where's mr. smith?

Thank heaven for Frank Capra.

The great director made pie-in-the-sky movies that were so sweet they were almost saccharine. It's a Wonderful Life. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Movies ideally suited for the All-American charm of Jimmy Stewart. But you know what? The reason Capra's movies have staying power is that behind the sweetness -- behind the lovely charms of Donna Reed and Jean Arthur, actresses who were devoted to the idealism of George Bailey and Jefferson Smith -- there was a massive kernel of truth.

Yes, it IS a wonderful life -- a life worth fighting for, a life worth fighting for. And Democracy -- the Big D Democracy that is what the Constitution is all about -- may be the worst form of government ever created, but it's better than any other.

Sit down and watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington again. Sure, it's melodrama of the highest order, but see if you don't see the whole sad scenario being played out today, only without an idealistic Jeff Smith to rise up and point out the lies and the fact that the Emperor has no clothes.

If you don't have a copy handy, Jimmy Stewart's character, Jefferson Smith, appointed to fill an empty senate seat by a governor who resides in the pocket of the political machine run by Jim Taylor. The running joke of the movie has every politico within earshot of Taylor jumping every time the power broker speaks the word "frog." "Yes, Jim," they spout.

Taylor wants a dam built to feather his own nest, and he's spent money in all the right places to make it happen. Rather than appoint a potential threat to his about-to-be-realized barrel of pork, Taylor arranges to have someone he considers a stooge to fulfil the unexpired senate term, a rube named Smith.

The only problem is that Smith is a real Boy Scout (okay, Boy Ranger, but we all get the analogy) wants to built a national campground on the area the dam would flood -- a place where boys could meet the majesty of nature first-hand. The boys would repay the government for the cost of the park by raising nickels and dimes.

So, the machine consipres to silence Smith by keeping him out of the Senate chambers by using diverting his eyes from his job and focusing them on a near-by skirt. It works. Once.

When Clarissa Saunders, his senate aide, tells him the score, Smith decides to fight the dam and has the entire weight of the senate fall on his head. He's accused of graft and is on the verge of expulsion when he takes to his feet and stages a filibuster.

It's Hollywood at its best. A single man fighting a political machine -- and the machine fights back hard. Taylor monopolizes public opinion since he owns the press. The presses he doesn't own, he simply rents to silence Smith and tries to raise public ire to oust the upstart. And when Saunders rallies the Boy Rangers and their newspaper to support Smith, Taylor simply strongarms the boys, beating up a few in the process. What do they care so long as the dam gets built, right?

But in the end, when Smith collapses, the senior senator, who's complicit in the whole sceme, breaks and confesses on the senate floor. Saunders, who confessed her love in a note to Smith during his filibuster, and the exhausted young senator live happily ever after and the threat of bullies like Jim Taylor is neutralized for good and all.

If only it really worked like that.

See, we have Jim Taylor at work today. The Taylor strategy was put in motion during the Reagan Administration. It started simply enough: they deregulated the communications industry. They relaxed the rules of acquisition (those rules that the Ferengi live by, for those of you of a geeky nature). You see, a free and unfettered press works best for you when it's YOUR free and unfettered press.

Changing those rules allowed companies like Clear Channel to buy up radio stations the way my ex-wife bought up chocolates the day after Valentine's Day. And allowed Rupert Murdoch to expand his television empire dramatically -- to the point where he could start his own network, Fox. Twentieth Century Fox was an All-America brand -- why not pervert it in support of a Jim Taylor enterprise?

Changing the rules allowed newspapers to get bought up just as fast. Those that wouldn't play along, folded. Today there are fewer newspapers to choose from. Most cities have only one -- no competition is necessary in the Jim Taylor world. Those cities with two have them working under what's called a "Joint Operating Agreement." That means the papers are joined at the pocketbook, making them a Taylor-made siamese twin.

So, here we sit. A nation built in Jim Taylor's image. The best congress money can buy. Unfettered power weilded in Jim Taylor's image, for Jim Taylor's purposes. You see, Jim Taylor owns Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown and Root and Global Crossing and Enron and Exxon. Jim Taylor owns the company that manufactures voting machines on Ohio -- and guaranteed that state would ultimately support Jim Taylor's candidate for President the last time around.

Jim Taylor makes the machines of war, so invading Iraq was a great idea. And Jim Taylor owns oil companies that just HAD to get their hands on Iraqi oil. And since Jim Taylor owns big companies on Wall Street, things like social security should be reformed so those companies can get their hands on the social security trust fund and we should all be encouraged to run right out and create Health Savings Accounts administered by Jim Taylor's money managers.

Who cares of a bunch of young kids get strong-armed by Jim Taylor and his men -- No Child Left Behind is a GOOD idea, right? Jim Taylor thinks so, so it must be.

So, what does Jim Taylor want next? Besides keeping all that money he rakes in? How about reforming the tax code so Jim Taylor doesn't owe a dime to the IRS -- and while we're at it, let's give him a massive refund on all those taxes he doesn't owe. That's fair, right? Jim Taylor thinks so.

The problem with the Jim Taylor's of the world is that they've gotten too big, too powerful. So far, they've throttled the Jefferson Smiths and managed to control the reportage of Jim Taylor's crimes and manage public opinion to fit Jim Taylor's vision of the way the world ought to be.

We just have to pray that Jeff Smith doesn't stay throttled forever.

More soon.