Lewis Black kicks ass…Just got back from the “Rules of Enragement Tour”.  Black was his usual curmudgeonly, hand-waving, finger-pointing, talking-through-gritted-teeth, f-bomb-dropping self…and it goes without saying he was funny as hell. 

     His everyday Joe rationality…decent, hard-working, civil-minded, progressive mindset, and raging wit made mincemeat out of what passes for leadership, entertainment and morality in this country…and did it in a way that makes it clear that we can do better, he’s going to keep making fun of us until we do.  No hard feelings, you understand, it’s his job.

     If you happen to be in an upcoming city in the path of this tour, I highly recommend it.  If not, there are CD’s available for sale.  They lack Lewis’ wild gesticulations, but are funny nonetheless.

     And it reminds you of why you are a progressive in the first place. First of all, we’re not what “they” say we are.  We’re not whiney tree-hugging feel-goodnicks that the right seems to want to be the definition of “liberal”.

     We’re progressives…committed to the foundations of our government, and it’s principles, and to the idea that the human condition can be elevated through the application of reason and building on the successes of the past and improving on them for the future.

     We are the inheritors of Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglas, Abigail Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, FDR, Helen Keller, Upton Sinclair, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Saul Alinsky, and Noam Chomsky.  I know, I know…they claim Lincoln…but I think we all know what it means when we see all those confederate flags and “coon hunter” stickers next to the “W” stickers, don’t we?  I think we know what it means when so many, many Republicans go and prostrate themselves before the alter of segregation, sexism, and repression-as-social-control at Bob Jones University…  The party of Lincoln they are not.

     And we Progressives have a real sense of humor.  Yes, we can be pissed off, but we can laugh while we’re doing it, and we can be amused by the absurd even as it ticks us off.

     Progressives play and work with the same issues in mind.  We are directed, in work, play, creation, discussion and all that we do to making the world and our communities better…and this is why we will win: because whether we are writing, speaking, singing, making jokes, voting, talking to our friends, volunteering in the schools, we do so with clear goals in mind, and we are getting energized to do even more.  Progressive patriots like Bruce Springsteen and are out there writing and singing and Lewis Black is stirring people up and making them laugh at the same time…Jon Stewart too…making people laugh, informing them, agitating…it’s going to all come together, as long as we remember one important thing:  these guys can’t really do anything.

     They’re cheerleaders, and cheerleaders can’t do shit without the team.  That’s you and me, sparky.  I know, I know, you volunteer for your church, you’re a foster parent, and you volunteer at the school, and you are on the board of an NGO and you attend your local city council meetings, and write yearly checks to public television and public radio and the ACLU…

     …but true progressives have made a horrible mistake.  We discovered a couple of decades ago that politics can’t solve most real-life problems.  The only things that solve real-life problems are real people taking real action, and we abandoned politics in droves to get into the trenches.

     And lo and behold, politicians took over politics, and the regressives took over the politicians.

     And now we are learning an important lesson:  While it’s true that even good politics cannot solve all problems; bad politics can get in the way of new solutions, and even roll back and destroy established solutions.

     So first, we take back our party…and then we take back our government, and then we go back to making our country a better place.

     But in the mean time, don’t forget to laugh.  Because after all, it’s a long road, and it’s too long a road to walk without a little laughter to keep you company.