We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore

[Cassandra]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article_rss/were_not_in_lake_wobegon_anymore/

"The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous.

Rich ironies abound! Lies pop up like toadstools in the forest! Wild swine crowd round the public trough! Outrageous gerrymandering! Pocket lining on a massive scale! Paid lobbyists sit in committee rooms and write legislation to alleviate the suffering of billionaires! Hypocrisies shine like cat turds in the moonlight! O Mark Twain, where art thou at this hour? Arise and behold the Gilded Age reincarnated gaudier than ever, upholding great wealth as the sure sign of Divine Grace."

The sort of funny stuff you've come to expect from Garrison Keillor. One of the best descriptions of the elements of the Repuke party I've ever seen.

[jean]

1. this is just excellent - if you know Keillor, imagine his voice and

enunciation as you read. . . (especially the p's in this snippet)

' The Nixon moderate vanished like the passenger pigeon, purged by a legion of angry white men who rose to power on pure punk politics. “Bipartisanship is another term of date rape,” says Grover Norquist, the Sid Vicious of the GOP. “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” The boy has Oedipal problems and government is his daddy.

snip

This is a great country, and it wasn’t made so by angry people. We have a sacred duty to bequeath it to our grandchildren in better shape than however we found it. We have a long way to go and we’re not getting any younger. '

[Paradise]

2. this just has to be kicked and read, entirely! ya gotta! :) n/t

[Paradise]

3. just nominated this for home page! thanks Cassandra! :) n/t

[Cassandra]

4. There's enough juice in that list...

to give Skinner ammunition for the Top 10 for weeks!

[Paradise]

6. you betcha! :) n/t

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mistertrickster]

7. As always, Garrison is above average. The thing is, how did these

wankers ever start running our country?

I'm still trying to figure that out.

Anyway, here's a kick and thanks for the post.

[Moderator]

8. More from Keillor from Salon (edited for copyright reasons)

At Salon.com (full article available to nonsubscribers who watch the DAY-PASS advertisement:


Aug. 21, 2004 | In the past, they were vaguely considered to be of the
liberal persuasion, but unlike, say, Barbra Streisand, they chose not to wear
their political passions -- or candidates –- on their sleeves. But this is 2004,
and a swarm of previously muted American notables -- from Bruce
Springsteen to Howard Stern to Sarah Jessica Parker to, yes, Neil Diamond
–- have begun clamoring to tell the country exactly what they think of
George W. Bush and what they would like their fellow citizens to do about
him in November.

The latest to add his wry and humorous voice to the anti-Bush chorus is
Garrison Keillor, bard of America's sensible flatland, who has just published
"Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts From the Heart of
America," an entertaining encomium to the progressive values he holds dear.
n it Keillor, the host of public radio's "Prairie Home Companion," writes
warmly of the homespun Scandinavian wisdom that informed his childhood -- "Don't Think You're Special Because You're Not," which is just the local way, he notes, of reminding people to take care of their neighbors. It's a basic human value, Keillor observes, that the party of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft and Tom DeLay gleefully abandoned years ago. "They are a party," writes Keillor, "that is all about perceptions, the Christian party that conceals enormous glittering malice and is led by brilliant bandits who are dividing and conquering the sweet land I grew up in. I don't accept this."

We recently communicated via e-mail with Keillor, who once served as Salon's "Mr. Blue" advice columnist, from his home (we assume) in St. Paul, Minn.

By and large, you have not been known in the past for flaunting your political opinions. But now you've come out
loudly and proudly as a die-hard Democrat. Why did you decide to reveal yourself this year -- and do you worry
about alienating your Republican fans out there?

I've always been a Democrat. Never tried to hide it, never thought I had to. "A Prairie Home Companion" isn't a political show, and by and large I hate preaching on the show. I've done it a few times and never felt easy about it. The show ought to be entertaining in every sense of the term, to people of any political stripe, my people and also ignorant fascist bastards. Writing a book is another can of beans entirely. I wrote this out of pure conviction that the country I love is in grave danger of sliding away, and one does not stifle those thoughts. I don't know why Republicans should be alienated. Ricky Skaggs has been traveling around with President Bush, singing at his rallies, and I sure am not alienated by that. Ricky is a great artist and a good guy, and I hope I get to sing with him again.

http://www.salon.com/books/int/2004/08/21/keillor/

[Paradise]

9. kick! n/t

[gulfcoastliberal]

10. Kick! Read this!! -- nt --

[silverweb]

11. Just read his new book...

Homegrown Democrat. Like everything else of Keillor's, it was wonderful.

[Moderator]

12. Kick

:kick:

[struggle4progress]

13. Lovely. eom

[Miss Authoritiva]

14. The Bush-Cheney bumpersticker you won't see:

Bush-Cheney 2004...Bringing you 4 more years of

Government of Enron and by Halliburton and for the Southern Baptists

[regularguy]

15. Ha: " Nihilists in golf pants"

[procopia]

16. This isn't my mother's Republican party...

Garrison Keillor is my new favorite writer! This was great. Read the comments below the article, too.

[Moderator]

17. Kick

:kick:

[Endangered Specie]

18. Wowzers! Im gonna have to get this one.

!

[Champion Jack]

19. KICKED

Great stuff