Back in the 1980s there was a joke about Democrats laying out their new platform. The principles of the platform were tax cuts for the rich, big spending on the military, and cuts in programs that help the poor and workers. One Democrat asked, “How does this make us different from the Republicans.” The answer was, “Compassion: we care about the victims of our policies.”In my opinion, what makes a good joke is the fact that, beneath the surface of the joke, there is a solid grain of truth that people need to be forced to confront.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Joke
Here's a bit of humour from a Paul Krugman posting:
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2 comments:
I read this post and the joke a day or two ago and I have had it going through my mind a lot. Anyway, this evening I was reading the Atlantic rather than sitting at this computer and I read a David Frum article that reminded me of your joke. The title is Bring Back the Mugwumps. You can see it on line here . I haven't read much if any that I remember from David Frum, but this one had some interesting points.
Thomas: David Frum is the son of Barbara Frum a famous CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) reporter. She was a wonderfully reasonable liberal-minded person (in my humble opinion). Unfortunately her son was born brain damaged (my little joke!) and turned into a conservative. You can see a tribute to Barbara Frum here (look at the clip 'A Daughter Remembers').
David Frum was a big Bush supporter (he wrote Bush's speeches). So in my book that makes David Frum an idiot. But... he finally got fed up with the obstructionist Republicans and he has joined forces with another conservative who has jumped ship, David Brooks in supporting Democrats in the hope of cleaning out the fanatics from the Republican Party and make it safe for classical conservatives once again. (I can actually enjoy classical conservatives. They have a useful viewpoint needed to correct radical leftist extremism. They are too cold hearted for my taste, but as a philosophical position, they are useful.)
Thanks for pointing out The Atlantic article. I enjoyed it and David's call for modern day mugwumps.
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