P.J. O’Rourke: The Problem is Politics
The funniest writer I know is not Dave Barry, hilarious as he is. The most consistently funny writer I have read is P.J. O’Rourke. The following is a scream:
An excerpt:
Meanwhile, the Republicans have got John McCain. Everybody loves John McCain. Everybody respects John McCain: He’s tough. He’s consistent. He’s wrong. John thinks the war in Iraq is a good idea; the electorate doesn’t. It’s like McCain’s slogan is “wrong and strong.”
Meanwhile, there is the Democratic side of things, where Barack Obama may be altering the whole political equilibrium. Barack Obama is an indication that America has reached an important benchmark in race relations. It is now officially more important to be cute than it is to be white. And Barack Obama is cute. He’s very cute. And he’s nice. And it has been a long time since any political party has had the cute, nice vote sewn up.
The problem for Barack is that he just doesn’t have much political stature. But there is a sort of Disney factor in American politics. Think of America’s politicians. Think of them all as the Seven Dwarves.
They’re all short. They’re short on ethics. They’re short on common sense. They’re short on experience. They’re short on something. But we keep thinking one of those dwarves is going to save our Snow White butt. Government controlled health care is going to drive the best people out of the business. Who wants to spend years studying to be a doctor, just to become a government bureaucratic hack?
We’ve got Dopey right now. We had Sleazy before him. Grumpy lost in 2004. Sleepy was great in the eighties but he’s dead. So how about Obama?
This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which most members of the Peoples Temple cult, blindly following their leader Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
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One Response to “P.J. O’Rourke: The Problem is Politics”
I agree — O’Rourke is one of the best satirists we’ve got. And boy does he nail it with the Snow White analogy…
Jackie Papandrew ~ May 21, 2008 at 4:46 pm