James M. Redwine

Harris

No Blood, No Ratings

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Tuesday, October 02, 2024 on CBS was a disaster for the TV networks but a breath of clean air to American voters. Unlike the mud wrestling between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on ABC on September 10, 2024, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance engaged in a civil and substantive debate on important issues: Immigration, the Economy, Reproductive Rights and the Middle East. The post-debate analyses by the national media of the presidential debate was like hearing post-game comments from a home-town fan.

If Harris and Trump explained their positions on any issue, I did not hear them. But I did hear the media chortle over the competing charges of lying, criminal intent and incompetence. The commentators were simply giddy with the prospect of selling advertising by regurgitating gossip. In contrast, Walz and Vance never called one another a crook or a liar and several times agreed that the other candidate had a good position on important national problems. The media hated it. The talking heads wrote the entire vice-presidential debate off with the disdainful description that it was “Mid-Western Nice”.

Harris is from California; Trump is from New York. In between is America. My wife, Peg, once had a tee shirt that depicted the United States as New York (along with the rest of the east coast states) on the east edge, California (and Oregon and Washington) on the west edge and everything in between just a black hole. The caption read: “A Bostonian’s view of America.” Apparently, many in the national media see the United States that way. And the inhabitants between the east and west coasts are seen as unassuming simpletons who do not have the sense to come in out of the rain or to cast aspersions on all with whom they disagree.

Midwest Nice, or as your mother might admonish, “Say something nice or say nothing”, just does not “bleed to lead”. On the other hand, filling an hour and half debate with invective, whether based on fact or based on nothing, can ramp up interest in the populace. Turn on, tune in and enjoy the scrum; we should not concern ourselves with policy or solutions. That is so boring.

In about a month, two of the four candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency will be chosen to lead our national government for the next four years. It might be refreshing if between now and November 05, we in the “Fly Over” part of America could be called upon to do more than just finance the choices those on the coasts make for us. A little Mid-West Nice from everyone might ease the national angst.

Believe It Or Not

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How does a new religion get started? Islam fourteen hundred years ago? Christianity two thousand years ago? Judaism twenty-four hundred years ago? The Romans and Jupiter twenty-five hundred years ago? The Greeks and Zeus three thousand years ago? The Egyptians and thousands of gods four thousand years ago? Gentle Reader, these are just my guesses; you are, of course, free to make your own estimates or consult Google as you see fit.

However, my actual concern is the religion of presidential politics as practiced currently on cable TV in America. And I know when these new beliefs began. With FOX News, the new Defender of the Conservative Faith arrived when Donald Trump came down that golden escalator in 2015. As for CNN and MSNBC, their faith in a Liberal Deliverance was restored only a couple of months ago when Kamala Harris arose like the mythical Phoenix from the ashes of Old Joe.

As best I can tell, the liturgy of these conflicted beliefs relies heavily on denigrating whichever candidate a particular TV network does not like. Portentous warnings from talking heads claim that the election of the “wrong” candidate will cause crops to fail and Taylor Swift to become the new Pied Piper of American youth.

These dire warnings from CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and even occasionally, PBS, have become as ubiquitous as commercials and as vociferous as a Pentecostal sermon. CNN convenes numerous panels of “Never Trumpers” who have heard directly from on high that a Trump election will immediately boot America from our Promised Land. And FOX asserts that a Harris win will reign fire and brimstone all over our democratic Garden of Eden, or at least, everywhere but New York and California.

But, just as one religion after another from the dawn of recorded history has appeared and disappeared, we can all pray that this election will end before Armageddon begins. I foresee hope for salvation from this endless cacophony of vapidity, FOOTBALL! As we Americans have done since the first football game was aired on TV, we clutch at the hope our team will rise above the fray. We can seize onto the faith in our champions on the gridiron and set aside the ennui brought on by the gaggle of gloom bearers on TV. Unfortunately, football season only lasts through the Super Bowl in February of 2025. Of course, the networks are doing their best to force us to buy every game and the new Transfer Portal and Name, Image and Likeness rules are sorely testing our faith.

And, of course, whoever wins the election will be subject to four years of damnation from some of the disappointed anchors. Those sore losers will likely begin endless recriminations for venal sins they assert just over half of the electorate will have committed by worshipping a false idol. As for us in the captive viewership, maybe the INSP network will have enough Gunsmoke reruns to sustain us until the next two graven images are nominated four years from now.