of Clinton-Gore. They have established a line about Benghazi that the mainstream press corps is rushing to parrot.

As usual, the liberal world seems to have no idea that this is going on. To the extent that the liberal world knows, the liberal world is politely looking away—just as we did in the old days.

Wealth and Power are always active. Wealth and Power will get their way when liberals are so defiantly clueless—when simpering children are sent in the field to represent liberal interests.

Worthless liberal leaders: Rachel, Lawrence, Krystal and Jonathan are paid extremely good money to keep us entertained—and to serve us our comfort food. When children like these represent our interests, disaster is not far off.

Gullible liberal lambs: We liberals are unable to see that our leaders may not represent us well—in some cases, that they don’t represent us at all. We love to rail against Sean and Rush—and we think that Rachel is playing the game quite brilliantly, always on our side.

We are the clueless liberal lambs. Lambs get led to slaughters.

The unskilled mainstream press corps: Our mainstream journos just aren't very smart. To the extent that they try to do their jobs, they are routinely helpless.

“Man [sic] is the rational animal,” Aristotle said. If he could read the New York Times, he wouldn’t say that today.

We liberals rarely seem to notice the groaning lack of intellectual skill which greases our skid to perdition. But make no mistake: Power has an easy way to go with low-IQ players like these in the field. Progressives have to learn to complain about this or we’re going to lose our new challenge.

In a series of posts in the next few days, we’ll largely focus on the lack of intellectual skill within the mainstream press corps. We’ll look at their undying love for silly, inane distractions. We’ll look at their undying love for stupid-ass, low-IQ scripts.

We’ll look at the way they struggle and strain to get themselves in line with aggressive right-wing scripts. At present, they are doing so in a way we haven’t seen since the days of Clinton and Gore. Rachel hasn’t even noticed—or she knows she mustn’t tell.

Last night, we got our comfort food after Romney told some very strong jokes. Moments later, Lawrence was playing the unvarnished fool, as he so often does.

Incredibly, Lawrence adopted a Dorchester accent as he invited Tagg Romney to et a time and a place for a fist-fight.

Below, we show you the conclusion to this long pitiful segment. No, we didn’t make this up.

To watch this ridiculous conduct, click here. Power loves clowns of this type:

O’DONNELL (10/17/12): OK, Taggart, let's have a little talk, just you and me, you.

When I hear you talk about taking a swing and taking punches, why do I get the feeling that you have never actually taken a punch or thrown a punch? I didn’t have that luxury in the part of Boston that I grew up in.

But in your rich suburban Boston life, with your father filling a 100 million dollar trust fund for you, I don’t know. I just get the feeling that things were kind of different for you.

Now, I know you’ve got a lot—a lot to be pissed off at these days, starting with the name Taggart, which you have every right to be wicked pissed off at for every day of the 42 years of your life. So let me try to help you deal with all this aggression you are feeling right now. You are mad at President Obama for calling your father a liar?

Let’s get something straight. He didn’t call your father a liar. I did. The president just said that what your father said isn’t true. I have been saying all year that your father is a liar. I’ve repeatedly said that your father lies, and is trying to lie his way into the White House.

So you want to take a swing at someone for calling your old man a liar? Take a swing at me. Come on. Come on. And don’t worry, there won’t be any Secret Service involved. Just us. And I’ll make it easy for you. I’ll come to you anytime, anywhere.

Go ahead, Taggart, take your best shot.

O’Donnell has been visibly crazy for years. (For what it's worth, he's also a rather obvious anti-Mormon bigot.)

Meanwhile, just so you’ll know the Dickensian truth about this lunatic’s childhood:

O’Donnell’s father was a lawyer. According to the Los Angeles Times, the family had a summer home on Cape Cod. According to the Boston Globe, all four of his siblings became lawyers too.

O'Donnell prepped at Saint Sebastian, an all-boys Catholic secondary school nestled on 26 acres in Needham, Mass., a rich surburb. After that, four years at Harvard, a college just outside Boston!

As you perhaps begin to see, O’Donnell is a genuine nut. (He seems to think he's the star of Good Will Hunting.) But because he votes our way, we liberal lambs can’t see it! Power and Wealth adore such opponents. Such people are easy to beat.

FDR painted his picture in hope. Today, we’re much less hopeful.

FDR had to deal with hunger. Corporate-fueled posturing and manifest dumbness are much more destructive opponents.

Must be heard to be believed: Lawrence’s invitation to fight went on for almost eleven minutes. Don’t miss the Dorchester accent this world-class nut effects all through his rant.

To gaze on Power’s number-one helper, go ahead—just click here.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755883/ns/msnbc-the_last_word/#49472310

This man has been nuts for a very long time. In case you haven't figured it out, that’s why the corporate suits bought him.