Several years ago, a friend talked me into watching Mike Judge's 2006 comedy "Idiocracy." The premise was part sci-fi, part political commentary, as it detailed the travails of the lead character portrayed by Luke Wilson. Wilson plays the quintessential average American who was selected to participate in the U.S. Army's prototype human-hibernation program. He awakens to an America that is beyond moronic – one ruled by a Harley-riding president named Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, a hard-talking tough guy who unleashes a barrage of automatic rifle fire to bring the House of Representatives to order.
The movie is a not-so-subtle criticism of increasing corporatization as well as the carnival tendencies of current American politics, which seems to consistently appeal to our lowest common denominator.
Given that the movie was produced shortly into the second term of President George W. Bush, and the fact that the only news source that existed in Judge's "Idiocracy" was Fox News, there's no doubt it was intended as yet another liberal Hollywood sneer directed at those rube conservatives. And more than a few left-wing commentaries have attempted to equate the presidential style of Camacho to former President Trump.
But if we're truly considering the very real possibility that America 2021 has plunged deep into a state of idiocracy, spare me the argument that it all exists on the Republican side of the aisle.
On the one hand, we have a President who struggles mightily to string together coherent thoughts in public and wanders aimlessly down random sidewalks at the White House when not escorted. His vice president has an embarrassing nervous tick that causes her to laugh hysterically whenever she is placed in a pressured environment.
Even when she holds her composure, everyone is left wondering what in the world they just watched:
Meanwhile, the leader of the growing far-left movement, Senator Bernie Sanders, owns multiple homes, expensive vehicles, and a multimillion-dollar bank account, all while parading in front of cameras pretending to voice the plight of the working man.
He also appears utterly clueless about how majority rule works.
See, this would totally make sense if there were 50 people in the Senate. It would be ludicrous that two people could overrule the will of the overwhelming majority of 48/50. But, of course, there are 100 people in the Senate. Sanders conveniently forgot about the 50 Republicans who have joined the two Democrats he's condemning. Which means it is ludicrous to think that 48 people can overrule the will of the 52-vote majority.
Not that he's alone. His protégé, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is a goldmine of material for Mike Judge if he ever decides to write a sequel.
Take this, for instance:
The layers of ignorance here are daunting. First, a synonym for entitlement is "right." If you are entitled to something, you have an inherent "right" to it.
Second, healthcare depends upon the delivery of the services of another. It's one thing to say you have a right to live, or a right to be free, or a right to pursue your own version of happiness. Government is prohibited from denying you those things because they are your right. It is quite another thing to say that you have a right to healthcare, given that what you're really saying is that you have a right to the labor of another person or persons.
Yet all of this is lost on the masses that devour this kind of shallow thinking, the native language of the idiocracy.
Of course, neither document states such a thing. But notice what she says in praising AOC: "All citizens are entitled to have health care during our lives." Didn't Ocasio-Cortez just announce healthcare was not an entitlement... in the very tweet this woman is praising?
Heaven help us all.
I'm fully aware that former President Trump has recently appeared on a pro wrestling broadcast as well as what appeared to be some sort of Korean infomercial. And I know that others on the right tend to say their fair share of head-scratching things as well.
But when it comes to the inauguration of an idiocracy in America, the Left is playing a leading role.
