Don't drag politics into Christmas season

Brian Smith
Right Angle

People love to think of Christmas (or "holiday season," if you're in the mainstream media) as a time when people put aside their differences, political and otherwise, in the spirit of the season. Christmas is that special time of year when people come together, forget about wars and taxes and filibusters-- well, not exactly.

Some people just won't let it go. If Christmas day fell on a Saturday, hippies would still show up on Route 13 in Carbondale to protest "that Nazi, George Bush." It's tragic that even during the "holiday season" people cannot look past their ideological blinders and have good cheer for their fellow man.

So, in the spirit of refusing to "let it go" even during the "holiday season," I've decided to politicize one of America's most treasured holiday traditions -- the Christmas movie.

Christmas movies are supposed to be wonderful stories about giving and sharing and togetherness. Their glowing messages should warm even the coldest of hearts. However, as usual, politics has crept into even Christmas movies.

Take, for example, two classics, "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street." Not many people realize just how biased these movies really are. The following will explain exactly how "It's a Wonderful Life" is the Conservatives' Christmas movie, while "Miracle on 34th Street" is the quintessential liberal "holiday" film.

"It's a Wonderful Life" is the story of George Bailey, a small business owner with the government "bank examiner" constantly breathing down his neck. From the small town of Bedford Falls, Bailey's ambition in life is to get out of his town to conquer the world.

But he never leaves Bedford Falls. He ends up spending his entire life there. He takes over the family building and loan business when his father suddenly dies. Bailey has to work hard to make his business succeed, no thanks to those pesky examiners.

Bailey was a compassionate man. Not really a savvy businessman, he was constantly cutting breaks for people when they were having trouble paying back their loans. And he was always lending money to people the bank turned down. Bailey did all of this without government subsidy or mandate. He wasn't buying votes or keeping people down; he was lifting people up by giving them a chance to make it on their own. This is the very essence of conservatism.

So one Christmas Eve when Bailey was down on his luck -- his uncle had lost all the building and loan's money -- he prayed to God (big red flag for Liberals), and his prayer was answered when his guardian angel, Clarence, came to help.

Clarence showed Bailey what the world would be like had he never been born. He had helped so many people -- not through handouts or welfare but through compassion and the free market. George realized he truly had a wonderful life.

If "It's a Wonderful Life" is appealing to Conservatives, on the opposite end of the spectrum lies "Miracle on 34th Street."

"Miracle on 34th Street" is the "realistic" story of a single mother named Doris Walker with an executive job at a major department store in the 1930s. Walker ends up hiring a man named Kris Kringle to play Santa Claus at the store.

Right away, the forces of anti-capitalism go to work. Kringle starts sending customers to other stores. This flagrant disregard for profits must have sugar plums dancing in Liberals' heads.

So when Kringle is committed for believing himself to actually be Santa Claus, a liberal trial lawyer, Fred Gailey, comes to the rescue to prove Kringle is Claus. In typical liberal fashion, Gailey asks a judge to declare Kringle to be Santa.

By some "holiday" miracle, the case ends up before a judge with "big labor" backing (he admits ties with the AFL-CIO). The judge is desperate to find in favor of Kringle no matter what the law is (in the sequel he is nominated to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals). An associate of his remarks that if they find against Santa that the only votes he'd get the next year would be his own and that of the District Attorney's.

The judge's response: "The District Attorney is a Republican." Go figure.

Now, of course, none of the above is serious. Both "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street" are wonderful movies. The point was to show just how ridiculous it is to drag politics into everything, especially Christmas.

Christmas isn't a republican or democrat holiday. I wish everyone, no matter what their politics, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Oh, by the way, my favorite Christmas movie is "Die Hard." What red-blooded American Conservative wouldn't love to spend Christmas Eve shooting up terrorists?

Right Angle appears every Monday. Brian is a law student. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Egyptian.

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