New York Daily News - News Indefensible inaction
These have been a particularly bad couple of weeks for the elephants. The President's approval rating and support of the war in Iraq have fallen lower than a snake in wagon tracks; Katrina put the Republican agenda on the dunking stool, while the nation watched. Now Tom DeLay and Bill Frist are under investigation and may fall before the scythe of the law for ethics infractions or insider trading. Wow.
If that is not enough helium in the balloon heading for the high flame of media attention, Bill Bennett, an admitted out-of-control gambler, has rolled a public statement as unlucky as snake eyes, which actually sounded as though he was running for czar of genocide.
Bennett now cites Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" as an 18th century precedent for his saying that if every black baby were aborted, crime rates would go down. If that was what Bennett had in mind, his very ineloquence lacked the savage humor of Swift, who proposed that the solution to Irish poverty was to eat the children of the poor who were worthless but might become a delicacy for which many would develop a hearty appetite.
Bennett's statement was quoted in the truncated version that one would expect of his opponents, who play no more fairly than the elephants do. Beyond the inflammatory statement, Bennett went on to condemn such an idea as morally reprehensible. We have heard Bennett defend himself on the Fox network, the starship of media support for the elephants, saying that he will stand by his record. He said that those who gave a shortened version of his statement were not interested in his real record or in serious discussion of the matters of race, poverty, crime and education.
That is only partially right because many in his party do not seem interested in serious discussions on, for one, education. The revolution needed calls for much more than the Republican proposal to provide opportunities to go to private schools. It is a position that has long been no more than a hill of rhetorical dung. Let's say billionaires descended on Los Angeles, Chicago or New York and pledge to underwrite every family needing the money for a private school education. Where would these children go? Would a demand suddenly produce the response of schools chock full of capable teachers? Hardly.
The problems of ingrained ignorance, crime, lack of opportunity and crime are brutally real and can no more be blown down than the brick house of the little pig in the cautionary children's tale. Whatever has to be done about them will not come about through badly executed moments of intellectual bravado. Satire from public figures is never understood, especially by those who are only interested in finding examples that will justify ongoing paranoia and continued inaction.
This is a time that tries the souls of the people of this nation because neither the donkeys nor the elephants seem to have a grip on what is needed. We need fresh thinking from both sides and a shared interest in breaking destructive and self-destructive cycles. The most optimistic among us could even imagine that DeLay and Frist - especially now - might be inspired to lead the way on the GOP side. That is not asking too much and it is the duty of both parties to come up with serious solutions, not just condemnations of each other.
Originally published on October 2, 2005
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