Political Ninny Land

Lucky you. I was all suited up and ready to head to the woods this morning when the phone rang. It was my daughter. She was sick and wanted me to come pick her up from school. But, before your mind goes too far down the “oh, poor girl” mode, let’s be clear: She’s suffering from what is clearly a wink, wink, nudge, nudge “illness” that could best be described as, “I hate Mondays.” And, lucky for her, she’s got a dad who hates Mondays and school enough to rather gleefully walk the two blocks to the school to “rescue” her from the grave illness that was lurking for both of us this morning: boredom.

So, lucky me. Because it was just stupid cold out there this morning. And I’d much rather be home tending to a “sick” daughter and sitting in my office communicating with you, dear readers, than pretending to be living the “good life” while being dragged around by a horse in search of more goddamn firewood. Good life, my ass. Well, at least not on some days.

So, here I am. I’m back, sort of. I was on a roll last week with this little correspondence we’ve got going. And thanks to my friends over at CounterPunch, a whole bunch more of you dropped in after they published my post-inaugural screed, “Ready. Aim. Organize.”

As a result, I got an email box full of comments from people that all basically said the same thing: Thanks, I don’t feel like I’m alone anymore. And that’s exactly how your emails made me feel. Whew.

But it still doesn’t take the sting out of the fact that this little nation of ours seems to be stuck in Ninny Land, that amorphous political space that is hijacked by pure silliness. Yeah, you know what I mean: The Republican hacks on one side jumping gleefully for Bush’s handling of the economy while the Democratic hacks on the other side jump just as gleefully for Obama. And that, of course, leaves those of us with our thinking caps still on seeing and understanding the vast nothingness of it all. Go team, go. Whatever.

Worse, the hacks of both parties can – faster than Brian Williams can declare a political winner on election night – switch sides and argue just as fervently on the total and complete opposite sides of a political argument.

The good Democrats, for example, are now defending Obama’s bombing of Pakistan over the weekend as some logical step toward national security. Nevermind, of course, that at least 14 civilians (women and children) were killed in the “surgical strikes.” Because this time their man, Obama, pulled the trigger. And these are the same people who would have sent the billion-dollar Obama campaign another contribution if Bush had done the same thing only a few short weeks ago.

Can you say “whiplash?” I knew you could. But, lucky for them, in America’s new political Ninny Land such dramatic changes in political beliefs/opinions are as frequent and acceptable as the channel changing during Sunday morning’s political television shows.

The Republicans are just as guilty of changing pom-poms in mid-political argument, too. Just consider the so-called financial bailout. For most Republicans, the bailout was totally acceptable for them when Bush’s treasury dunces were coming forward with two-page explanations for spending $700 billion. But, after Obama became “The Man,” those same Republicans did an about-face and decided that this was actually no time to be spending the government’s money.

Oh boy, everything’s possible in political Ninny Land. Well, everything except honesty, values, intelligent dialogue and consistency.

So, thanks again to my daughter for keeping me out of the woods today. Stay tuned for more posts today. I’ve got a lot yet to unload on you.