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Damned if you Do: How fiscal talk amounts to nothing more than cheap theater.
Do we cut spending, or raise taxes? That is the question that every inept congressperson prattles an inane commentary about daily on cable news. The reactions to which, depending on any particular viewer’s political affiliation, can range from acclaim to outrage. Like rubes, we Americans find ourselves willing participants in the vitriolic theater which has become of our socio/political discourse, and encourage it through under-informed cheer leading, and our desire to not feel so helpless. However if one allows themselves to not be swayed by their own political leanings –let alone their personal biases– it becomes clear that the rehearsed, sound bite induced platitudes which our legislative representatives spew into our living rooms are more about campaigning than actual governing.
It’s politics as pro wrestling.
But perhaps even more unfortunate, is that many more Americans have become overwhelmed by the enormity of the present fiscal disaster –as well as ongoing global strife — and have cashed out of the political process entirely. As if we are witnessing the adult equivalent of hiding under the covers, people’s instinct for self preservation has caused many to retreat into a dummied down fantasy world of reality TV and libidinous internet interaction. Having had enough of the banal bombast that they hear every day from those purporting themselves as our representatives, many have understandably lost faith in the political process. So they vote for American Idol instead.
Consequently, we are left with a populace that’s either unwilling, or unable to emotionally invest in the political system.
Which brings us to our news entertainers, our political televangelists and their so-called solutions to our economic woes. As Benjamin Disraeli once so astutely commented, “There are three kinds of lies, Lies, Damn lies, and Statistics.” Regarding the present fiscal crisis, politicians from both parties have reduced their economic platform to lyrical sound bites. Hoping to appeal to the average Americans senses of fairness and vengeance, both democrats and republicans convolute statistical information so as to create a false reality which makes their cause appear more righteous. While it’s true that we do need to “cut spending” and/or ” increase revenue,” virtually every politician has the ability to produce statistical information that will make their assertions appear valid, and to portray their opponents as special interest pawns . The reality is that neither party is truly interested in addressing the deficit, or has any desire to turn around the economy. If they did, they would concern themselves with facts over rhetoric.
But as John Adams once said, “Facts are Stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes or our inclinations, it cannot alter the state of facts, or evidence.” The facts are that neither reducing domestic spending and/or raising taxes are not going to have the effect on the deficit or the economy that either party claims. The facts are, that if less money filters to states and local municipalities, and if previously subsidized social programs become de-funded, that they’ll have to raise revenue imposing other types of financial burdens. The middle class is going to pay regardless. The facts are that no one is willing to defy their party and talk reason on where and how our tax dollars are already being spent. All of this over-simplified economic blather is simply theater, designed to petition our angst and curry favor.
Much of the present state of American politics –not to mention the public’s perception of it– is the result of “news” organizations having shifted their business models from fact based journalism to ratings driven editorializing. So where it concerns either party’s economic platform, the focus of our elected officials is no longer to represent those who elected them into office, rather it is to make their opponents appear less electable. It has all become entertainment, resulting in most Americans having developed a cynical understanding that regardless of who they vote for, the middle class is going to bear the burden.
So go ahead, my fellow Americans, and root on your party’s premiere entertainers and their economic platform. Sit in your economic kettle as the heat gets turned up. Should we cut spending or raise taxes? The truth is that unless someone on our political landscape has the courage to address the more significant portions of how our existing tax dollars are already being spent…we’re damned if we do, and we’re damned if we don’t.
The Public Discourse… A case against censorship, and a call for integrity.
It is human nature to gravitate towards venues which advocate our predispositions.
As Americans cultivate their views about morality, religion, politics and the social sciences, it becomes incumbent on the intellectually ill-equipped to seek out media that will support their uninformed suppositions. All but few Americans have relegated themselves to reciting inane platitudes, and regurgitating other people’s insipid blather so as to affirm an intellect they do not possess. As the sensibly susceptible align themselves with one political party or the other — not to mention the accompanying cable news networks — they’ll eventually learn “a few things about a few things”. And in their severely limited scopes they’ll feel as if they now have the solutions to the Nation’s problems locked away in their tragically under-developed frontal lobes. The payoff for this, is a simple rationalization that their collective bias’ is actually socially discerning politics, and feigned relevancy.
So we Americans venture forth into the intellectual abyss, clinging to misrepresentations which comfort us. We’ll adhere to the social dogma that our political affiliations mandate, while disregarding other — sometimes valid — interpretations which might refute their affirmations. We’ll wrap ourselves in the security blanket of denial… insulating ourselves from the cold, hard truth that most of us are simply too emotionally immature to be candidly introspective, let alone honest with ourselves. All too often, we’ll pick and choose our “truths” based –not on facts — but on what we *want* to be true.
The real truth is that we believe the lies we want to hear.
