(Peter Finch is mad as hell in this frame from the 1976 film “Network.” Photo fair use from Wikipedia. Copyright MGM/Turner Entertainment)

A lot of people of apparently running on the Mad as Hell platform this season, echoing the classic line of Paddy Chayefsky’s washed up television anchor Howard Beale:
 
“I’m mad as hell, and I am not going to take it anymore!”

There is certainly a lot of reason for that line to resonate, but I think the fact that the character was completely insane is getting lost in the noise. I was amazed to find myself nodding in agreement to someone who was not shouting at all. He was on NPR, a media outlet that some of my pals have told me to eschew as the Voice of the Enemy. I suppose I could find some other outlet, but my ears are still ringing from the volume of the Fox News that my folks listen to up in Michigan. The more voices, the merrier, I guess.
 
The man on NPR was from the Log Cabin Republicans on the radio this morning. He seemed like a nice fellow representing his openly Gay organization.
 
I know, oxymoron, right? But apparently we are further down the roads to the apocalypse that I had previously noticed, though I had suspected.
 
I had a great and spirited conversation with a colleague the other day. We have known each other a long time, and I respect the breadth and depth of his intellect. The topic was mid-term elections, and the prospect of the voter referendum on the lunacy that replaced the other insanity in Washington, I am searching for something positive and making hard going of it.
 
The Tea Party movement is problematic, filled with righteous anger that I share and some zaniness that I don’t. Maybe you are in the same boat. I have always favored a center-right approach to the body politic. “Taking back our Country” is something you hear a lot, and I am supportive of the notion that we should take control of our borders and shut down the Coyotes and Cartels. I am willing to talk about the idea that the children of illegals should not be entitled to automatic citizenship. But that will require opening up the Constitution, and that makes me a little queasy.
 
If “taking it back” means a return to a pay-as-you-go system of finance, rational regulation of Wall Street, affordable approach to entitlement programs, strong national defense and a fair taxation system, I am onboard. I am not forgetting the bastards that picked my pocket on the sub-prime thing and am still waiting for some of those pricks to go to jail.
 
If “taking things back,” is a cryptonym for racism, I am appalled. Which is not to say that a sensible approach to immigration reform- like deporting people who snuck in- is not bad. I am not opposed to immigration. Just fill out the damn papers and ask permission. Even Mexico demands that.
 
That is why I was surprised to listen to the man from the Log Cabin speak and wind up agreeing with him.
 
His contention is that a deliberate strategy of the Republican Party was to adopt the social conservative mantra to oppose the loony Democrat base: anti-gay marriage, tough mandatory sentencing on drugs, strict limitation on abortion.
 
If you were to find three issues I think are totally on the margin of the real peril that confronts us, I would be hard pressed to identify them. But they are all wrapped up in the alleged answer to the crisis.
 
The man from the Log Cabin says that the gay rights issue has been won, and is essentially irrelevant these days, and I have to say I agree with him. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” is the current bone of contention. I am of the school that holds that national security is about successful combat performance, not social experimentation.
 
I served with some gay people who kept their secrets, I respect them, and am inclined to support the service of openly gay people. I just wish everyone would keep it quiet. It seems to work well enough our here in the private sector; there are several colleagues who are gay and whose affairs seem to make no particular difference to anyone. I think we have moved on, but I will have to ask my son what he thinks. He is going on active duty in two weeks, and the issue is of more concern to him than to me.
 
I have to put down the same argument about legalized marijuana. I have not observed rioting in Colorado about their legalization of medical pot, and has long suspected that the Drug War is a product of collusion between those who traffic and those who enforce to keep things profitable and employed on both sides.
 
Since the problem is one of demand and consumption, why are we not taxing it and taking the profit away from the Cartels? And isn’t it a personal right to do what you wish to your own body?
 
I can’t and won’t comment on the abortion matter. I am not female. I respect the opinion, dearly held on both sides, that it is either a matter of murder or a matter of personal health. I do not see any common ground and it is a matter of what you believe. What I do believe is that both sides are entitled to their beliefs and the State should not be used as the arbiter of morality.
 
My pal says that the whole great enterprise of America is based on shared values, and personal liberty is predicated on some basic premises of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It is too bad that battle was lost long ago.
 
I imagine things will work out over time. The man from the Log Cabin seems to think so. It is only a function of time, after all. I am mad as hell, at the moment though, and it is making me as crazy as Howard Beale.

Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
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