Underground America

The other night I watched the season premier of "24", the spy drama. I'd never actually seen "24". The show reflects Americans' anxieties over torture of terror suspects and the threat of hackers gaining control over critical systems. But "24" is more an escapist drama than a recitation of current events. Thank the TV gods for that. But "24" is still depressing, because it postulates that while the nation goes about its business unknowing, it is Jack Bauer personally willing to shove a Bic pen down a terrorist's ear that keeps us safe.

"24" runs two hours on Fox, so you see a lot of commercials. There's one where a young soldier comes home to a deserted America. He's the only living being until - in front of what looks like the Flatiron Building in New York - a fellow returnee shakes his hand in welcome, and suddenly the world, our America, is whole again, regular with people bustling in city streets.

In an Allstate Insurance ad, the spokesman reassures us that with our car in the driveway, basketball hoop on the garage wall and family staying close by, we've got everything we need (just be sure to insure it all). Thanks, Allstate. I think we knew that.

And, can you name a corporation with an ad budget, regardless of what industry it is, that is not talking about how "green" it is. Sunday night it was BMW touting the mileage of its diesel cars.

I watched "24" and the ads in a hotel room in New York (on a nice big LG flat screen, too). The hotel was on the East Side not far from Central Park, and so I took the subway E line from Penn Station up to Lexington and 53rd. Sunday night the subway wasn't mobbed, but busy.

One way to get a really good look at America: Take a ride on the New York subway. You know those color chip cards at the paint store? Grab a handful of cards in the browns and yellows and beiges, and you'll get the idea. We're not just white, black, Asian and Latino. We're every shade imaginable. Maybe this is part of the vast appeal of Barack Obama; his looks make him hard to place. By contrast, most characters on "24" are white. Some of the extras, like the press corps, are of color.

The crowd on the subway can give you faith. At a busy hour, in the middle of Manhattan, one carload is like a dipper-full of American humanity. Everybody is moving, hustling, in motion with intent. The occasional lunatic, beggar or rheumy burnout stand out by their exception. On the subway, in the streets for that matter, it makes no difference whether you are a well-off lawyer, the great grandchild of a slave or a six-month émigré. You go where you're going. You check your messages on your cell phone. Whatever worries you have, you keep them bottled up and you concentrate on the next task. You hustle. The subway crowd exudes self-reliance.

No one I know, Democrat or Republication, has any real faith that the trillion dollar economic stimulus being contemplated will really help all that much. People know at some level that every dollar of it represents another dollar of public debt, that we're trying to stimulate ourselves with dollars we didn't earn and don't really have. That's the Washington approach. I'm not sure it's the American approach.

As we move towards next week's inauguration, my hope is that Mr. Obama and the other politicians he has surrounded himself with, and the people in Congress they'll inevitably fight with, all keep the shade up and the window open a crack so they can see and hear a country of people who still believe in themselves.

Tom Temin is one of the co-hosts of The Federal Drive and consultant with 25 years of experience in journalism, specializing in technology and government. For 15 years he was editor in chief of Government Computer News. He has that "fresh off the subway" smell. Reach him at ttemin@federalnewsradio.com.