Podcast 402

America 2015 Pre Fascism? These days American politics seems to be nothing more than snark, shouts and screams, politicians doing and saying whatever they can to get as much media time as possible, served by a willing media looking for a three ring circus to increase ratings, clicks, favorites and views. Rather than working in politics, people seem to want to be their own movement (of one), or hang out only with those they agree with. Mostly no one does anything. These days a political argument is calling someone a name, or a personal attack. No one wants to hear the details. Frustration, fear and anger rule the day, and rhetoric is king. Need to solve a complex problem? Demand a solution, usually involving more government regulation, all tied up with a red white and blue ribbon with ‘Make America Great’, or ‘Hope and Change’ written on it. All of this is a movement waiting for a leader. A leader that promises to win the argument, fix the problems, make the bad things go away, and make everyone feel better again. The word fascism is so loaded, just saying it in a crowded room in relation to American politics provokes all sorts of angry responses. People almost always think of Germany in the 1930’s and 40’s. We’re taught fascism comes from the right, but the truth is that in Italy, and Germany it was a center right, or center left movement, to the right of socialism, marxism and anarchism but to the left of the established ‘conservative’ governments. When government becomes so powerful it is responsible for everything, it can’t do anything right. Sound familiar? Is America in a Pre Fascist political state? Are the conditions necessary for fascism on the horizon? If so, who or what is responsible and what can be done about it? Do we blame the elite? The government itself? Or people who have grown too dependent on a powerful state, and now they just want it to work. It’s time to talk about politics differently and name the real danger. Sponsored by X Government Cars.

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Podcast 401

Back To School. At some point in our childhood, most of us remember looking up somewhere around the middle of August and realizing we only had two or three weeks left in the summer. We’re getting that old back-to-school feeling at the Bob Davis Podcasts. Somewhere around this time, you’d end up at The Gap, or JC Penny, or Sears buying your new sneakers, jeans and shirts. You’d bring them back home, and try them on, and they’d feel like cardboard, and you’d be grateful for the few waning days or weeks of summer. This has been a great summer of events in the Mobile Podcast Command Unit, covering some politics in Wisconsin and Iowa, the EAA Air Show, Sturgis and heading up to North Central Wisconsin to hang out with old friends. Now it’s time to re-engage in the political sphere. And yet, it feels … dirty. In this walk and talk podcast late on a Sunday night, with the buzz of bugs and power lines in the neighborhood, some final thoughts about summer and some thoughts about what awaits us ahead. That feeling that we are at the end of a political and social era, perhaps even the end of a cycle of history is almost … palpable. Scanning and reading up on the news brings the conclusion that despite the carnival barkers in the echo chamber who urge you to follow the bouncing ball (which is what they’re doing), we may remember this time as that moment before … rather than a time that contained anything of any real lasting value. While the circus rages on, and the ‘pundits’ work harder and harder to predict the future based on someone’s email, or someone’s blathering on yet another Sunday morning talk show no one watched, or someone getting shouted off the stage, or someone’s latest studied plan to solve some earth shattering national problem, one gets the impression 99 percent  of this isn’t going to matter this time next year. One thing is for sure, something is coming and no one can predict it. Thank God there’s still time to sit in the sun and read a book about something … anything else. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

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Podcast 400

Scoutmaster Tribute. Live from North Central Wisconsin, best friends who grew up together pay tribute to a father to one, and a scoutmaster to the other. Both friends are eccentric enough, as was the father and scoutmaster. Their conversation takes place at a rural hideaway built with anything that could be scrounged, or used. The setting sparks a conversation about what they learned in scouts. In ‘Stand By Me’ Stephen King’s narrator says that the friendship’s he forged around twelve or thirteen were the strongest of his life, that he never had friends like that again, and wondered if anybody does. Through thick and thin, on and off through the years two friendships have been the most important to me, largely because of our experiences camping with the Boy Scouts, and for me, especially because of our scoutmaster, who also happened to be my best friend’s dad. Sure he was eccentric, but he taught us all so many great lessons. Later he built a complex of crazy quilt cabins — where this podcast was recorded — which are packed with every kind of thing you can imagine, from every kind of era, and who knows where he got most of them. He never said no to anyone who offered something they didn’t want anymore — and most of that stuff is up in Wisconsin. Given the current situation, all commentary on politics these days sounds like an echo chamber. It’s nice to sit outside on a classic hot summer day in the middle of nowhere in North Central Wisconsin, and talk about things that are, or were real. Friendships that last a lifetime, friends who are as much family as they are friends, experiences we’ll never forget, and people we met over the years who were real characters. After all, aren’t friendship and family the most important things anyway. Sponsored by X Government Cars. 

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