I'd read Molly Ivins here and there, but never read her books. However, inspired by Bill in Portland Maine's frequent mentions of her in Cheers and Jeers, I finally picked up her first book, Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?
Wow, her stuff really doesn't get old. She wrote this in March, 1986, in a piece called How to Survive Reagan.
Things are not getting worse; things have always been this bad. Nothing is more consoling than the long perspective of history. It will perk you up no end to go back and read the works of progressives past. You will learn therein that things back then were also terrible, and what's more, they were always getting worse. This is most inspiriting.
She's right, because that's what it's doing. Such is time, Molly is now the past progressive whose work is inspiriting me.
And now, lo, after all these years of nobody even knowing we were down here, it turns out Texas liberals are among the few folks who know how to survive Reagan. We feel just like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Her primary suggestions are keeping perspective, and keep laughing at the truly amazing absurdities everywhere. Well, we certainly have been handed more than our share of absurdities, haven't we? What up, Michael Steele? Sarah Palin, fish or turkey? I'm not even going to bother to link to teabagger signs.
So my New Year's resolution is to take Molly's advice, and keep my perspective, and laugh.
I'll keep my perspective on progressives. People have a right to be wrong -- that's one of the freedoms we are fighting for. So if someone else is advocating an absolutely disastrous strategy, I will cogently disagree and then walk away. Wallowing in it saps my own strength, which I'll need for laughing, and at some point I will welcome them back when they see I was right. In the event of the unthinkable, I expect them to extend the same courtesy to me, so I won't burn bridges we both will surely need. I am fighting for them, they are fighting for me, that inclusiveness instead of exclusiveness is a progressive hallmark.
And I intend to LAUGH. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Bill in Portland Maine, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert. Hunter, write us another doozy.
My wish for the new year is that we progressives laugh more publicly. I want more groups like Billionaires for Wealthcare ("If we ain't broke, don't fix it!") I want more outright laughing at the lies told in congress and on the talk shows.
I live for the day when someone like Lawrence O'Donnels says to someone like Karl Rove or Newt Gingrich, "And I say that's an outright lie. Tell you what, there are 20 people within 20 feet of us who have an internet connection; I say we go to commercial break and let them look it up, and then after the break whichever of us is wrong will publicly apologize. Or doesn't the truth matter to you?"
Oh, how we will laugh. It's going to be an interesting and humorous year, so let's see it through together.
What funny moment are you wishing for?