Tar Baby

They don’t read Uncle Remus tales to kids anymore. You won’t see a remastering of “Song of the South” to be re-released this summer for kids. It is simply politically incorrect today. It mentions race and a kindly, but almost stereotypical, avuncular black man who relates fables to a young white boy. The stories are meaningful lessons in life, but we could hardly get to the moral of the story before the usually aggrieved fanatics would be screaming prejudice and racism while threatening to burn the theater down. It’s a loss to grow up without humming “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” along a daisy-lined path or knowing that Br’er Rabbit always outsmarts Br’er Fox.

Maybe the most famous tale was the one about the tar baby. That’s where Br’er Rabbit convinces the fox to grab onto the tar figure. The greedy fox does and within short order is firmly stuck to the tacky doll allowing Br’er Rabbit to scamper off for another day.

We’re watching another tar baby story emerge in our flat-lining American political discourse. The tar baby is Rush Limbaugh and the unlikely hero of the fable is the Democratic National Committee. Somehow they have managed to get supposedly intelligent Republicans who potentially could be re-organizing the party and leading them out of the desert toward the Promised Land to grab onto a tar baby in the rather rotund figure of talk-meister Limbaugh.

First it was RNC Chairman, Michael Steele. He got enticed and in a blundering apologia designed, I guess, to distance himself and the party from Rush, he mumble-mouthed disclaimers, denials and diverters to convince the observers that Limbaugh really doesn’t speak for either the RNC or Mr. Steele. He failed miserably, but in the process attracted the ire of Mr. Limbaugh who doesn’t take defamation lying down. The cliché about contests with the press used to be never get in an argument with an opponent who buys ink by the barrel. Today it should be never challenge someone who has three hours a day on talk radio to rebut your statements.

Now, we’ve got this:

Personality Politics vs Ideological Principles

I’ve always admired Newt’s intellect. He is one very smart commentator on the political scene. Unfortunately he often talks well above the heads of his audience, but that doesn’t detract from the truth of his message. He, of all people, should be smarter than to get stuck to this tar baby. Rush, in expected fashion retaliates.

The Republicans and conservatives are distracted from the development of a coherent message. The public finds new cause to ridicule Rush in particular and conservatives in general; and the Democrats skip merrily down the daisy-lined lane whistling, “My, oh my, what a wonderful day.”