Do We See It?

When is that moment when you actually see the 'light at the end of the tunnel"?  We continue to peer into the future, hoping to experience that moment when we confirm that we actually see it, for that is the moment when hope is born anew.

I had that moment yesterday morning as I read the New York Times.

There was a front-page article about the latest NYT/CBS poll that found that President Obama has a slight edge over the Republicans with the general public across a whole range of issues.  Maybe the general populace as a single unit does have the intelligence to see through the obfuscation and deceit.

The poll's results point to the dawn of realization that while the President may have been stumbling along the path of trying to accomplish the major goals of his agenda, the public as a whole appreciates his concept of equality and fairness and sees his attempts to protect the country from the scourge of special interests.  That gives me hope.  It frames the approaching midterm elections with an atmosphere of awareness.   Unless we can rid ourselves of the obstructionist forces attempting to return us to the programs and philosophy of the Bush years, we will head further into decline as a society.  People really do understand at the most basic level that the pettiness of the partisanship exhibited by the lockstep Republican mentality of opposition to anything Obama or Democratic cannot continue.

Then I read an editorial by Paul Krugman exposing the Republican hypocrisy embodied in Newt Gingrich's warning:

"Don't cut Medicare. The reform bills passed by the House and Senate cut Medicare by approximately $500 billion. This is wrong."

It made me gag. 

Republicans have been trying to kill Medicare for 50 years, and now all of a sudden they are Medicare's protectors?  Krugman exposes the argument for what it is-fear mongering and subterfuge.  The proposed Republican alternative is offered up under "Roadmap for America's Future," the budget plan recently released by Representative Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member of the House Budget Committee.  His plan will cut more out of Medicare than the proposed savings under Obama's plan, while gutting retiree benefits over the next ten years -and yet they are pounding their chests with self-righteous indignation, blocking any Democratic effort to effect cost savings.

The coup-de-gras was in the local paper this morning on page 22.  There was a small article that documented the GOP's cloaking of a mailed survey and appeal for money in the mantle of the US Census!  The RNC successfully raised money using this tactic, and now the House Republicans are doing the same thing.  They are asking people to participate in the "2010 Census of Republican leadership".  They claim the recipients were specially chosen to receive this "census document".  This is a clear attempt to capitalize on the name of the Census Bureau.  And there is House Minority Leader John Boehner's signature at the bottom of the letter! 

The Republicans are deliberately trying to confuse people.  Census bureau staffers are concerned that citizens who fill out this form will not fill out the real Census and that will lead to an inaccurate count.  Remember that House seats (and the distribution of over $400 Billion) are apportioned according to results of this Census.  What are the Republicans doing?  The answer is anything they can to pursue their own interests and maintain the status quo.

I am hopeful that Americans are awaking to the need to recapture our ability to govern ourselves in the interest of the average citizen.  Let's hope this most recent CBS/NYT poll is an accurate barometer of the pulse of the people.

I think......yes maybe.......I HOPE I am seeing that speck of light at the end of the tunnel........

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock!

I had a dream last night.  It was a metaphor for what is happening to all of us.

I dreamed I was sitting at my computer and trying to open the ICE (in case of emergency) file to find the combination to my safe so that I could put a wad of $1000 dollar bills in there that I had somehow extracted from the bank.  For some reason I could not call up the file with the combination.  My computer was not cooperating (seems to happen a lot these days!). 

In the other room a fellow named David was sitting and chatting with my wife while I was desperately trying to find the numbers that would let me open the safe and put the money in there for safekeeping.  That is really odd, because I know the combination by heart, but I couldn’t retrieve it for some reason. (dreams afflict us with that sense of trying to run but our legs being caught in molasses….)

Sitting behind me was David’s brother ‘Michael’.  Michael had been recently released from prison and was a chronic thief.  He was sitting behind me, silently eyeing my pile of cash while I was pounding on the computer keyboard.  I KNEW he was eyeing the cash and that made my quest for the combination all the more urgent.  As I worked on the computer with growing frustration, I could sense that Michael was becoming more tense.  I could feel him behind me and glanced at him out of the corner of my eye as I feverishly searched for the file.  Finally he gave up all pretense of being quietly sitting there, and started to pace behind me, growing more and more impatient while glancing nervously and repeatedly at my money on the desktop.  I tried to hide the pile of cash under my arms—in my desk drawer; behind the papers on the desk---but I knew that everywhere I put it, he was following my motions like a cat watching his prey.  Finally he stood on his chair and lost all sense of propriety, shaking with agitation and babbling about how “all he needed was one of the bills and he would be satisfied”.  I was terrified!