However, selective fact gathering can neither provide truth, nor wisdom. As John Adams so astutely affirmed, “Facts are stubborn things”… When seeking truth one cannot begin with a conclusion, and gather facts to support it. That is not how valid resolutions are made. We must go where facts lead us, and make our determinations thusly. Even if they are uncomfortable, or contradictory to what we’ve always been led to believe. We simply cannot choose what is true, and what is not. The only thing we can choose, is which side of the political aisle we want to affiliate ourselves with based on whether the Left, or the Right’s version of the truth best suits our own astigmatic — if not bigoted– presumptions.
Which brings us to the recent shootings in Tucson, and how they have sparked passionate dialogue, and finger pointing around the country. It seems that anyone with a platform, and an opinion about any socio/political issues peripheral to these shootings has taken this opportunity to prattle on about “who” they believe is responsible for “what”. The vitriol between the Liberal Left, and the Conservative Right has been brought into the spotlight and portrayed as particularly villainous, even if not specifically about this particular set of circumstances. Still, the brainwashed constituents of both parties continue to laughably place blame on one another as being the source of this toxicity, and the reason that the political landscape now resembles “reality” television rather than the beacon of democracy that we’ve always been able to boast… The practice of the irresponsible, self serving leveling of accusations has become an American political institution, as has an utter lack of accountability… or tether to reason.
Similar to how America handles every other crisis, where is concerns the Tucson shootings, we are reactionary. As we did with the “underwear bomber”, we wait for something to happen, and then respond irrationally. In this instance, rather than fondling citizen’s genitals to ensure their safety, there are those both in politics and in the media who have capitalized on the National heartbreak over these senseless shootings… and who are actually suggesting that we legislate censoring symbols, metaphors, and the way we talk about one another.
They are responding to the problem of acerbic rhetoric, with politically correct rhetoric. While it might seem admirable to ask those in the national spotlight to choose their words more carefully, “dial back” the acrimony, or to avoid needlessly antagonistic contention, that is something that must occur organically if it ever hopes to last into the next news cycle. Even if they were to ban certain words from the National dialogue, that won’t change anyone’s true feelings, or the intent behind the words they *are* permitted to use. If history teaches us anything, it’s that it is impossible –not to mention prolifically stupid– to even try to legislate how people feel.
It would be like putting a coat of paint on a rusty car.
When we seek politically correct solutions — especially when it comes to language — it inherently motivated by political grandstanding, and it always comes at the expense of the truth. If there is legitimate animus between political rivals it needs to be expressed, and in their own chosen verbiage. If an emotional response is honest, and one feels it, they should be able to say it. That is how we can determine who we vote for, or even watch on television. But the operatives here are “legitimate, and “honest”… not “animus”.
Whenever I see high profile Liberals and Conservatives debate one another, it has always been my contention that as long as they critique the other, their arguments will remain substantially convincing. Indeed, there is so much perfidy within both Left and Right politics that there is a virtual bottomless pit of ideological assault points. But it is when the political apologists try to defend their own parties abhorrent disregard for both civility, and reason that the perfidiousness of their agendas become clear.
So the problem has become, “How do we manage ideological differences of opinion which will contribute to the Democratic process rather than hinder it, while not infringing on anyone’s First Amendment rights, let alone their honest expression?”
It is not altering language or symbols that we need… nor do we need to re-examine the First Amendment. It is not censorship we require, but rather journalistic, and political INTEGRITY. When the Founders wrote the First Amendment, they did so with an understanding of the necessity of having independent press in a free society. They recognized that even setting up three branches of government wasn’t enough to ensure that corruption wouldn’t find a way to creep back into men’s souls, and that we required a system whereby the citizenry would have credible advocates working on their behalf, and reporting on the activities of the politicians whom we elect.
That sacred trust has since been betrayed. Journalism is all but vanished from the American landscape, and what we have left are editorialists shilling for politicians, and their respective lobbies. This is what now passes for news… and the cerebrally bankrupt — albeit frightened — proletariat rush to choose sides, ignorant of the fact that the people they have put their trust in have no credibility.
The malicious bombast which has grinded our legislative process to a virtual halt exists because Left and the Right continue to police one another’s language, and speculate on how they perceive each other’s intentions. That can’t work, because of the source of the criticism. All that will accomplish is to further the divide between otherwise (potentially) conciliatory differences of opinion. In order to create a more civil public discourse, we need to require more from those who steer public opinion.
We must require that both Democrats and Republicans demonstrate integrity, and chastise the fringe elements of their own respective parties, not the others. Rather than placating incendiary, irrational, and purposely deceptive hyperbole when it comes from someone with whom they allegedly align, both pundits and politicians need to behave like the adults in the room, and not excuse the failings of *anyone’s* illogical ravings, regardless of party affiliation. This problem is much less about what we say of one another, but what we fail to admit about ourselves. The lunatic fringe would be far less powerful if their own parties called them out when they are behaving irrationally.
The more reasonable method of addressing the toxic political environment is not to seek censorship over what we say about one another, but rather to cease censoring ourselves when it comes to what we say about the extremists within our own respective parties. Perhaps then, we can go back to being Democrats and Republicans — and moreover, Americans — instead nation of the bitter, warring Liberals and Conservatives that we have become.
