Sunday Editorial: Insane Problems Require Insane Solutions

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By James Knight (Assassination Press)

“The whole country’s got a fucked up mentality. We all got a gang mentality. Republicans are fucking idiots. Democrats are fucking idiots. Conservatives are idiots and liberals are idiots.”

“Anyone who makes up their mind before they hear the issue is a fucking fool. Everybody is so busy wanting to be down with a gang! I’m a conservative! I’m a liberal! It’s all bullshit.”

“Be a fucking person. Listen. Let it swirl around in your head. Then form your opinion.”

“No normal decent person is one thing. OK!?! I got some shit I’m conservative about; I got some shit I’m liberal about. Crime – I’m conservative. Prostitution – I’m liberal!”

Chris Rock

What is sanity? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, sanity is defined as “reasonable and rational behavior”. What is insane? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, insane is defined as “in or relating to an unsound state of mind, extremely foolish; irrational”.

In our American society today, we have a presidential administration that is acting in extremely foolish and irrational ways. Case in point:

President Bush unilaterally appoints John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

In an unprecedented move, Bush single handedly appoints a man whom, in all likelihood, would be denied a traditional appointment by the United States Senate. The “recess” appointment, an avenue available only when Congress is in recess and which is intended by the Constitution to only be used in severe circumstances, has allowed President Bush to abuse his power and essentially sidestep Bolton’s detractors without a Senate hearing. Evidently, the only “voice of reason”, is the one inside Bush’s own head.

Bush has said Bolton was “the right man” to prod the U.N. to adopt difficult reforms. However, Bolton is a man who has proven to be uncompromising, extremely conservative, a sharp critic of the United Nations, and a person who has routinely dismissed and/or retaliated against any voices of caution or dissent.

Now, he will have to work with the same entity he has criticized. In addition, he will need to work with 190 other Ambassador’s whom all have differing points of view. It doesn’t seem likely that a man, who has a habit of bullying, marginalizing, and undermining those who do not agree with him, is going to succeed in this capacity. Is this really the “right man” for the job? It makes one wonder what the “job” actually entails.

It seems likely Bolton will alienate the United Nations and it’s members. Thus, the Bush administration has essentially dismissed the largest “voice of reason” in the entire world. And this at a time, when the United States, in the hands of the Bush administration, has already alienated much of the world governments. This is not the action of a sane administration.

Of course, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Bush has made more “recess” appointments (106 to be exact). And, Bush has not only tried to “bully” his ideology on the world stage, but on the national stage as well. Case in point:

Bush appoints Ken Tomlinson as chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Ken Tomlinson, a man who got his start on right-wing radio and whom subsequently ran one of the most conservative talk shows in American history. A man who, as chief of the Reader’s Digest, published one of the most reactionary magazines in the country. A man who happens to be close friends with Karl Rove and many members of the Bush administration.

This is a man who is supposed to provide PBS and NPR with “maximum protection from extraneous influence and control”? Is Tomlinson also the “right man” for the job? I suppose it all depends on what that job entails.

PBS and NPR are publicly funded avenues for independent journalism and entertainment; however, Tomlinson is overtly attempting to turn each publicly funded entity into right wing, conservative avenues, for pro-Bush administration journalism and entertainment. Anything that is not in alignment with conservative values would be cut if Tomlinson has his way.

To date, he has hired ultra conservative consultants to monitor PBS programming for liberal bias, collaborated with the White House to hire “ombudsmen” to keep an eye on the PBS programs “Frontline” and “All Things Considered”, and in an extremely undignified moment has warned a gathering of PBS executives that their programming should reflect conservative values or they would not get public funding (In retaliation for not adhering to his conservative war cry, he stood by as Congress attempted to slash funding for PBS, the very entity he is sworn to protect).

What is even more scary, is that Tomlinson has labeled extremist and/or liberal, anyone who does not align themselves with his, or the Bush administration’s, point of view. Some of his “extremists” include, Sen. Chuck Hagel (Republican) and Former Representative Bob Barr (Republican). To top it off, Tomlinson, as does Bolton, routinely suppresses or manipulates data that offers a dissenting point of view. When two polls he commissioned in 2002 and 2003 revealed that Eighty percent of Americans held a favorable view of PBS and that Ninety-Two percent of the American public considered the PBS reporting of the Iraq war to be unbiased, he squashed it. That is, until he was forced to hand the data over to Congress.

Is this sanity? Trying to brainwash the American public into believing anything the Bush administration wishes to be true?

Can an insane problem be solved with sane solutions? How can those of us with “reasonable and rational behavior” combat the opposite? How can we respond to insanity?

It’s not only the administration that is insane, but many of the people who elected Bush.

These are people who actually believe that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. People who proclaim that all life is sacred (unless you’re talking about the death penalty or gun laws). People who believe that evolution is only a theory. And, to top it off, actually believe Saddam Hussein and Iraq were involved with “9/11”.

So, I think we have a problem on our hands. An insane problem that can only be solved by an insane solution.

We need to turn all those red states into blue states (or at least the one’s that have the most electoral votes). We have to return the United States to sanity. The solution is simple (insane, but simple):

We need to take some of the college educated and/or reasonable adults from the blue states and have them move to the red states prior to the next election. Hey, I’m not asking for much, just an above average IQ. The blue states have more people than red states, surely there are some of you out there who can be relocated.

We need to spread sanity. So listen up all educated and reasonable adults. Texas, Oklahoma, the entire Midwest and South are now taking applications for sane, reasonable, educated people. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. A country is too.