Tuesday, August 25, 2015
The Ideological Box
In the Robert B. Parker novel "The Widening Gyre", Spenser is tasked with protecting a congressman running for a Senate seat. In a discussion with a seasoned political reporter named Cosgrove. Spenser asks Cosgrove about the congressman he's working for.
"He really is a born again, fundamentalist Christian. And that limits him. His options are so proscribed by his convictions he can't legislate very well. He's not a big thinker either. He's impatient with complicated issues, because he doesn't understand them. Often he doesn't even know they're complicated."
The Widening Gyre was written in 1983.
Sound familiar? 32 years later. Sure the hell does to me.
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"All my life's a circle . . ." - Harry Chapin
ReplyDeleteThe intellectual heft and facility of members of Congress is deplorable. It would be funny if it were not so tragic. But then, maybe it has been ever such. HL Mencken nailed it when he said
ReplyDelete“Congress consists of one-third, more or less, scoundrels; two-thirds, more or less, idiots; and three-thirds, more or less, poltroons.”
Amen!
First of the list of idiots, Louie Gomert of Texas...
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