Exploring the Shallows of Loch Reagain

"My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
--President Ronald Reagan; 8-11-1984

I recently spoke to an ex-coworker and good friend about the upcoming election. She is a child psychiatrist, who had become involved in local voter registration drives with me back in 1992. She is among a group that is heading to Scranton, to help with voter education-registration in Pennsylvania. I have relatives in Scranton, who are providing housing, etc., when my friends travel there.

My friend, who has long been a strong supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton, said she was amazed that John McCain had selected Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate. She attributed this choice to three things: (1) the popularity of programs such as "American Idol"; (2) the show "Desperate Housewives"; and (3) ignorance.

In thinking about this, I was reminded of a chapter from Jerry Mander’s book "In the Absence of the Sacred" (Sierra Club Books; 1991). Pages 90 to 92 address the topic of "The Television President," Ronald Reagan. In these pages, Mander discusses how an actor who lacked the skills of a John Wayne, though he was every bit as tiny and petty a man as the Duke, became President of the United States.

Reagan’s acting career included numerous roles in films involving "Good vs. Evil, America vs. The Enemy" – and a large part of the public associated him with the archetype of The Good Guy. Reagan also had also served in "that odd semi-reality" as the commercial spokesperson for General Electric Company. This gave him a greater authority in the minds of many Americans.

Those who were using Reagan to inflict their agenda on our country understood the power of symbols, and the advantages of style over substance. His being twice elected marked a low point in American culture, made possible only by that vast wasteland called television.

I also thought back to one of the cassette tapes that Rubin sent me in 1973, from Rahway State Prison in New Jersey. In it, he spoke about how the dehumanizing process that takes place inside of our societies’ prisons. One part I thought of was when he spoke of how grown men were unable to maintain their sense of self-worth in the oppressive environment. He noted that each week, after the showing of some movie, many of the inmates would exist in what he called a "cinematic concept" – Shaft today, Superfly tomorrow.

That fantasy often replaces reality in our culture is beyond denying. The only question is to what extent? The selection of Sarah Palin as a candidate for vice president provides rather stark evidence that it is to a dangerous extent, indeed.

The human mind – both individually and collectively – has long been compared to a body of water, with the conscious mind being the surface, and the unconscious being the deep, dark waters. I think that Sarah Palin, who should at best rate a "reality show" for those unhappy with their everyday lives, proves that a large segment of the population is tuned in to the lower channels of their minds.

Those same people who express moral outrage at things such as teen pregnancy, drug addiction, lying, and adultery when it applies to Democrats, react with the same self-righteous anger as any prisoner accused of a crime, when it is one of their own caught in the act. Hence, the national discussions on the behaviors of the McCain and Palin families resemble nothing if not what happens when one tells a person who’s mind is incarcerated that programs such as American Idle and Desperate Housewives are trash.

One cannot expose the shallowness of Loch Reagain by skimming the surface. We need to pre-empt the national sitcom, and refocus the public’s attention on a documentary that shows how dangerously unsuited Sarah Palin (and John McCain) are for executive office. The corporate media, which is too often to true journalism what Ronald Reagan was to a hero, presents a real problem. However, the recent interview that Charlie Gibson did with Sarah Palin holds promise. His questions, and her answers, on topics including the "Bush doctrine," and the possibility of war with Russia, and an Israeli attack on Iran, provide the opportunity to convince undecided voters that Barack Obama and Joseph Biden are the only good choice this November.

Thank you,
H2O Man

For all we praise Olbermann, Maddow and our left-leaning blogs, despite the disdain we direct at corporate-owned ABC: more Americans watched Charles Gibson lay her bare than all the liberal venues combined. Add onto that the reach of the program The View, where the Senator fared badly against some of the toughest questioning he's faced this election, and we may have to admit that it was the MSM what brung em' down.

the media tears down. Always.

I do think that many of the national journalists have come to both dislike John McCain, and to find the thought of Palin as VP unacceptable.

mccain's handlers were thinking in booking him on The View?

But we have to come to terms with the fact that they don't care if they tell lies over and over, they've made it quite clear they want to win, at any price. They are like those Nigerian scams that sell people's houses right out from beneath them. We have to figure out how to bypass them and clean the smudge out of the public's eye. Will truth prevail? I think it will if it's repeated as often as the lies.

interview is scheduled to be with Sean Hammity on Fox. I am confident that he will pitch soft balls, and she will attempt to deliver "hard-hitting" answers. This is a good thing: it will further expose her as an extremist, and will create more pressure for her to sit down with real journalists.

to hear how that goes. (There is a good boxing card on Showtime.)

They'll try to whip up a delicious cake, using ingredients like hate, sanctimony, and pride in their own ignorance.

Should be quite a spectacle.

If they successfully weave this "maverick" narrative, with Palin as another "authentic" American who shoots from the hip, acts from the gut, and disdains curiosity or genuine thought, we are stuck in Reagan-land again, if not worse.

The truth has to be told. The fantasy has to be exposed. And even if that means talking about ugly things in Palin's and McCain's lives, it is nowhere near as bad as the brutal ugliness of living under a reign of lies, and a paradigm that proclaims petty, ignorant, selfishness to be true virtue.

would be as foolish an error as allowing the McCain campaign to dictate the discussion of her -- in fact, it would be one way of allowing them to control the discussion.

It's a beautiful picture.

I was visiting relatives near Ithaca.