Inspiration for the Libby Speaks stories

In the past I’ve posted six “Libby Speaks” stories to this website. I removed the sixth, but today I’m restoring a revised version. I’ll include links to the previous five at the end of this post.

The “Libby Speaks” series presents today’s legislative dilemmas facing the country and satirizes how both Democrats and Republicans address, or fail to address, them.

Its inspiration was Giovanni Guareschi’s charming Don Camillo stories, the first volume of which appeared in 1948. The series has three recurring characters.

Don Camillo is the priest of the town’s church. The town’s communist mayor is a man named Peppone. Both are easily provoked, but sometimes belligerent. Don Camillo is a fundamentally well-intentioned, God-fearing man. Peppone is arguably decent, but hardly God-fearing. The two men clash in every story.

The third character is Christ on the cross in Don Camillo’s church. Don Camillo often consults him, and they have a warm, but sometimes fractious, relationship.

The Don Camillo and Peppone characters represent the two major forces determined to win over Italy in the wake of the devastation of World War II. I’m impressed by the relative even-handedness with which Guareschi treats both figures. America’s internal divisions today may actually be less severe than those in Italy at that time. I’m equally impressed by Christ’s role in these stories. You’d think he’d press Don Camillo’s cause, but Peppone would have been encouraged had he heard some of the advice Don Camillo receives.

In my twenty-first century American homage to the Don Camillo stories, which I first wrote in 2017 and revised in 2022, two flawed politicians engage each other. Max Morano is a Republican City Council Member, and Gavin Kane is a Democratic counterpart. I aim to do their points of view justice. The approach forces me to mock even my own views. Not a bad thing.

As Don Camillo consulted the Christ figure, Gavin Kane regularly consults Libby, a smartphone-like device that embodies the Constitution. We speak of a “living Constitution,” and that’s exactly what Libby is. Through her, I hope to suggest how the United States Constitution does and does not inform contemporary issues.

I have some sympathy for politicians, at least those who genuinely care and don’t just posture. The nation’s problems are real and not easy to solve. For the record, I believe most conservatives don’t subscribe to the more outlandish views of their extremist members. The conservatives I know in person torment me in their own way, but they aren’t stupid. Something similar might be said for extremists on the left. Political extremists are today’s version of the circus and boardwalk freaks of the nineteenth century, and like their nineteenth century predecessors, Marjorie Taylor Greene and the like draw large, paying crowds. The “Libby Speaks” stories ignore them.

Note: Although both Morano and Kane are Twitter addicts, they’re emoji-challenged. They don’t use any. They also don’t honor the old 140-character rule, but somehow their tweets get through anyway.

The First Five “Libby Speaks” Posts

1. The Homeless Problem: https://adrianspratt.com/libby-speaks-1-introduction-and-the-homeless-problem/

2. Sex Matters: https://adrianspratt.com/libby-speaks-2-sex-matters-2/

3. Squeaky Shoes: https://adrianspratt.com/libby-speaks-3-squeaky-shoes/

4. Plastic Bags: https://adrianspratt.com/libby-speaks-4-plastic-bags-2/

5. Healthcare: https://adrianspratt.com/libby-speaks-5-healthcare/