By:Jerry Burke
Whenever anyone says something mean about the other side, the response is standard. The other side moans about how inappropriate it is to say something like that, or how unbecoming it is to affiliate yourself with such behavior.
In the past week, the GOP campaign machine has spent valuable television time demanding the release of a videotape instead of talking about the issues that affect your life. What is our position on health care, you ask? Who cares? Whoopi Goldberg made an anatomy joke involving the president's last name!
For the record, I have been making the same joke since the early '80s, when Bush the First was VP. It started when I was about 8 and was usually followed by giggling. This is nothing new, quite immature and, at this point, mundane.
The point is to never take the words of anyone who has graced the center of "Hollywood Squares" too seriously, especially Joan Rivers. Whoopi hasn't made a decent film since "Sister Act," and the fact that GOP operatives are falling over themselves to get a videotape of the Radio City fund-raiser, during which John Kerry said the people on stage represented the heart and soul of America, is almost as lame as her joke. Almost.
Then, of course, comes the response. Democrat pundits bring up Vice President Dick (giggle, giggle) Cheney's dropping of the f-bomb in the Senate. Then, of course, comes the response. Republican pundits bring up Kerry's use of a variation of the same word in a Rolling Stone article earlier this year. Then, of course ... well, you get the picture.
This is when we need to step back and think about the kind of voter who would change their vote because of an off-color comment. That's right, think hard. Can you picture them? No? Yeah, well, that's because, like leprechauns, Bigfoot and trickle-down economics, they are all figments of your %$#*&@ imagination.
We are all guilty of bias in one form or another. It's human nature. We tend to overlook the flaws of the horse we're backing and magnify the faults of those opposed without thinking they have anything useful to offer. Anyone who has been to a Subway Series can attest to this. But is the use of coarse language really the deciding factor in American politics?
Man, I hope not. But while both sides move toward the center in an attempt to out-bore the public during an election year, let us, the people, rise above the culture of the potty mouth and talk in civil terms about the state of our nation and the direction we must take. Leave the cursing to the professionals.
