Those of the chattering pundit class who are not fools to be taken lightly, but instead actually have meaningful things to say on a consistent basis, deserve the courtesy of our occasional acknowledgement, if not our sincere graditude and deep respect.
To me, Jay Bookman - bio here - of the Atlanta Journal-Constitutuion (the nation's 17th largest newspaper based on circulation) is clearly in this select category and thus worthy - at least - of greater exposure.
Simply put, he routinely nails it.
Today's column, enticingly entitled "Flock of Libyan parrots leave mark on U.S. democracy", struck me as so damn good as to be blogable
Please let me bring it to the attention of you all, down below.
The column should be read as as a whole, so please follow the link above and check it out.
The title of the piece is based on the ancient story described as follows:
... the wily and ambitious Apsethus of Libya captured hundreds of wild parrots, caged and fed them and taught them all to repeat the same message: "Apsethus is a god."
When he released the birds into the wild, the parrots endlessly repeated their newly learned talking point (parrots being very good at staying on message). And for a while, it worked.
Bookman then brilliantly rifes off the tale of Apsethus to the bankruptcy of our modern political discourse, wherein any and all semblance of honest and open discussion has been replaced by commentarians, talking heads and surrogates, as well as the candidates themselves, endlessly regurgitating focus-grouped talking points. Those who dare to step out of line, as Kathleen Parker, Christopher Buckley and David Brooks have recently done, are summarily tossed aside or attacked as traitors to the greater cause.
The conclusion:
For such honesty, Buckley and others are being attacked as traitors.... But those who make that claim have lost sight of what treason really is.
Stating your honest opinion about what is best for this country is not treason. Those who argue otherwise value loyalty to a political movement above loyalty to country, and that’s just the kind of distorted thinking that got us into this mess.
Good stuff, c'est pas?