On Dancing with the Stars. Bristol Palin, daughter of Sarah, has reached the finals. And along the way, we saw far superior talent fall by the wayside. Young Palin has worked hard and she is “folksy”, but her dancing skills are mediocre at best. So on a show that uses popular opinion to select the best, we are selecting mediocre. As Dancing with the Stars goes, so goes the nation.
I mean we really are in la-la land these days. I would like very much to hear how the nation is going to prosper from Republican policies of smaller government, lower spending, and less regulation. Well, wait a second. By prosper, I did not mean the upper 5% (of which I am one which is truly scary). We have heard from two bipartisan committees on our economic way forward and neither agrees with the Republicans on the tax cuts for the wealthy, and for that matter with the Democrats on saving the below $250 grand crowd. Both agree we need to delay our real deficit reductions until after 2012 when the economy is better, and then we all face a tax increase. Yet neither party will step to the plate on these realistic proposals.
I look at the future of education and I shudder. Here in California the class sizes have been growing while we fire teachers and counselors at a record pace to balance the budget. It is not much different in other states and yet we decry the state of education and think it is our only salvation to compete with the rest of the world. Is it me or is there a disconnect here? And that is just the tip of the iceberg. We have been on this me, me, me trip and while we have been treating ourselves to low taxes, our infrastructure is falling apart. Those that think we are in tip-top shape haven’t traveled abroad lately to enjoy really first rate facilities, internet connections, no dropped cell phone calls, wonderful mass transit systems, and of course, free medical care.
Meanwhile the Republicans label President Obama a socialist bringing on the nanny state, while those of use who have followed him know he is a moderate Republican. There was an interesting article in the NYT today about cutting the cost of medical care as critical to your ability to manage our deficit in the future. Notice that all European countries have better medical outcomes than we do at half the cost, yet President Obama can’t quite understand that the market place is not the way to provide health insurance. Like I said, a moderate Republican. Continuing to offer market place solutions that only make things worse.
So we hunker down in our denial, doing the same stupid things we have been doing, and expecting that it is going to get better. That is the mentality that is voting for Bristol Palin on Dancing with the Stars. It is the envy and hate of the mediocre toward the truly talented and smart. It is voting for one of their own, not for one of the best. It is almost like if Bristol can win, it shows we were right on everything else even though it is patently obvious she is not the best talent. It is where we are today. In denial. Republicans aren’t making sense. Tea Partiers are making even less sense. I am not talking about their anger, we are all angry, but their “solutions”. Congress seems to be totally out of touch with reality, or at least the reality of most of the people outside the Beltway. The media is totally missing the lack of critical or rational thinking that represents the political class today and is enmeshed in covering the politics of the issues and not their efficacy. And least we forget Americans who think they are voting tax freedom and all they are voting for is empowerment of corporations to further transfer wealth to themselves and jobs overseas.
A recent poll showed that almost half of Americans don’t know that the Republicans took over the House. But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. Part of the problem in my mind, is that the “liberal elite press” and the spineless Democrats have let the Republicans use them as a megaphone. Saying it is so makes it so, and the Republicans have been unchallenged in their miscommunication by a compliant press (or lazy) and Democrats who won’t fight back. In 2008 we elected a President who seem to fight our fight and would not be a push over, only to find out that he was a push over and did not even understand the fight he was in. He probably still doesn’t.
Meanwhile the false messaging of the Republicans has gone unchallenged except for a few of us who even the Administrations calls “liberal whiners”. Turns out we were right and people have totally turned off to this administration. But I said there was a light at the end of the tunnel and there is. Some of the movers and shakers (George Soros for one) have finally come to the conclusion that not being in the fight is not working. We have to do some thing to start counter the false messaging that is resulting in a clearly non critical analysis of where the Republicans are going to take us, The discussion is now about how do we separate ourselves from a failed Administration and take on the Republican talking machine. Not fighting and trying compromise with an immutable force has not worked and the lesson of the last election was not to move right, it was do something that works. Moving to the right may get compromise, but with ideals that will fail except for the very rich.
Well if we are going to be able to do anything, first we need to win back the voters. That is not by trying to be more Republican with failed policies that will just lead to more failure. It is by countering the misinformation that is out there. It is by challenging them every step of the way. It is by showing the bankruptcy of their ideas and not compromising with failure. The light is dawning that we have to get organized like the Republicans. Our advantage is we actually have truth and reality on our side. Now all we have to do is actually engage in the fight. Forget President Obama. At best we will have to drag him into the fray when he realizes it good be politically good for him.
So back to Bristol Palin and all those who are voting for her. She is winning because the focused few have stolen the show. Their lack of critical thinking/judging skills does not hinder their ideology. We are letting the focused ignorant lead. Maybe in a TV show that is okay, but for a country fighting for the future of our children, it is sadly misplaced. We need the best and the brightest, the most talented, engaged in real critical thinking about policies and real outcomes, not fairy tales and pots of gold at the end of taxless rainbows.