Yes, It Really Does Matter to Me

I'm not going to try to make this a coherent post, so just try and hang in there with me...

I tend to avoid the news. It gets me a little worked up. I get some info from my Google news widget, but other than that I try to avoid it. I'm happier that way. However, every four years i get sucked into what has turned into the endless campaign for president.

And then I get really worked up.

Here's why: When I look back at some of the things I was taught at the school I attended--the same private school for 12 years--it makes me a little upset even to this day. I was taught things like Gay is Bad, Being Different is Bad, Race Doesn't Exist (since there were no ethnicities at my school other than flat out white), Women Belong in the Home, Abortion is a Sin, Sex is Evil, America is a Christian Nation, and so forth.

I get worked up over this presidential elections stuff because it seem like the Republican Party went to the same school I did, but just hasn't bothered to look into any of the crap they were taught and see if the information was good or not. One of the things that annoys me most is the GOP's apparent love of ignorance. George W. Bush really set a precedent in this category, i.e. he really made the conservatives of middle-America latch onto their dislike of thoughtful consideration (one of the lessons of Different is Bad, btw.) It makes my blood boil a little even to this day when I think of the time Bush sneered when John Kerry had the temerity to say the word "nuance."

So what's got me going about this was one of the things on that Google news widget (which I think I probably should get rid of) I read this morning. Here it is:

In a CNN debate, Gingrich pushed back at anchor John King when King questioned him about an interview Gingrich’s second wife, Marianne, had given ABC News. In the interview, Marianne Gingrich suggested her husband had asked her for an open marriage so he could carry on with a mistress, Callista Bisek, now his third wife.

“I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. And I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that,” Gingrich said. “I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking Republicans.”

The "nuance" that's in Gingrich's response is out of this world. First, lemme say I don't care what kind of sex Newt Gingrich has. His sex life is his own and as long as he doesn't harm someone or is involved with someone (or something) without agency, he's allowed to do as he likes. Of course, he nor his political affiliation feel this way. That's why his first bit of nuance is found in him not having answered the question. The second bit is a move he took from George W.'s playbook and elided liberalism, "the media," and evilness, and placed himself in the holy, "other" category. Third, he established that a presidential debate (and thereby politics) is something precious and pure. Fourth, he again sites his mash-up of liberalism/media/evilness, points it all at Barack Obama, and re-asserts his affiliation with the holy side (Republicans).

The most annoying thing about this answer for me is a phrase I just can't wait to go away: elite media. What the hell is that, this elite media? I've got a sound file on my computer in which I A/B 10 minutes of broadcast news from NPR and a Rush Limbaugh show. I had to try it several times because the first few times I recorded Rush's show it was ten minutes of commercials. Anyway, when I hear this elite media phrase from a conservative it conjures up NPR. I figure that's kind of the synecdoche the speaker is trying to place in their non-thinking listener's brain. What's really happening, of course, is elite media simply means anyone that doesn't agree with us. I mean, after all, Newt Gingrich himself has been employed by Fox News for several years now. Surely he doesn't mean Fox?

So anyway, this elite media phrase got me looking at some random stuff which I will now convey for your perusal with no other interruption from me. Make your own connections.

Here are the Alma Maters of some prominent members of George Bush's administration:

George Bush: Yale

Robert Gates: Georgetown

Dick Cheney: Yale

John Ashcroft: Yale

Tom Ridge: Harvard

Michael Chertoff: Harvard

Here are the Alma Maters of some well-known conservative pundits:

Glenn Beck: Sehome High School (didn't graduate)

Sean Hannity: Adelphi University

Rush Limbaugh: Cape Girardeau High School (didn't graduate)

Bill O'Reilly: Harvard

Tucker Carlson: Trinity College

Here are some currently (or very recently) active Republican figures that also are paid commentators for Fox News Broadcasting (there are no Democratic figures that are paid commentators on Fox News):

Newt Gingrich

Karl Rove

Sarah Palin

Mike Huckabee

Here is the net worth of some of the people above (all in millions):

Donald Rumsfeld: 200

Dick Cheney: 80

John Ashcroft: 3

George Bush: 26

Ron Paul: 5

Rush Limbaugh: 300

Glenn Beck: 85

John Boehner: 2

Newt Gingrich: 6.5

Karl Rove: 6.5

Rick Santorum: 2.5