Two studies have floated into my attention on the steady destruction of America. The annual poll account for the “Fourth of July” on how we suppose the Founding Fathers would look at America shows that upwards of 70 percent think they’d shake their heads furiously and arch their eyebrows. And, David Broder floated in his column an item I knew about years ago of a study of presidential Inaugural addresses showing that they used to be smart and are now dumb.

The first matter deserves a bit of a snarky: the founding fathers would wonder why the hell they have to answer to a slave, three quarters of a person, or a woman, isn’t their place in history designing American flags?, every so often in our daily lives. I almost want to suggest some truth to the Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure story that they would be amazed at the sight of, say, a water slide, but I think they can be acclimated to future doo-dads well enough to conceptualize our world relatively quickly.  (And actually a better and more literary reference for my cross time culture shock might come from … um… Mark Twain’s Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.)

That being said, the key of the poll is the comparison to the poll results for the year July 4, 2001, where a majority of Americans thought the Founding Fathers would view our America favorably. What happened in the meantime?

The latter study is interesting. But the deterioration is only problematic with concern with how it has played out from the advent of television onward. Which is to say the problem is that nineteenth century presidents were largely not talking to the “Common Clay” by means of mass communication, and is favorable from that stand-point — particularly up to that great flash point Broder points us to with Woodrow Wilson– in that it’s a sign of — to one degree — the democratizing of our politics.  That being said, yes, the pleas to “common sense” is troubling — always served as much a crutch to pass away differing opinions as anything else — but…

Well, I see that news that Bozo the Clown has passed away.

Bozo the Clown, also known as Jesse Helms.

Bozo.  Clown.  Jesse Helms.  the.

I’d be interested in a chart to see how many people logged in and made that somewhat rude joke.

With all due respect and apologies to Larry Harmon, of course.

I had half a thought that there had to be some reason John McCain was in Columbia, which is home to zero electoral votes and thus a very odd choice to campaign, and a little out of mind in the American consciousness to burnish foreign policy credentials — even if one is stumping for a Free Trade Agreement.  Things almost seem to align when American prisoners were rescued, but here again — that makes for roughly the lamest conspiracy theory ever (or perhaps lamest conspiracy) as it still doesn’t bring him any connection of Triumph.

I suppose one can settle into a back-room wheeling sans electoral politics, the Puppet Masters throwing the powerful out there and it doesn’t much matter — McCain remains the Manchurian Candidate or simply a Stump.

Strangely, the latest issue of one of the magazine news-weeklies, Time Newsweek USNewsandWorldReport, has a cover story with the provocative battle of “Lincoln Versus Darwin”.  This strikes me as a contrived battle — I don’t particularly see how Lincoln and Darwin or Lincolnism and Darwinism are mutually exclusive.

Other battles to take note of:  Comstock versus Edison.  Friedan versus Dewey.  Walker versus Trump.

I don’t quite know where these battles would take us and what criteria you would use to judge the victor, but there you go!

I have been seeing that the writers for The National Review have been, relatively respectfully really, claiming Barack Obama as someone who is “not pulling a Sister Souljah” — the focal point being his reluctance to cut ties with Jeremiah Wright, which was to suggest that Obama is, fretfully for them, an actual straight-ahead Liberal poised to win the White House.

Actually he’s a man who has surrounded himself with a number of corporate hacks, plucking up an economic advisor who loves Wal-Mart here and on from there.  But leaving that aside, the Liberals are now fretting over some political manueverings.  The most “Sister Souljah”est moment in terms of actual parallel with racial politics actually came with Obama speaking about the problems of delinquet black fathers spending all their time playing Play-Station, comments which I close my eye and imagine various white suburban exiles wanting to walk up to Obama and deliver a “Terrorist Fist Bump” for letting them maintain their stereotypes.  His announcements over two of the Supreme Court decisions don’t much bother me, basically because I politically find them tenuable and agreeable.  His weasle with FISA just depresses me.

But we now also see the odd spectacle of Obama coming out in favor of expanding Bush’s “Faith Based Initiative”s, a small program under Clinton, a large program of electioneering with political patronage under Bush.  There are a few ways of looking at this — in this nation you have to burnish your Christian credentials and there’s a segment of the population that thinks Obama is Muslim.  And I suppose it dovetails with Obama’s “Community Organizing” past and thus his vision of America.  Heck — if he doesn’t simply use it as Bush has and just wield it as a Holy Tammany Hall unit, it may have its virtues.  But it also strikes me that you can look at this with polls that show that Obama is poised to win 30 to 40 percent of the Evangelical vote, and news of his electioneering around Christian Rock Concerts.  It is a poll number that makes one fretful, even if it is good news that the Evangelical Youth are looking beyond matters of the Gays and the Abortions to a larager scope, because it leads to a whole new group to pander to.  (Kind of how I was weary when I saw that Obama was close in Indiana — increases the possibilities that Obama would tap Evan Bayh as his vice president, and we don’t want that.)

Yeah!  Bob Kelleher Better Speak!  Damned right!  Brushing aside one of your own like that.

We’ll get right on sending over that $100 for those insightful answer to the request to show what harm gay marriage brings.  I’m sure he’ll agree and get right on that… right?

Damned ye, Robert Richter!  I was plotting to take your gun away, but now I’ll have to take it FROM YOUR COLD DEAD HANDS!  The problem being… you’ll have a gun — probably two or three in each hand– and I won’t.  It’s all so confusing.