Simple Jack’s Potion

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve invented something called Simple Jack’s Potion, a silly metaphor for the elixir I think politicians drink just before they say or do something stupid.

I dreamed it up in a post called “Rubes R Us,” a lament about the triumph of our Dumb & Dumber culture, and a gullible public too willing to be swayed by charismatic voices of ignorance (Palin, etc.) over reason.

For the record: As I’m sure the moviegoers among you have figured out, I borrowed the fictional moniker “Simple Jack” from a Ben Stiller character in Tropic Thunder, a 2008 satire-comedy film. Concerned do-gooders criticized Stiller over his stereotypical portrayal of mental retardation. As usual, it was much ado about nothing. Most adults can separate satire from reality. Fortunately, it’s a free country, and I’ll keep running with it. Obviously, no offense is intended toward the disabled community.

From “Rubes R Us” I said:

Mystified historians will undoubtedly recall 2010 as the year Dumb & Dumber triumphed. A time when crowds paid homage to the astonishing number of "Simple Jacks" running for political office. … In tough economic times amid the shifting of our cultural tectonic plates, many conservative voters feel under siege. They are understandably anxious. They thirst for direction and answers. Some are so thirsty that they'll skip the Evian of rational ideas to swig down the fast, miraculous cure-all promised by Simple Jack's Potion -- i.e., the bottled pabulum served by the likes of Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell and Glenn Beck, who think a return to a Disneyland version of the 1950s is the solution to what ails us. To them … reason is anathema. "Cast off the demonic liberal rationalists and repent!" they say in effect, thundering like Charlton Heston's Moses. "And thou shall be saved!"

That is Simple Jack’s Potion (especially No. 9, Black Label), and its effects, in a nutshell. As Bogie said in Casablanca, here’s lookin’ at you, kid. Bottoms up.