Beyond the Politics of Family Values

There is a round table discussion show called “Beyond Politics” on CNN. For all I know it is produced for the foreign market only, you can tell me if it also appears on domestic American CNN.

The moderator is a famous man who has staked an unfounded claim to expertise in morals, American morals, and values. He appears to believe that his self-declared expertise empowers him to advise Americans on these subjects, and to evaluate all aspects of American society for their performance in these matters. He is allowed year after year to pontificate on American morals and values. His credentials are dubious at the extreme range of reason. His presence on the pundit scene is a big problem for me.

In the first place, he is associated with the “Family Values” clique of the right wing of the Republican Party. Their “Family Values” exist only in their self-serving propaganda; with rare exceptions it never translates into personal behavior. Recall the uproar raised by this clique when President Clinton was discovered to have had an inappropriate sexual dalliance with a young White House page. Recall with me now the countless disclosures that the same congressmen who where leading the chorus of super-heated condemnation were themselves guilty of the same or similar things. Many were serial immoralists; now abandoning their families as no longer necessary to avoid being drafted; now having affairs with married women that resulted in the ruination of the woman’s marriage; now dumping wives that do not age gracefully; now, indeed, having sexual affairs with pages, much more wide-ranging and successful affairs than that of the President. I will refrain from naming names, except that I believe that Henry “the Home Wrecker” Hyde is too dead to sue me. Didn’t it cause the fall of a Republican Speaker of the House? And wasn’t his replacement then immediately hoisted on the same petard? They were doing these things while they were appearing on TV laboring to impeach President Clinton for lesser transgressions, which they did for purely partisan political purposes. Upon the discovery of their own sexual transgressions, they didn’t apologize, they just cursed their fate on being caught and soldiered on, hoping that the voters of America were stupid enough to continue to believe that the Republican Party held the high moral ground.

The blatant hypocrisy of “Family Values” is nowhere more apparent than in their legislative agenda. They have consistently opposed funding for bills that would actually help American Families, usually calling the bills “socialist,” “liberal,” or “homosexual” in nature. Money for Head Start? A program with demonstrated ability to do good and generate actual savings of money down the line? NO. Money for health care for children? NO. I don’t have a list at my fingertips, but matters of education in general, health care, libraries, student loans, public housing, Social Security, the environment, etc need not apply. You know, anything that could possibly enhance the lives of families and children, anything like that is “Big Government,” to be despised wherever it is uncovered, unlike the “Good Big Government” of aircraft carriers and space-based weapons. Who gets the money spent on the military items? Well I don’t think that you are stupid, I think you know already. I think you know who gets the kick-back benefit too. And I think that you can tell how I feel.

Now, the really funny part of my problem with this famous moderator. This pundit’s own character is obviously deficient. Although I would dearly like to have his hair, I would not have his body for all of the money in the world. Whenever I see him, I wonder, “where are his fork and spoon? Where is his food?” How could he get that fat without the never ceasing consumption of food? I’m sure that his off-camera nickname is “Edward Fork-and-Spoon Hands.” He is so fat that he can hardly breathe. That this corrupt, Impulse-Control-My-Ass, morbidly obese pundit presumes to lecture me on morals twists my nipples with impertinent fervor.

Did I mention that he is an inveterate gambler? He loses, of course, millions upon millions of dollars, but neither does this seem to disturb his self-righteousness.

Does the appearance of this show on CNN make him part of the self-proclaimed “Greatest Political Team on Television?”

Please see the related post, “The Fred Program of Re-Education” for my humble recommendation regarding people of this sort.