There’s a meme on Facebook that pops up occasionally. What would George Carlin make of this election? My addendum is what would Molly Ivins think of it all? Both were critical observers for the silliness of the human animal. Stupid pet tricks. To address it with humor is a rare gift. It could be argued Jon Stewart was the successor to both Carlin’s righteous anger and Ivins biting charm. Who in turned created an entire industry based on that particular style.

Humor works because its inception starts with a brutal painful truth. Laugh or cry in despair. Ivins came to the conclusion that no amount of ripping on the absurdist Right in Texas meant nothing. They ignored her. Her moniker for George W Bush was shrub. To the ladies in Dallas, wearing their day diamonds to the spa, it was, still is, George. How could you not vote for Texas royalty? It’s George. Carlin grew to be bitter. Some of his last HBO specials were painful. That soothing layer of funny had worn thin.

Their prodigy have run into the same wall. Barriers have always existed between people. Tribes organized around shared outlooks of the Other. It’s all about division or distribution of resources. Me and mine are always going to be first. The fallacy of Reagan’s tickle down economics was that the Rich would be satisfied with what they had. They got a bigger pool included in that monster estate they could now afford.

What would they say about this election cycle? Read her books or columns. Watch his stand up specials. It would and will be the same folks spending their money. While the other side ignores them. The vast echo chamber of gated communities or in the Whitetopias don’t have that channel on their parental controlled cable package. Free thinking outside the boundaries of the ultra conservative agenda is discouraged. America has become more segregated. Not so much by skin color but by economics. Those that can move. Those that can’t adapt. Immigrant communities still and will always cluster. Touches of home in an unfamiliar, sometime hostile, environment. Fear and protection. Me and Mine First.

Carlin was the refinement of a style of comedy pioneered by Lenny Bruce. Molly Ivins carved her own space in a state where Southern Ladies hold a special place in the culture. Even though she from California girl who lived in the Liberal enclave of Austin, still a woman in that culture of particular manners. Their place in cultural history is ensured. The current madness has no place for them. Many have taken up the mantle but none have the gravitas of being first of the kind.

(The capital of Texas Inc. is Austin. A college town of a 100,000 students with a huge tech industry. The live music scene is legendary.  Good on ya Willie. The capital dome is pink granite. In the right light it can look flesh colored. Draw your own mental picture. Oh Texas is purple. Not pure red.)