Santelli and Other Right Pundits Cannot Discern the Signs of These Times

Having been slammed by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs for his insensitive,  boorish, and untimely remarks regarding President Obama's Mortgage Aid Plan,  CNBC pundit Rick Santelli should be clued in.  Santelli had accused Obama of helping "losers".  What he seemed not to be grasping is those days of glitz and wealth worship are over.  It is a new era,  and calling struggle Americans "losers"  is not going to fly anymore,  not in this new culture of Obama.  Using Howe and Strauss terminology,  Santelli has come dressed in summer beach ware at a crisp and cold October event.  He is post-seasonal.  He is out of synch with the times.  And nothing is so foolish nor so futile as that. 

In fact,  the whole rant against the needy has become distasteful.  It simply will not pass muster,   now that we are no longer in the pursey '80s and '90s.  To hear Rush Limbaugh ranting on and on is to hear a loud swan song;  a last whining,  gasping croak of a breed who is now as out of place as a thin summer dress at an autumn apple picking weekend.  We all like to flatter oursleves that our time will last;  that our rule is never-ending, and that time will not overtake us.  But the generations are shifting, and today's Obama -supporting grassroots youth are not the jaded Generation Xers who would tolerate a Santelli,  a Limbaugh,  a Glenn Beck. 

Sorry guys: High tide has come up  on you,  sweeping your towels and chairs away.  While you were sleeping,  the tides of Obama were rising. Fiddling while Rome was burning,  you lost your place in the sun.  Like the foolish virgins in the parable of Jesus of Nazareth,  you said,  "our lord tarries"  and did not light your lamps,  but fell to slumbering,  and did not awaken when the midnight hour tolled.  And so the bridegroom came,  and the doors were shut upon you,  so you may play the fool nowhere but in your own domain. 

   As the ancient Chinese sage,  Wang Bi,  says:  When he sings,  he sings alone,  and no one answers his tune.  He who occupies a high place but is not in accord with the time,  is surely headed for a fall. . .