'The Karate Kid' effect

"No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher. Teacher say, student do. No questions," said Mr. Miyagi, played by the late Pat Morita in one of my favorite '80s films, The Karate Kid. Today, I can change that phrasing around to this: No such thing as bad supporters, only bad leader. Leader say, supporters do. No questions. Bush at times has acted less clever than a primate, and his supporters still love him. Love him. It's great to love him when you have to deal with (try to spill this out in one breath, but it definitely won't roll off my tongue) a tree hugging, tofu eating, enviornmental extremist, communist, socialist, tax raising, wasteful spending, babysitting, big government Liberal.

O.k. A brief synopsis of The Karate Kid: Daniel is a New Jersey teen raised by his single mother who move to Los Angeles. He has a hard time fitting in but does find a romantic attraction to a product of an upper-middle class family, Ali (Elizabeth Shue). There's just one problem. After they meet for the first time on a beach, her ex-boyfriend, Johnny (William Zabka), arrives with his possee. Perhaps, it was at this point in the movie, Daniel should've wooed a brunette. Johnny beats the snot out of Daniel with his high-flying roundhouse kicks. Daniel decides he needs to learn karate. And so an epic battle brews between one, scrawny teen and a pack of bullies. Daniel also befriends his apartment complex's maintenance man, Mr. Miyagi, who knows a little more than plumbing. Miyagi has a roundhouse kick of his own, and it's not solely used on his tool box.

In a previous post, I used a clip from Rachel Maddow's show on Air America. She pointed out how there's a view of how other countries perceive us. It's Conservatives and everyone else on the issue of international opinion. The average, rational American loves receiving praise by the international press for our innovation and tolearnace of multicultrualism. "This drives Conservatives nuts," she said in a wry tone, referring to the positive international press coverage Barack Obama received after securing the Democratic Presidential nomination. I'd like to take a different perspective from the one Maddow used.

Like Daniel in The Karate Kid, some of us are surrounded by a pack of bullies. A Conservative is like that kid in school who brought a ball to the playground. All the rest of the gym equipment is in use, and this kid only wants to share with his friends. His teacher reprimands him, but he still won't share with the rest of the class. "It's mine, it's mine, I can do what I want," he screams. Think about this. Isn't this aprapo for today's Conservative? It's mine, it's mine, I can do what I want, and you'll have to squeeze whatever you want from me out of my cold, dead hands. We have enormous deregulation (rich Conservatives can continue gouging off us working stiffs), 37 million of us living in poverty, record-breaking gas prices, resurgence of Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Conservatives are still complaining? I'd say they've been rewarded handsomely over these past several years. It's time the rest of us say: GAME OVER.

Daniel took the bullies on one at a time. I know you'll have Political Science professors, pundits, right-wing nuts, and apathetics who will say it's our American system at work as usual. Can there be anything more un-American than that thinking? We're just a limited, federalist republic (And Libertarians love that). As an optimist, I know we're better than this mindset. One voice can spread through a room and pour into the streets. There are many out there who have that power to demand change. It's then, and only then, we have a democracy (serves the best interests of ALL) that can eliminate this oligarchy to the point it becomes irrelevant.