By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
Americans have always loved slogans. Born around the time that TV found its way into living rooms, I grew up parallel to the medium and remember a few early examples from childhood. “I Like Ike” was an easy one to articulate, although the Ike in question turned out to be an old bald guy in grainy black and white. He won the first political nomination I ever saw televised, but at age four, I was most impressed by the silly headgear worn by constituents. Another slogan from those childhood years was, “Better Dead Than Red.” Yet another television show, I Led Three Lives, informed the viewing public of the pitfalls of spying and the dreaded infection of Communism in our midst, but I had very little context for red OR for dead, so I considered this slogan as silly as the hats. I was never much of a follower.
Still, after all these years, I continue to be amazed at how obtuse the public can be. I still find it hard to believe that more than a tiny cross-section of citizens can raise themselves on two legs and function as decent employees, parents and/or neighbors while believing the sheer nonsense that public employees are a threat to the nation’s economy, that giving tax breaks to those who are swimming in money will create jobs, or that turning back the clock to a time when everyone shifted for themselves could produce anything other than social chaos. These citizens have been influenced by sound bites that have replaced actual intellectual discourse.
I count some of my Pea Patch neighbors in this group, fusty old white folk, too religious to immerse themselves fully in 20th century lifestyle options, let alone 21st. I don’t want to appear callous, but it may be too late for them to do anything other than recycle, be reincarnated with a fresh perspective (perhaps darker skin) and a new set of sensitizing challenges. Yes, these folk are racist in a classic passive/aggressive sense, and while some admit it, most do not. They laugh at jokes and sound bites that would make a progressive’s hair stand on end. They are the standard-bearers for a white, Christian America where nothing ever changes, where everybody knows their place and doesn’t pull on the public tit.