As a hard-rock anthem, Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” still has some cachet. But while it has a solid beat, its lyrics are nothing but empty nonsense -- defiance without definition.
■ To our continuing detriment, American politics (at least at the national level) have been dominated for the last 20 years by voices that have taken Dee Snider literally. Hollow, cynical rejection of status quos has become a common refrain without much if any distinction between those who adopt it from the left or from the right.
■ The right to toss out ineffective powers is essentially the point of all democracy itself. It’s not that anyone ever gets all that they want, but rather that we always reserve the right to say “no more”. But a chronic habit of saying “no” without a reasonable plan for replacing it with something worthwhile has left us saddled for too long with too many angry dunces.
■ Some of them got fired on Election Day. Others are hanging around, and some new angry dunces gained power, too. It’s well worth agreeing across every partisan and interest-group divide that it’s not enough to just say “We’re not gonna take it anymore”.
■ Far too much energy has gone into wheel-spinning and spleen-venting for the last two decades, and nothing is more costly than wasted time. It’s very good to have competing, constructive visions of the future that we can assess and debate.
■ But the whiny jerk caucus has had its say for far too long and we live in a world too complex and often too dangerous to continue ceding them ground (and airtime). Those who need to ritualize directionless hostility are welcome to listen to Twisted Sister on repeat. The rest of us have work to do.