Over the past few days, in the cab I drive here in Ann Arbor, I have been listening to WAAM, a local radio station. WAAM broadcasts Michael Bennett, Glenn Beck as well as a few homegrown conservatives like Elder Levi Yuille. It's a lot like Big Time Wrestling.
In much of the World Wide Wrestling Federation, unless you're talking about the likes of a Bruno Sanmartino, WWWF Champion for 11 years from 1963 to 1971 according to the Wikipedia, lurid storylines, over the top theatrics and the "ideal of the Ultimate Avenging Lone Wolf Warrior" is a uniquely American re-conjuration of the old time Prometean myth of individuality.
Is it any wonder then that this kind of myth wouldn't resemble a short cut catharsis? An "officially" Independent I-have-a lot of-black friends-so I'm not-racist-America perspective starving for an instant miracle, but settling for the spectacle of the "extreme" titillation of the politically incorrect view. Indeed, the entertainment value is much like getting Thunderbird when you can't get Bordeaux. Yeah, you're poor, out of work and no one listens to you, but you can still get a hell of a good buzz and be American to boot: can't beat a deal like that, can you?
So, who is the American Moderate and whose America are we talking about when we don the Cowboy Hat and mount the Saddle of that troubled brand of Freedom many of us euphemistically claim while "Patriotically" forgetting that the left side of the horse is the side you mount and dismount from?
This past Saturday around 5 O'clock or so, I talked to Elder Levi Yuille on air. He along with Milt Harris were editorializing on how the abomination of Homosexuality was intimately connected with the Obama Administration. Elder Yuille is a very intelligent man and I congratulated him to that effect. My question about whether God's Love was indeed open to all regardless of difference was intended to uncover whether or not Elder Yuille was aware of or in the position to own up to the possibility that a rhetoric of "judgment" could lead to a crime of hatred on the part of his listeners. The Elder's response was, to paraphrase, God's love is open to all as long as each man or woman accepts Christ as their Savior.
There was no need to press him further because he answered the question and then some. And this is where the side of Conservative high horse, almost to the bone, bleeds into the realm of Big Time Wrestling.
In their day, Randy Macho Man Savage or Roddy Rowdy Piper hollered their "truths" with the same veracity and conviction of Elder Yuille. But just as The Shiek grunted and postured his position of an ordained no holds barred superiority, Elder Yuille bowed to Love while simultaneously praying for a full collection plate to boost ratings in much the same way as Glenn Beck or Laura Ingram or the "so called whip" of Marcia Crowley attmepts to exact market share dressed up like some 21st Century Thomas Paine legal steroid enema.
Are these people winning? Depending on who you talk to and what time of day it is, heck yeah, they're winning. But not because what they are saying is true. They're winning because our side hasn't said or done enough to shut them up.
There is not enough time and space here to go into what our side has and hasn't done. The fact remains, we have not done enough and we sorely need to do a heck of lot more before any of us can go on vacation anywhere, period.
In this kind of game, the Star Spangled Banner has already been sung. Forget about the "other guy." Trust me, they are just blowing smoke.
Take off the kid gloves, roll up the sleeves and in the words of wise men such as Yogi Berra and Joe Buck's Dad, Play Ball.
And let the chips fall where they may.