This article is dedicated to those who have the capacity to think critically… especially congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Please get better soon, Ms. Giffords.
The Ghosts of Christmas Present
I am not entirely sure that this is the “change” America had “hoped” for.
Without necessarily being able to articulate our concerns. — either because of a lack of political insight or a preponderance of underdeveloped frontal lobes — most Americans during the 2008 elections at least understood that our country had taken a dramatic, economic turn for the worse. We wanted things they way they were…the way they were supposed to be… and we were both addled and anxious over the Orwellian scenario being played out in real life, and in our time. So in our fear inspired angst, we sat on our ample posteriors and turned to the Mocha Messiah to make things right. We wanted our deep fried finger food, Facebook, and cheap electronics made by Asian child labor. But most of all we wanted those responsible for denying us Americans our divine right to live in ignorant, gravy stained bliss to pay for their intrusion.
However two years into President Obama’s administration, Americans are facing yet another Christmas with little optimism for the economy, or their savings accounts.
As Mark Twain once plagiarized, “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn lies, and Statistics.” While the “official” unemployment numbers hover around 10% nationally, the truth is those stats are significantly, and immeasurably higher. With regard for workers whose unemployment benefits have either run out, or who could never apply in the first place because they were employed “off the books” –not to mention those who are so far removed from the “job scene” that they have stopped seeking employment entirely — more realistic economists place the actual unemployment rate at somewhere between 15-17%. As circumstances become increasingly dire, reasonable perspective on this topic has become more difficult to come by.
I recall President Obama — just a few weeks into his term — making an appearance on the David Letterman Show, as all big TV stars do. With a cavalier disregard for those who had just elected him, our Commander in Chief leaned back in his chair, and pompously proclaimed to the optimistic, wide-eyed, and largely unemployed proletariat — that the CEO’s of the financial institutions who received our tax money in the form of ‘bailouts”, whose documented, purposeful actions undermined our nation’s financial structure, and security…and whose greed *literally* put a millions of Americans out of work, and out of their homes — “Did nothing wrong.” …and as I sat there bewildered and attempting to reconcile how my neural synapses had been compromised — because there was no possible way that I could have heard what I thought I did — my immediate reaction was “What the F&$% did he just say?!?!?!?!?!?!?! They stole our God Damn money!!!! Holding these thieves accountable is why you were voted into office, you Asshole!!!!”
At the very least, those of us who knew what the Glass/Steagall act was expected that our new fearless leader would recognize how it’s overturning by President Clinton was significantly contributory towards our present state of economic plight….and how allowing corporate conglomerates to create virtual monopolies was not only anti-capitalist and un-American… but it cost an untold number of white and blue collar jobs whenever these ‘mergers” (which could have never happened before 1999) were allowed to continue…. But nope… Not a word from Obama. Not only did he allow Glass/Steagall to remain overturned… and not only did he allow the corporate thieves who stole our money to keep it… BUT HE GAVE THEM EVEN MORE F&$%ing MONEY!!!!!!!!!!
Of all the reasons the country was angry at George Bush, and justifiably so, this was at the top of the list…. Runaway corporate greed and ruthless profiteering at our expense. We were mad as hell, and we weren’t going to take it anymore. We wanted our jobs, our dignity, and our 401K’s back. But here was our working class hero– the Brown Avenger himself — the guy who was going to make things right –regurgitating the same contemptible corporatist crap that had made his predecessor the villain he was. There were no words to adequately describe this betrayal. Americans had been played like the rubes that we were.
Our nation has become like the audience at a pro wrestling match. We sit there, with our vacant expressions, and furor provoked spittle in the corner of our mouths watching two gigantic lummoxes bash each other senseless. As we raise our collective ire cheering on one boorish oaf or the other, our irrational frenzy becomes exponential at the sight of one of the combatants producing a pair of brass knuckles from his trunks. Unfortunately, the referee is the only person in the arena who had his back turned, and Whamo! … As one of the two behemoths lay immobilized, half of us are either heartbroken or delighted depending on whom we were rooting for.
Of course, as most of us with the correct amount of chromosomes are aware, the fix was in. Pro wrestling is all scripted, and following the match, both wrestlers will most probably laugh it up backstage, and drive to the next town to put on the same show for a different arena full of easily entertained dullards. They make a ton of money, and the promoter behind the scenes pulling the strings makes even more. So it has become with politics.
The fix is in, folks.
As we stampede one another from Black Friday to Boxing Day in our local Walmarts… and slide further into the intellectual abyss… spending money we don’t have because many of us have either lost our jobs or make significantly less …. and we remain afraid for ourselves, and our country’s future…. rather than allowing ourselves to be manipulated by politicians from both parties who have willingly engaged in the dummied-down dialogue of polarization… which has made our political process more like reality TV than a legislative body…. so that it will distract us as they steal our money… we need to recognize that the terrorists who have done — and continue to do the most damage to our country — are actually Ivy league educated, Anglo Saxon, and Business partners with our last 5 Presidents.
