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When the Laughter Ends

By Shawn Macomber on 6.16.11 @ 11:05AM

John McCormack probed the Republican presidential field in search of funny bones last week and Jim Antle got an earful from the humorless whilst exploring Herman Cain's Pizza Doctrine, but apparently neither had it as tough as Albert Brooks who recently described his own humor-precipitated political disillusionment during a visit to the New York Times to talk about his new dystopian novel, 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America:

I’ve always been politically interested. I haven’t always been involved. I haven’t always found people to support. I went on the road with Dukakis. I went with him trying to write jokes. They asked me to come and I have to tell you after four days with him I took his people aside and said, ‘I won’t be able to vote for him.’ I watched a guy who I didn’t think would be a good president. I was up close. You know, I liked his principles, ‘Sure I’ll come help,’ but it’s hard to find someone to love just because you believe that things should go a certain way. It’s hard to find a leader to love.

At this point in the podcast I thought Brooks might be on the verge of making the case against the cult of the presidency to Sam Tanenhaus. Alas, he quickly recovered his credulity and fell back into the warm embrace of cliche politics and predictability:

There was much about Obama to love. Being talked to as if you had read a book was such a relief after, you know, the Bush years. So I like people that I believe know more than I do. Or at least have thought it through. That’s who I enjoy listening to when I’m being spoken to by a politician.

Yes, it's nice to have a real smart fella around who can explain to us how bombing the hell out of Libya isn't an act of war, who translates "tax increase" for we dolts into the more esteemed phrase "reduce spending in the tax code," who helped the American left understand the Patriot Act is really nothing to worry about after all, so long as a robot signs it. None of this makes sense to me yet, but I'm sure it will once I read the right books!

Look, I love Brooks work and will definitely check out his fiction debut, but he's smart enough to know that taking for granted the wisdom of those promulgating the rules we live by--or those enabling the promulgators, often undemocratically, as is more often the case--is a very slippery slope.

View all comments (6) | Leave a comment

Hank| 6.16.11 @ 12:46PM

Brooks was on NPR a few weeks ago to promote the book and made some conservative/libertarian leaning comments about the inability of the government to redistribute wealth and the inherent corruption of a system that allows politicians to buy themselves back into office by giving out benefits to voters.

PattyMor| 6.16.11 @ 2:32PM

What do you expect when you have a marxist media who cheerleads instead of questions or investigates. We had one looking dreamily at his pant creases and another with a thrill up his leg. Shallow and pathetic. So we have a president who makes a joke about wasting nearly a Trillion Dollars and his side kick at GE laughing along.
A President who meets people across the street, so they don't have to sign the visitors log.
This president came out of the sewers of Chicago and the stench is getting a bit much.

WinnieR| 6.16.11 @ 7:29PM

They can laugh about it! Like us in the private sector know, you can get a pink slip for losing a mere $1000 let alone a trillion!
No accountability.

Tenn Slim| 6.16.11 @ 9:25PM

The sad thing here, is that the average, john doe, the plumbers, the cosmeticians, the welders, the riveters, the techies, these are the folks that could care less about the Brooks of the world. Yet these folks will suffer long and hard in the coming Depression.
end
Semper FI

Mike| 6.17.11 @ 12:07AM

They will really suffer when they find out that Ryan's voucher doesn't come close to paying the insurance premium. But, I'm sure they have been saving for retirement. I mean with all those good jobs and soaring wages created by the Bush administration, the average John Does must be rich.