Saturday, October 30, 2010

Jon's rally YAY!

My dear Jon Stewart, I love you even more, if that's possible, after hearing you try to sing during your rally today. It was painful, yes - but you said so yourself afterwards, and apologized. Even your most vicious opponents cannot nail you on questions of ego. You must have one, a big one to be able to do what you do, and yet you are the most self-deprecating and gracious of men.

There is a god, and she made sure that Jon's rally had glorious weather today. How I wish I'd been there. Yes, the American political landscape is not mine, and yet this week in particular, after the election of a petty small-minded blowhard as Mayor of my city - "a big, beefy white guy," as George F. Walker wrote in one of his plays - I felt at one with them all, that vast American crowd just wanting some civility in public discourse, some rational thought and reasonable debate. Not so much to ask, surely, but now in Toronto, we're going to be begging for it too.

There's a wonderful article in Friday's "Star" by Charles Pascal, the best analysis I've read yet about the mayoral upset. His premise is that Ford's victory is "a serious and obvious message that the many who are not doing well with the status quo simply do not trust the 'establishment' to come through for them any more." Ford was appealing as a fellow outcast, Pascal posits, his wealth notwithstanding. "Things are just not working for too many of our neighbours."

"While it is true that you can't be angry and smart at the same time, the anger of many, including many who feel disenfranchised, produced this electoral result. To vilify Ford while ignoring the underlying reason for his success is to miss an opportunity for all of us to be smarter about doing something about those being ignored or left behind."

My hope," he concludes, "is that Ford himself understands who put him over the top."

Sir, dear Mr. Charles Pascal, with this wise and reasonable assessment, you should have been in Washington this afternoon, standing beside the wise and reasonable Mr. Stewart.

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