Truth in comedy

By
Saul Landau                                                                        Read Spanish Version

Have
mainstream politicians grown so out of synch with the needs of the
people that only comedians address the issues? Traditionally, the
court jester dared shine a satiric light on imperial problems. In our
society, standup comics and “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert
Report”, under the guise of clowning, get away with exposing
corporate rip offs and self-serving government agencies. The
mainstream media accept these thug operations as national axioms.

Jon
Stewart and Stephen Colbert don’t joke about tens of millions of
people moaning, not whining, from pain of economic hardship. Because
it’s not funny! They occasionally refer to the proverbial elephants
in the American living room, which grow fatter and nastier. Who but a
joker would dare denigrate the “celebrated” armed forces, just
because they don’t win the wars that politicians manufacture? Or
make fun of the “protectors” from Homeland Security? FEMA, part
of the Security apparatus, played a cruel joke on the victims of
Hurricane Katrina. Let’s not forget the “noble” drug warriors.
One day in the very distant, as the comics know, they will surely
make a dent in addiction rates. The military, “security” and drug
baron, prime examples of imperial waste and idiocy, play the big joke
on the public: each receives a humongous — or humorous –slice of
the national budget.

If
more than $800 billion annually goes to feed these unproductive
monsters who metaphorically eat the country’s living room furniture
and shit on its floor, how will needed infrastructure repairs take
place, how will education, health and social services respond to the
growing needs of the nation, now almost officially in recession? Such
a question obviously makes my patriotism questionable. Or, I’m a
crazed addict! A “Reagan revolution?” Did I hallucinate?
Nostalgia oozes from those who remember him fondly. During his reign
sleeping with the President meant attending a Cabinet Meeting.

Outside
the denial-addicted White House, income and manufacturing wages have
fallen. In some 25 years, the bottom 40%’s share of national wealth
dropped along with income of families living on pensions. Funny? U.S.
manufacturing jobs have dramatically decreased. Hilarious? 

On
the other side, Reaganomics also inspired growth. For example, the
top 1% now “made” more money, and thus spurred the growth rate in
the gap between rich and poor incomes. Foreign debt has risen as a
percent of GDP. Thanks to Republican economics — supported by many
Democrats — the number of hungry people and housing foreclosures
have also risen. Jokes!

We’re
still number 1 — in the size of our armed forces, amount of nuclear
weapons, unwanted pregnancies, percentage of people, especially
minorities, in prison, and
number
of crystal methamphetamine labs. (See Sam Smith’s The Progressive
Review July 14)

Barack
Obama, satirized by the New
Yorker
cover as a terrorist, has yet to address issues of eroding
infrastructure and causes of suffering. Has he turned into Zelig, as
in the Woody Allen film by that title, the adaptable, opportunistic
creep who morphs into those he meets? Trying to win elections — then
they’ll “do something” — turns candidates into PR images to
make them look “honest,” “tough,” and warm and avuncular at
the same time.

Even
Franklin Roosevelt, in 1932, said almost anything to get votes. Those
who speak their minds like John McCain’s economic guru, an arch
representative of banking hanky panky, former Texas Senator Phil
Gramm, should have done his shtick on one of the comedy shows. Poor
rich Gramm, sentenced to pariah
status — “He doesn’t speak for me,” said McCain,
disowning his economic mentor. Gramm voiced
his and probably other multimillionaires’
thoughts about the millions of homeless, hungry, out of work and
recently foreclosed people as “a nation of whiners” — and
probably dangerous as well.

Gramm’s
speech patterns sound like the translation into words of the screech
made by a piece of chalk working its way across a blackboard. Might
Gramm aspire to become a columnist for The Onion? “You just hear
this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness,
America in decline,” he said. “You’ve heard of mental
depression; this is a mental recession.” Very funny! He also
questioned the veracity of some poor people. “If they’re poor,
how come they’re fat?” The Don Rickles of politics!

