that ain't no law and order

Last week for several days, was on a major "Anticipation" - "You're So Vain" kick -- Carly Simon songs.
Thinking of the song "You're So Vain" made me think of Miss Jones, my eighth grade English teacher -- and thinking of her made me remember a day in her class that was kind of unforgettable. I've got to describe that, tomorrow or Friday.
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OK, here's the platform -- 3 things we need:
1. Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.
2. Reinstate Glass Steagall.
3. Prioritize civility.

Fairness Doctrine,
Glass Steagall,
Civility --
we're good!
It's Miller Time!

The Fairness Doctrine
and
the Glass Steagall Act
were already "passed in the past" --
they are nothing "new" or "radical" --
we had 'em
they worked
we got rid of 'em
now stuff doesn't work.

(Life is not that complicated.)
You know? We were smart enough to pass these policies; they worked; then we were dumb enough to --
stop enforcing the one, and to
vote out the other -- so
NOW -- we got us some stuff that doesn't work, namely
the Media
and the
economy.
---------------------

When they stopped enforcing the Fairness Doctrine, that opened the door for cable TV to put obnoxious opinionators in front of microphones, with the word "News" on the wall, and they've been churning out unbalanced, one-sided ideas and political agendas which they tell us is "news," and it isn't.

In the last 17 years we've seen it escalate from obnoxious, to repellent and dangerous -- I no longer watch any of it, and I'm interested in politics.
I am repelled by the extreme right-wing positions, and I am a Republican.

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Richard Nixon ran for president in 1968 on a platform of "law and order."
There were riots in the streets, and people didn't want that, they wanted peace, and law and order.

At that time, many liberals and some moderates thought Nixon was too "conservative" (a word that's been much used and abused and twisted beyond recognition in recent times); some of those voters thought "law and order" was 'French' for -- we're soft on police brutality -- sock it to those long-haired hippies who are marching, rioting, and -- listening to rock and roll. Whatever.

But what a Vote for "conservative Republican" Richard Nixon meant to most Americans, in 1968, was -- we can't continue with these riots; we gotta have some "settle down." Most people who voted for Nixon wanted that "law and order."

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After the horrifying incident last Saturday in Arizona,
some people are saying the current vitriolic atmosphere in our political dialogue has been incitement to murder;
others are saying "No -- lone gunman." (we've heard that before).
I don't know which one is right,
but this much I do know:
That is neither law
nor
order.

If former President Richard Nixon were here, he would say, WTF.

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