{"id":23457,"date":"2016-01-07T11:45:02","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T16:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=23457"},"modified":"2016-01-07T18:06:47","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T23:06:47","slug":"the-love-song-of-j-foxnews-polhack-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=23457","title":{"rendered":"The Love Song Of J. Foxnews Polhack"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was extended from an old post<\/a> of mine.<\/p>\n

(for reference, TS Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n

Let them go then, go and lie,
\nTo the people; the press supine with tight shut eyes
\nLike a patient etherized upon a table;
\nLet them go, with fatuous half-truths and deceits
\nThe fact-checkers in retreat.
\nThrough the ballrooms and lobbies of Washington hotels
\nAnd dim-lit restaurants with oyster-shells:
\nNo one challenges the tedious arguments,
\nThe cynical intent.
\nNobody asks a probing question\u2026
\nOh, do not ask, \u201cThat\u2019s not true, is it?\u201d
\nLet them go and make their visit.<\/p>\n

In the green room the interns come and go
\nTalking of Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n

The yellow hair that curled itself upon the buffoon's head,
\nThe yellow wisp that arched and flexed on the buffoon's head,
\nHissed sweetly to the howling fringe of the party,
\nCalled out to myriad fools \"Here is someone to hate\",
\nLet slide off its back the concerns of normal candidates,
\nSlipped by the guardians, made a sudden leap,
\nAnd seeing that it had befuddled everyone,
\nCoiled itself once about the country, and flicked its tongue. <\/p>\n

And indeed there will be time
\nFor the simpering hagfish that cruises our dark streets,
\nOozes his slime upon our TV screens;
\nThere will be time, there will be time
\nTo shake the hands to meet the faces he must meet;
\nTo mislead and lie about murder, about the state,
\nAnd time to piously preen in all the churches in the land
\nTo snidely insinuate about Her<\/i> mate;
\nTime for losses and time for wins,
\nAnd time yet for a hundred interviews,
\nAnd for a hundred speeches from Mr Cruz,
\nBefore the voting even begins<\/p>\n

In the green room producers come and go
\nTalking of Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n

And someday there will be time
\nTo wonder, \"Pataki? Who?\" and, \"Santorum? Eew!\"
\nTime to look back and list those not so few,
\nWho have fallen (or should, already!) to the buffoon \u2014
\n(They will say: \u201cIt's still early, he cannot win!\u201d)
\nMy Morning Joe, their hollers doubting that he is really in,
\nThe hosts rich and modest, all asserting he can not win \u2014
\n(They will say: \u201cBut his hair! It seems so thin!\u201d)
\nDo I dare
\nDispute the punditry?
\nIn a minute there is time
\nFor predictions and revisions which a cycle will unwind.<\/p>\n

But we all know them all already, know them all:
\nWe know their speeches, tax plans, all those pols,
\nWe have measured 2015 with endless polls;
\nWe know the voices braying of the coming pall
\nAbove the music that was not approved.
\n        So what should I assume? <\/p>\n

And we have known the lies already, known them all\u2014
\nThe lie delivered in that focus-grouped phrase,
\nSo carefully formulated, massaged to convince,
\nOr at least confuse, to baffle, or to faze
\nThen how should we begin
\nTo sort through all the lies and half-truths they have said?
\n        And which media to consume?<\/p>\n

And we have known the faces already, known them all\u2014
\nFaces that are old and wrinkled and white and bare
\n(But in the spotlight, bronzed, smoothed and fair!)
\nIs it boredom or distress
\nThat makes me so digress?
\nFaces lying about a policy, or lying about a law.
\n        And should we then assume?
\n        And when will it all end?<\/p>\n

Should he say, \"I have walked alone though the common streets,
\nAnd seen Mexicans raping, Muslims plotting,
\nChinese stealing, Persians refining\" ?<\/p>\n

He will admire a fine Iowa hog
\nGrunting in bliss in a pen at the State Fair.<\/p>\n

And will it have been worth it, after all,
\nWill it have been worth while,
\nAfter the speaking and the lying, so many unchecked 'facts',
\nAfter the polling, after the caucus, after the years of caustic rhetoric\u2014
\nYet still, still so much more ? \u2014
\nIs it possible to just say what they mean<\/i>?
\nBut no, still the magic lantern throws their lies and slanders on our screens:
\nWill it have been worth while
\nIf one, shouting into a pillow or turning off the news,
\nAnd turning toward the window, should say:
\n        \u201cThat is not it at all!
\n        That is not what we need, at all!\u201d <\/p>\n

I grow old ... it grows old ...
\nI shall swear at the TV as the days grow cold.<\/p>\n

Shall we leave the noise behind? Just put on Eat A Peach<\/i>?
\nCan we just order pizza, and renounce this endless screech?
\nI have heard that other countries get this stuff done in weeks. <\/p>\n

I do not think that you will listen to me.<\/p>\n

We have heard them lying upon the stage
\nSeen their strange stiff hair in waves blown back
\nFelt the ill wind blown from faces white and black.
\nThey have lingered in our living rooms on our TVs
\nAnd still ten months until this winds down
\nTill the new voices wake us, until the next round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was extended from an old post of mine. (for reference, TS Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock) Let them go then, go and lie, To the people; the press supine with tight shut eyes Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let them go, with fatuous half-truths and deceits The fact-checkers in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23457"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23478,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23457\/revisions\/23478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}