The Not Ready for Prime Time Players

I was a junior in high school when Saturday Night Live (originally called NBC’s Saturday Night) first aired during the 1975-1976 TV season. It became an instant hit, especially with younger viewers who were anxious to stay up late on weekends and loved the irreverent humor.

Our parents had the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but we had the Not Ready for Prime Time Players.

The original cast consisted of (in alphabetical order): Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, George Coe (whom I only vaguely remember), Jane Curtain, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Michael O’Donoghue (whom I don’t recall at all), and Gilda Radnor. Who can forget “Weekend Update” hosted by “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not”… or Point/Counter-Point with Akroyd and Curtain imitating James Kilpatrick and Shana Alexander of “60 Minutes”? And then there was Radnor’s portrayal of the hard-of-hearing Emily Litella and the brash Roseanne Roseannadanna. What a show!

When Chase left after SNL’s inaugural season to pursue a movie career, he was replaced by comic icon Bill Murray. Akroyd and Belushi left after Season 2 to launch their own movie careers and for all intents and purposes, SNL lost its momentum and much of its audience (including me).

Nowadays, when people refer to SNL it is usually with the tagline, “Remember when Saturday Night Live used to be funny?”

Well folks, there’s nothing funny about the Kamala Harris – Tim Walz ticket that is far and away the most radical in American history. In fact, they are to the left of Eugene Debs, the five-time presidential nominee of the Social Democratic Party. Debs ran unsuccessfully for president in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920… the last time while he was incarcerated for sedition (Debs promised to pardon himself if elected). As crazy as it sounds, America’s first true Socialist politician received 914,191 votes in 1920 and 6% of the vote total in 1912.

Crazier still is the fact that Harris and Walz are virtually assured of winning more than 70 million votes this year and at least 45% of the popular vote total. Yes, that’s how uninformed, uneducated, and undiscerning many voters are these days.

And yet, these two Not Ready for Prime Time Players would make George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy look like right-wing extremists by comparison. Debs, McGovern, and McCarthy would not have advocated for open borders, free healthcare for illegal immigrants (Harris), or driver’s licenses for illegal aliens (Walz). Nor would Debs, McGovern, and McCarthy have supported late-term and even post-birth abortions or gender reassignment surgery for minors without parental consent.

Free hormone treatments for transitioning active-duty military? Not on your life, Debs would say. Tampon dispensers in boys’ bathrooms, one of Walz’s pet projects? You’ve got to be kidding me, McGovern and McCarthy would declare in unison.

Just 50 years ago, the Democrat Party was filled with statesmen such as Hubert Humphrey, Henry “Scoop” Jackson, and Sam Nunn. Today, its ranks are replete with America-hating incompetents, communists, sexual deviants, and antisemites.

Somewhere in Independence, Missouri, Harry S. Truman is rolling over in his grave... and no one is laughing except for Karl Marx.