Caller: "Swing to the right, now swing to the left, ignore the others, you know what's best!"
It wasn't until I decided to write this brief piece and had to do some research on square dancing that I learned how complex square dancing, and square dance calling, really is. There are web sites devoted to square dance calling and the "basic" calls have a 54 page manual. I guess nothing is a simple as it appears. So, my apologies to those who really know and understand square dancing for my abuse of square dance calling in my opening sentence.
It is truly funny, in a very dark way (not unlike Lewis Black), listening or reading the "mainstream" news media (TV and newspapers), the alternate news media (talk radio), and the alternate-alternate news media (the internet) how you get a vastly distorted picture of why our politics are what they are today: Politics--"poli-" from the Latin "poly" meaning "many" and "tics"--blood sucking parasites.
From "The Right"--every problem we have today is due to "The Left." If only the real conservatives, not RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) like McCain and Schwarzenegger, were in charge of everything, the World, not just the United States, would be a Utopia. The Right pundits (like Rush Limbaugh) cheer the Republican revolt with 100% (plus 11 Blue Dog Democrats) voting against President Obama's stimulus package in lockstep political embrace.
From "The Left"--every problem we have today is due to "The Right." If only the real progressives, not DINOs (Democrats In Name Only) like Lieberman and Davis, were in charge of everything, the World, not just the United States, would be a Utopia. The Left pundits (like Randi Rhoads) cheer the Democrat victory with overwhelming support (minus the 11 Blue Dog Democrats) voting for President Obama's stimulus package in lockstep political embrace.
Forget "The Center," Ladies and Gentlemen, it does not matter! When it comes to politics we will just continue to let the square dance only swing left and right. What we ruined with "The Right" swing we will fix with "The Left" swing. Oh, and vice versa, of course with the next swing . . . and on . . . and on . . . and on. Continue this swing pattern until no one is right to be "Left" and no one is left to be "Right."
From a very old "Pogo" comic strip, by Walt Kelly in the 1960s concerning the turmoil caused by the Viet Nam War: "We have met the enemy and they are us."