I'm not going to comment on the right/wrong of various individuals in the McKinney pool fiasco. I'm not going to do a Zapruder analysis on the fuzzy film coverage and say whether or not the police acted correctly or over the top, I'm not going to comment on racism and policing, I'm not going to say that the party organizer, or the cop, was in the wrong.
The fact is I just don't know. Not being familiar with all of the facts of the situation it's impossible for me to sit here this morning, sipping my coffee, in my recliner and weigh-in authoritatively on a mess of a situation. Too many elected officials and political hacks are doing that already.
What I am going to do is say that I'm willing to be the truth (whatever that may be any more) lies somewhere between here and here.
I'm also going to say that the rot in the American snake starts at the head and is working it's way down to the rest of the body. And not just with one man. That's too easy and it gives everyone in the ruling class a free pass.
Yes, Obama is not the leader we either wanted or needed. But the rest of the ruling class, the courtesan class that gloms on to them desperately seeking attention, and the chattering class are guilty as well.
This transcends party or ideology, it moves beyond race and financial demographics and it is elevated among legal status. The problems with America right now are systemic and legion....
Our ruling class is ineffective and weak, serving only to expose our weak underbelly, while the media whose job it has been to watchdog their doings have turned into a courtesan class whose main job is to salivate like Pavlov's dog hoping to catch a treat in the manner of attention. The end result of this is that we now have large segments of our population who feel that the rules of a civil society do not apply to them and that, when they should, the best reaction is violence and outrage.
We've reached a point where the very existence of success is viewed as something called a micro-aggression and anyone having anything is deemed to have received it at the expense of others. Punishment must needs be swift and justice is no longer blind. You will receive a quick and fair trial in the court of public opinion, followed by a quick rush to judgment confirming your guilt. Once your guilt is confirmed the only remedy is for your life, livelihood, and the life and livelihood of anyone close to you, be stripped away. This is not only unhealthy, it's unsustainable.
Our politicians view this as a chance to secure votes, to secure outrage and 'rile up the base'. And, as we well know, a riled up base is a voting base. The media views this as a chance to increase page hits, or viewership, a way to entice a little bit more money from advertisers to allow them to continue to forward the lie that the success of one particular for-profit entity is vital to the survival of the Republic.
America is breaking right now, and it's not clear that the people have either the attention span, the inclination or the pain tolerance to take the necessary steps to fix it. Instead we're probably looking over the precipice at a future where the 1st Amendment continues to erode for private citizens, where free speech is the enemy rather than the cure, where politicians taking hundreds of thousands of dollars for political access is overlooked while the jockey who just won the Triple Crown is facing an FCC fine for saying "holy shit" after winning the biggest prize in a generation.
It's all upside down and broken. I fear irrevocably broken.
United we stood, divided we are falling. Hard.
