Turning, and Turning, The Widening Gyre

Let's talk ideas and ideals.  As a self proclaimed moderate (all moderates are pretty much self proclaimed) I find myself sympathizing more these days with liberal positions on many issues (I know, not a surprise if you read this blog with any regularity).  I think this is a product of the fact that I have decided, for reasons of faith, that justice and caring for the least of these must be a work of humanity at all levels, not just in individual relationships.  At some point I stopped believing that charity was enough, and came to believe with a deep conviction that unless we work to reform the corrupt, unequal and violent systems of the world, we are just putting a band-aid on the broken neck of our society.
Once I had been convicted that the status quo was not okay, holding conservative positions became difficult to say the least.  I no longer believe that politicians and corporations are the best people to make ethical decisions that can and will effect the commonwealth of humanity.  Money is a problem, lust for power is a problem, the desire and will of the haves to protect what their position and status leads to the oppression of the have-nots. And there is little you can do to talk someone into giving away power and security once they have it.
And so you get what we had here last week: defenders of the status quo calling for change, but only proposing new wrinkles in the same greedhead free market mularky that has been plaguing us since Ronnie Ray-gun was soothing us with his dulcet Hollywood voice and presidential demeanor, which is to say pretty much my whole life.  Democrats are as guilty of it as Republicans, Bill Clinton famously said, "It's the economy stupid."
Blame the "mainstream" media, both sides do.  But understand that the media is just a consumer-governed commodity these days.  Fox News can peddle their Righty-tighty political punditry and MSNBC can peddle their lefty-loosey version, and they can shout angrily at each other and engage in gotcha moment after gotcha moment, and most of us have to resort to watching Jon Stewart laugh them off stage.
But alas Mr. Stewart has ridden off into the sunset (actually just to New Jersey) to run a farm for abused animals (seriously, that's what he's doing now, look it up).  A couple of years ago, Stewart, in a moment of brutal honesty, talked about how when The Daily Show started, they would take things politicians said out of context and make funny or crude jokes about it, but at some point they realized (and I think were genuinely surprised by the fact) that they didn't even have to do that, they could just basically repeat what was actually said and roll their eyes and it was funny.
What happened?  How is it that the court jester became the Walter Cronkite of the twenty-first century?  HBO ran a series called The Newsroom, in which Jeff Daniels plays Will McAvoy, cable news anchor and troubled soul, who keeps trying to do news the "right" way.  The McAvoy character seems like a contradiction in today's media climate.  Daniels does a fine job in portraying the rather dicey situation modern journalists inhabit.  Your personal preferences and foibles are always under scrutiny, misinformation abounds and speed is everything, but more troubling than any of that is the simple fact that the straight news just doesn't pull the ratings.  The fictional ACN news department is basically only viable because someone influential has the clout to keep it off the chopping block despite all the red ink it bled all over the corporate balance sheets.
Want to know why those CNBC moderators were as worthless as ice skates on a pig, understand what they're paid to do: grab ratings by appealing to the lowest common denominator.  It's not new, the Weekly World News and the National Enquirer have been at it for decades.  The best journalists know to stay far away from the idiot box, and I personally thank the good Lord above that the internet allows me to read news again.  I can got directly to AP or Reuters, I can read commentary from the NY Times or the Washington Post with the click of a mouse, most critically of all, I can fact check... everything.  Which can be a lot of work, but unfortunately you can't really trust that people are just going to tell the truth
The center has not held, because the center relies on sober analysis and dispassionate weighing of merits.  Eisenhower Republicans and Kennedy Democrats are things of the past, and Walter Cronkite wouldn't even last a season on cable news.  The funny thing is, if you talk to real people, the center is alive and well.  There are enough people out there who can honestly think through a complicated idea like the healthcare, gun control, or racism and realize that we need to do some things different.  Most of us realize that poverty and crime and the whole justice system are problems that need fixing, we may disagree on the methods and strategies for fixing them, but we need to work together regardless of those differences.
You wouldn't even think that's a possibility from watching what passes for the national news these days, and cable news?  Let's just say, nope.  Let's get our news elsewhere, what do you say?  I've been doing it for a while, and if anything I feel better informed.  I can really tell I've kicked the TV news habit when I watch things like the debates and see their shenanigans, that's why I shout at my TV.  Try it, no Fox News, no MSNBC, if you have to watch some news go to PBS for Lehrer. There's plenty of sources.  I hear you can even get old-timey things called newspapers and, you know, read.
See if that doesn't change the way you think and feel about things.
Stop letting the alarmists and the fearmongers try to sell you their wares, you will have enough going in your head in a while.