By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
Every so often it’s worthwhile to take the pulse of our political delusion, and the good news is, it’s grown thready and weak. Just as we’ve become used to double-speak and manipulation from our leadership — fearful that those around us, seemingly deaf to good sense, would remain so forever — it’s both a relief and a surprise to welcome back occasional glimmers of Reality. Yes, I know — it ain’t what it used to be. It’s gotten thinner lately, gaunt and red-eyed, a bit meaner. Maybe that’s why so many of us are suddenly aware that it’s sitting at our table, intruding on our daily lives. Reality isn’t the kind of thing we should toy with — it’s been known to bite.
For years I posted the Harpers Magazine weekly review of news which I titled “TW3” — a.k.a., “That Was The Week That Was” — to the Political Waves list/blog. “TW3” consisted of three paragraphs of global news bits, trimmed down to a sentence or two and juxtaposed in such a way as to startle. I faithfully posted “TW3” every week until it became evident that the headlines at Huffington Post were equally as surreal as any compilation of factoids artfully arranged to confound and inform. What had amused and occasionally shocked us had become our everyday fare. Reality took a little vacation. Now it’s back, peeking out from behind the remaining drift of smoke that obscures our motives and projections. How do I know? The national conversation is beginning to make sense, and those politicos who don’t are starting to stumble.
Let’s begin with the social, as opposed to the hard-core political. In Los Angeles Superior Court this week, Dr. Conrad Murray — private physician and Propofol supplier to the late Michael Jackson — got four years in county jail for his crime and will be directed to pay over a million bucks in restitution. The judge who sentenced him spoke of “‘money for medicine’ madness” but because of California manslaughter laws, could not give him the harsher sentence he seemed to think appropriate. Murray will serve only half of that time in county jail and, due to his status as a special risk prisoner and given the state problem of overcrowding, perhaps not even that long. In denying the doctor a probation request, Judge Michael Pastor gave a tutorial in what is required for such a judgment: “Murray has absolutely no sense of remorse, he is and remains dangerous.” In offering his rationale for giving Murray the maximum allowed, the judge spoke of the defendant’s recklessness. Pastor repeatedly cited Murray’s lack of humility, more than once suggesting that the Doctor seemed offended to find himself under scrutiny.