Many of you have asked for my reaction to the election. This is some of what I said just voting began, last Monday night:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union…”
A more perfect union. It’s not a perfect one. Not then, not now, not even tomorrow.
But today, on Election Day, we can resume our quest for perfection. We can resume the pursuit of our potential. We can regain our footing on the trail blazed by our Founding Fathers, and march forward again, on the path which will surely lead to greater days and glory, for all.
Others have written more eloquently since the results, but it still captures the essence of how feel for “us.” But, like many, the events of last week have also had a profoundly personal effect on me, one which I’m struggling to understand. Perhaps this is it:
Before I was a comedian, I was (sorta) a lawyer. Full of idealism and delusion, I went to law school to be the next Thurgood Marshall. To improve the world through a long, determined, reasoned struggle. Somehow, I think that delusion has informed my creative career, too.
While my comedy didn’t change the world – though I’ll take credit for the newly Blue states (because these things just take time: I make two people laugh, they laugh two friends, and they laugh two friends, and so on and so on) – little Thurgood is smiling broadly within. I can’t shake this feeling that, at last, the hope I clung to in my act has come to be realized.
“One of the things that makes Kreisler fascinating is his unashamed love for America; he just hates what has been done to it.” - The Scotsman
I always said Americans weren’t dumb, we were just never given a reason to be smart. Our lives have been so easy. But, if Bush and Rove and Iraq and Enron and Katrina and Bear Stearns and AIG weren’t going to make us think, I didn’t know if anything ever would. I think they have (for a while).
One of my bits of which I’m most proud is about Katrina, and about my fear that even that wouldn’t shake us from our daze of indifference.
“The final section, involving Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney and Rohypnol may be the most powerful description of the past few years of US history you’ll hear…”
I’ve been scared. Scared that nothing would change and we’d become Rome, burning on the oil of ignorance while selling fiddles at a markup. I’m not saying we’re in the clear now, but I have a little less fear.
Maybe I can exhibit a touch more joyful on stage. I’ve always had some, but it’s been mixed with a desire to throttle people into consciousness: This country and our human potential are too important to fritter away. I won’t ever lose my drive to discover, uncover, and explore patterns and wrongs and things which are uncomfortable… but perhaps I can sprinkle in my “it’s going to be okay” a little more liberally.
But that’s just me.
Stumble it!
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