npr

the insane preying on the ignorant

excerpts from a "guy noir" skit on prairie home companion the weekend after the 2004 election:

GK: I walked down to the river. (FOOTSTEPS, TRAFFIC PASSING) I felt okay. I can operate in this world. What the Democrats were trying to sell was a romantic comedy and what the Republicans offered was a detective thriller. People wanted the thriller. Politics isn't about hope or romance, it's about money and power. And fear. You scare people and they'll give you power and that enables you to get the money and the money buys you more power. It works beautifully — create fear, take power, get the dough. And by Friday, you could see a lot of Democrats learning that lesson. They'd been blinded by idealism but now they'd figured things out. (TIME CHORDS)

...

GK: I stood in my office, the light slicing through the Venetian blinds, and I looked down at the street. A street of disillusionment, where con artists and gangsters operate freely under one disguise or another, the insane preying on the ignorant, but as Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1798, after one of his defeats, "A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt... If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake." Thank you, Mr. Jefferson.

(THEME)

TR: A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. But one man is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent questions... Guy Noir, Private Eye.

(THEME UP AND OUT)

yes, thank you, mr jefferson. and thank you, mr keillor.