I don't know what I was doing when this first aired, but today I was blessed with one of the finest pieces of reality TV I have ever seen. Now mind you, I'm not talking about the Bachelorette, or Donald Trump. I'm talking about Crossfire. Whooaa, I know, as does Jon Stewart, that there is very little reality on this show. At some point during the election, Jon had the balls to try and let them know that. I saw the footage earlier tonight, and it was the first time I have ever seen reality on a Left versus Right "talk show". You should watch this on iFilm. So much for the inspiration of this rant.
One of the points that became crystal clear from Jon's indictment of Crossfire was the stereophonic realities of our political system and many of those who "cover it". Our government, our political system, is like my parents old Magnavox console stereo playing those "Extra Wide Stereo" vinyl records. "Extra Wide Stereo" was supposed to mean that the record had a wide frequency response. In reality, it sounded like half of the band was way over to my right, and the other half was way over to the left. Thus the analogy to the Liberal versus Conservative hack shows. Every time I have watched one of these shows, I have been amazed at how extreme their guests are. I honestly saw one of these shows pit not one, but two atheists against Oliver North. The topic? Is the separation of church and state threatened when a teacher reads historical documents to his public school class that contain the word God? The atheists had the gall to contend that their rights were impinged by the teacher reading the Declaration of Independence where the words "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights." The teacher didn't write those words, our Founding Fathers did. You may not agree with the language, but you can't bury history because you don't like the phrasing. On the other hand, Olly tried to contend that the Founding Fathers meant for our country to be a Christian land, and that even though the Constitution does not mention God or religion anywhere in the body of the document, the use of the word "blessings" is blatant evidence of our Founding Father's Christian intent for this country. Olly may honestly believe that Jews, Muslims and American Indians would not be welcomed by our Founding Fathers, and therefore should be converted, or deported by a good Christian country like our own, but my belief is that both extremes need to Get Real!
I want to see these shows take two people out of the audience, the phone book, even the grocery store, and have them discuss their perceptions of the issues that matter most to them. It might be religion in schools or it might be the lack of a good ball diamond in their neighborhood. It might be controversial, but I would rather watch real people discuss issues that interest them, than listen to two extremists try to out extreme each other. The Crossfire guys tried to claim that they were a debate show. I was a debater. The first rule of debate is that the topic must be one where the audience members can be persuaded to shift, or even change their position. This is not happening on these shows, or in our two party system of government. Uncle Sam is playing the issues "Extra Wide."
What this country needs is an audio shift into the 21st Century. It's time for surround sound. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there are more than two sides to every issue. I not only want to hear them, I love to hear them. Give me a deep rich bass for rhythm. Let's hear some crisp brass sounds flutter out of the tweeters. Mix in a dozen more instruments to fill out the body of the piece. There is nothing like the big sounds of a Big Band. The key is to listen to the whole sound, not just one speaker. If you sit too close to the sub-woofer, your only going to hear the bass. If you sit too close to the rear speakers, you'll miss the movement of the sounds as they are transported across the room. If you listen only to the Left, you'll miss the cries for morality in society. If you listen only to the right, you'll miss the cries for morality in business and nature.
I don't know how many countries have a government thriving on a duopoly of party power. I do know of several countries that are thriving, or at least built on multi-party systems, Britain, Israel, Afghanistan, and soon, Iraq. How can we build a democracy in another country around a multi-party system, and then close our eye's to the danger's of our lack of one.
Watch Jon's appearance on Crossfire, then heed his plea. Don't let these "Extreme Makeover, Government Edition" shows mis-direct you from the reality of our society and our government, we aren't as far apart on the issues as a society, as the pundits and election experts (sic) would like you to believe.
It would be appropriate for me to go play a little Aaron Copland in surround sound, but since I got out of bed at about 12:30 am to get these thoughts "on paper", I'll have to dream about the richness of a Fanfare For The Common Man, and thank Jon for being uncommon.
