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| Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy in The Newsroom |
The Newsroom has been savaged by some reviewers, both from the political right, which is predictable, and from the left, for the usual reasons of stupidity posing as intellect, but I wound up watching all ten episodes, and was not at all put off by the preachiness. In fact, its writer, Mr. Sorkin, does pretty much what George Bernard Shaw did in the early 20th century--he writes plays of ideas, in which speeches are made and ideas vigorously presented. For doing this, Sorkin is criticized for not writing what the critics expect from TV. He is criticized for being preachy, which is apparently not allowed in television drama. It violates somebody's rule.
Apart from its place in literature, the show is useful as a platform for ideas. It summarizes with great clarity the great issues of the day, and its last episode lists the 12 characteristics of today's Republican/Tea party, after a nifty observation about what the Republican Party is now all about, summarized in a quotation from a Republican office holder explaining why he did not support any of the government's social programs, like Medicaid, Social Security or Medicare:
"My mother told me not to feed stray animals. Because, you know why? They breed."
This of, of course, is what I've been describing as the Republican view of the poor and disadvantaged as "the undeserving poor." If you are not rich, it's because you have not worked hard enough or you are too stupid.
So here is the profile of the dirty dozen characteristics. You'll have to watch the show for examples of each, but I'm sure you can supply your own. I've supplied a few:
1. Ideological purity (Mitch McConnell saying his only job in the Senate, and the only job of Republicans is not to govern but to deny President Obama a second term.)
2. Belief that compromise is weakness (Paul Ryan stomping out of Budget negotiations with President Obama.)
3. Fundamental belief in scriptural literalism. (Teach creationism not evolution.)
4. Denying science (Vaccination causes mental retardation. Abortion causes breast cancer. Birth Control pills cause prostate cancer. Deny global warming. Rejection of evolution.)
5. Unmoved by facts (President Obama is responsible for the downgrading of the US credit rating--when Standard & Poor's, who did the rating specifically said it was the Republican "political brinkmanship" that moved them to downgrade. Ryan calling Obamacare "government controlled health care," when in fact it is a private insurance company boon and the government option was thwarted. Ryan saying President Obama hurt Medicare by funneling $716 billion away from it--when in fact that very number was in Mr. Ryan's own plan. This list goes on--see the NY Times 8/31/12 for a list under "Facts Took a Beating in Ryan's speech.")
6. Undeterred by new information (Always)
7. Hostile fear and demonization of education: (See anything by Michele Bachmann, or see the testimony of the New Hampshire Tea Partyers who call it "government education, indoctrination and socialization.")
8. Need to control women's bodies. (Do we really need to elaborate here?)
9. Febrile xenophobia (Ditto)
10. Intolerance of dissent.
11. Pathological hatred of the United States government.
12. Tribal mentality.
There is Jon Stewart and there is Stephen Colbert. There is Paul Krugman and there is Gail Collins. And now there is Alan Sorkin.
And then there are the women I work with every day, who do not know any of these people and have never watched The Daily Show, the Colbert Report, or The Newsroom. They do not read newspapers. They do not listen to TV news.
And, they vote.
And, they vote.
But their husbands do listen to Rush Limbaugh.
The question for us, between now and November is: How do we change this?
Oh those pesky undeserving-I spotted a couple of them last week, on the first day of school, waiting for the school bus in front of a motel on the main drag. This motel is one of a couple in town that will rent by the week and the month and accepts local aid vouchers so it attracts a lot of the undeserving. In fact pretty soon the number of undeserving at the motels will increase(the strays are multiplying!)once the local campgrounds close for the season. Anyway the two young boys waiting for the bus looked about eight and ten, probably old enough to be aware that most of the kids in town don't get picked up and dropped off at a motel-many get dropped off at some pretty nice houses. Of course the Republicans would say their undeserving parents need to get a job-except that many of them do work and we all know what a generous compensation package places like Mobil on the Run offer.If one job isn't enough they could always pick up a job as a venture capitalist or such, a couple nights a week, just to take the edge off. Last week at the convention of the holy they stated continuously that it was about the children and the families--all about the deserving children and families that is.
ReplyDeleteSo Mad Dog to your question of how to get through to voters like the women you work with so that they understand they are just one major illness,accident or lay-off from joining the ranks of the undeserving, I'm starting to think brain transplants may be the best option..
I only saw a couple episodes of The Newsroom, I kept forgetting when it was on, but the ones I saw I liked. As for Jackie Cilley, hopefully she'll be rewarded on election day for refusing to do the wrong thing.
Maud
Maud,
ReplyDeleteWhen did the poor go from pitiable to contemptible?
We were poor, when I was young. But we never felt poor, or beneath contempt.
There must be psychology afoot. I cannot feel guilty about my five homes and my 13% tax rate if the poor are undeserving because they are lazy and stupid and immoral and feckless and deserve to be poor. Their problem, not mine.
God must have wanted me to be rich and He must have wanted them to be poor.
Or something.
Mad Dog