Sparks Trib 10/02/05 SPEAK UP OR GET OUT
Travus T. Hipp cabalenews at aol.com
http://fatchance.org/travus/comment.htm
I just can't understand the Democrats!
Not that I don't believe in the stated goals of the party; civil rights, economic equity, environmental restoration and solar powered dragsters, but I can't understand the various spokes-folks for the progressive movement, as presented by the media and the apparently self selecting strategists of the not quite left.
The recent rally against the Bush war and other policies of fascism featured a tortured statement by Harry Belafonte, whose nearly destroyed vocal cords failed to convey anything audible to the audience or the television camera. Daily the eastern liberal establishment offers up "Air America" whose lead personality has spent three years joking about what a lousy radio host he is. He's right, and anyone who works for that long and fails to learn the skill set for radio has a seriously flattened learning curve. Al Franken's inability to complete a compound sentence without digressing into some minor anecdote unre lated to the subject, detracts from whatever information might be conveyed by his assorted guest experts, and only his co-anchor's attention to such minor details as the program log keeps the show on the air.
Young Bobby Kennedy is another one who can't seem to speak publicly without digression, Jesse Jackson can hardly be heard for his soft voiced mumbling, and Charley Rangle sounds like a terminal lung case in an influenza epidemic. Somewhere along the line the dems seem to have sworn off rhetoric and advanced language skills as useful tools in their political campaigns. John Kerry is virtually inarticulate , even when you can hear his somnambulistic speeches.
Conspiracy buffs claim that it is really the media that is selecting these awkward and embarrassing representatives of the progressive position. Cindy Sheehan, who is both soft spoken and blissfully unaware of the context of her constant coverage is an example, though it appears that her "everymom" persona is winning her adherents among the equally challenged who have no voice in public affairs. Arguably, the media, which the right claims is largely liberal, is owned by corporate and rightist elements, and they make the choice of who speaks for what cause. The three most articulate speakers from the last presidential campaigns, Dennis Kosinich, Al Sharpton and John Edwards, are seldom , if ever, heard from, and we are left with the sputtering incoherence of the guest partisans selected by talk show bookers.
Not that the party leadership has done anything to define their position on issues from the war in Iraq to the suspension of prevailing wages for the workers rebuilding their Gulf Coast communities . If the left is largely inarticulate, their political strategy is obtuse at best and non existent from every indication. Even Howard Dean seems incapable of making any policy statement for the party he, ostensibly leads, concentrating, instead, on the direct communication of the cash he raises from the true believing .
The modern Demosthenes of the left must take the pebbles from his mouth and begin to speak the truth in loud and coherent terms.
------- 30 -----