After
stumping Michigan with his candidate, McCain, and seeing thousands of
unemployed factory workers, he smirked — “Thank God the economy is
not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day.” Optimistic
millionaires like Gramm, whom McCain supported fully for President in
1996, dismiss such statistics. Michigan, once the country’s center
of major industry, leads the nation in joblessness! Big deal that May
unemployment rose 8.5%, up 2 points from April! The national average
in May was already 5.5% and rising. And official figures don’t
include people who have stopped looking for work, those who have just
begun to look or are about to seek employment like “thousands of
auto workers who are accepting buyout checks to drop off the payrolls
of the companies that make autos or auto parts.”

Gramm
and his ilk challenge PC behavior by continuing to buy SUVs. They
scoff at “buy America” slogans. The want quality and U.S. autos
— and their sales — have gone South because foreign autos are
better and production in Mexico is cheaper. “U.S. vehicle sales are
expected to drop below 15 million this year. Three years ago, the
industry sold 17 million cars and trucks.” (BW June 24 2008)
“That’s free trade,” Gramm might say. “Live with it.”
Perhaps GM, Ford and Chrysler will heed Obama’s “yes we can”
chant. 

Bring
the mantra to Wall Street to tackle the financial slide? Tell police
officers “yes we can” when they try to get the homeless and crazy
people off the street, along with the addicted, depressed and
recently “foreclosed.”

Respond
with “Hope” when you read about soaring murder and violent crime
rates in cities like Oakland, California, where the number of
jornaleros on the street seems to rise as the number of available
jobs diminish. Mock the growing number of people trying to augment
their $300 “general assistance” checks by pushing shopping carts
of cans and bottles to recycling centers.

The
health care crisis has become truly hilarious. Surely there’s
something funny about the poor having poor health and limited access
to medical facilities. Do you get anxious about rising health care
costs? The real joke is not one major candidate dares to offer the
single payer option. They remember how the muscular health insurance
companies pulled a fabulous gag on Bill and Hillary in 1993 and
killed off all health care reform. Candidates understand humor.
Single payer health plan? That’s a loser! Don’t go there!

Hey,
readers might say, “Obama is much better than…” Of course,
Democrats appoint better judges and heads of agencies, offer slightly
more equitable tax structures and more spending on social issues. But
they won’t touch the deep crises in health, education and
infrastructure. They can’t spend what the Pentagon already spends.
Everyone knows national priorities: waste money on the military
first, social spending later. The Pentagon budget nears $600 billion,
not counting nuclear weapons or “intelligence” — at a time when
no nation threatens and demand for social spending becomes desperate.

George
Carlin might have referred to the “celebrated military” as heroes
who specialize in destroying, killing, and shattering the U.S.
reputation. Then, they send home the useless crippled young people
and psychic wrecks. “Be all you can be and a lot less.” 

Since
1945, the fabled Armed Forces didn’t win in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or
Afghanistan. They do well when no one fights back — Grenada, Panama,
and Gulf War I, a technological massacre.

What
quicker way to piss away tens of billions than awarding it to the CIA
and other lettered agencies whose combined work yielded no help
before 9/11 and little afterward? Nothing succeeds like failure. Look
at our President! Each year, spooks get fat budgets for failing,
while failing schools cut bus services and academic schedules to
four-day weeks. The National School Boards Association reports that
“at least 86 school districts are on four-day weeks.” In 2005,
Webster County, Kentucky, by cutting off one day, saved “the
district more than $400,000 so far.” School buses in Ohio stopped
picking up kids living less than 2 miles from school. (Gwen Purdom,
USA Today July 14, 2008)

Barack
might change the priorities. Fund education and health, repair the
infrastructure and cut the military budget; scrapping the drug war
and relocate a stripped down CIA to the Library of Congress. My
bookie offered me 100 to one against it.

Editor’s
Note:
Phil Gramm stepped down from his position as chief economic advisor
of the McCain campaign.

Saul
Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow, author of A
BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD
(A/K-Counterpunch) and producer of many films
http://roundworldproductions.com/Site/Films_by_Saul_Landau_on_DVD.html