I answered the door over the weekend wearing my green "Audacity of Joke" t-shirt, and the delivery guy saw that, liked it, and treated me an impassioned riff about the current administration, the past administration, and the one before that. He was on fire. Populist anger, right at my doorstep! I just listened, gave him a few "Yeah, things are pretty fucked up." I wasn't about to get into a political discussion that morning with the Peapod grocery guy, so I just let him shpiel, nodding politely. People are so pissed off right now, they don't even necessarily know which way to go, only that they're pissed. The fascinating thing for me was after this fiery diatribe, he said "You know, I'm not political or anything; I'm not right- or left-wing." I thought it was interesting, since he was getting a lot of his stuff from various right-wing radio broadcasters. The inchoate fury among Americans is palpable -- a 21st century version of "Network" -- "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it, anymore. Things have got to change!"
The funny thing is that, the night before, I thought "Hmm, I should change my tee shirt, just in case it provokes the delivery guy." I honestly thought that. It didn't provoke him, though; it inspired him. He saw it, said "Joke. Yeah, the joke's on us, right?" And I nodded, agreed that it was (embittered by last week's Supreme Court decision about corporate political speech).