I turned in my chair and called out to David to come here right away…..in an annoyed voice he asked me what I wanted…..I then screamed his name as loud as I could ……..!

My wife said the sound that came out of me and woke her up was a word that had an “A” in it, but that is all she could make out.  She said the neighbors probably heard me bellowing.

I had a lot of trouble going back to sleep.

Don’t we all have ‘Michael’ sitting behind us trying to get our nest egg?  Don’t we all feel like someone or something is siphoning off our savings and leaving us anxious; fearing the constant presence of economic disaster lurking just around the corner? 

Where is that coming from? 

I used to be really confident that whatever ups and downs we had as a family; as a business venture; as a country we could rebound.  Bounce back.  Try again.  Today, that sense of optimism is smothered by the wet blanket of special interest, greed, and political partisanship.  Our entire civic enterprise is mired in the inability and unwillingness of our representatives in Congress to act.  Unless we figure out what to do about that as a people and a nation, ‘Michael’ will always be just over our shoulder watching our treasure; waiting for his moment to steal it all and leave us with nothing.

The time has come for people of good will and intelligence to take hold of our destiny and get rid of the obstructionists.  I read an editorial by Bob Herbert in the New York Times that hints at the beginnings of an awakening by just those kinds of people. 

We must act now before we run out of time.

Obama At His Best

Did anyone watch the entire Q&A session that the President had with the GOP Caucus the other day? If you haven't seen it, it is compelling public affairs programming worth spending the time to see.

I am sure that the Republicans rue the decision to let cameras broadcast live the 1 hour and 20 minute give and take session in Baltimore! It was a rare moment of truth as the Republican Caucus squared off with a man who was unafraid to call them out repeatedly for their use of half truths and misinformation regarding many of the issues that the GOP has demonized the Democrats with over the last year. President Obama had a command of the facts and issues that shot holes in most of the arguments used to accuse the Democrats of, among other things, bloating the federal deficit, foisting socialist health care reform on the country, and granting ‘boutique’ tax cuts to selected groups in America.

On its surface, it was actually a civil exchange. However, each Republican who asked a question of the President began the question with an accusation or a false assumption that Obama promptly poked holes through before he responded with a cogent and intelligent response, enumerating the false premises in the question and then answering with clarity and precision.

It was clear that the people in the room could not make headway with political positioning statements. The President indicated repeatedly that those kinds of false assumptions boxed them into positions with their constituents that left them no room for negotiating solutions. Over and over Obama pointed out to them that the way they were asking their questions promoted an atmosphere of rancor designed to further their campaign positioning in the upcoming elections, rather than seeking an atmosphere of negotiation and problem solving arrived at by true compromise. The Republicans were flummoxed!

It was a rare moment indeed and gave me hope that Obama would actually make some progress in finding common ground with the Republicans. What he showed in that session was his determination to engage in real, useful discussion that could possibly lead to real solutions. It was frankly more leadership than I had come to expect from him lately. One only hopes that he will somehow find a way to drag the Republicans into the public eye repeatedly in this way so he can effect some real progress toward change by exposing the GOP’s intractability and penchant for non-productive confrontation.

The news media should re-broadcast the session in its entirety instead of spinning it only as a confrontational moment. Maybe then some of the conservative lemmings in this country would start using their brains and realize that the only way out of our problems is to work toward compromise.

Freedom of Speech and Democracy

I remember when I was in grammar school walking into the auditorium for assemblies and always seeing those classic Norman Rockwell “Four Freedoms” paintings which were blown up into large posters and hung on the walls.  I can see them as clearly as if it were yesterday!  The one which made the most lasting impression was the one illustrating freedom of speech.  It was a picture of a youngish working man (with an youthful ‘Abe Lincoln’ look) standing up in an audience of about 20 people and speaking his mind in a town hall type setting.  He had a look on his face that radiated earnestness while at the same time a little trepidation, as if he was flexing a muscle that was unused most of the time.  I always return to that image whenever there is a controversy about free speech, and internally I test the issue against my gut feeling while visualizing that image.

There is a huge outcry on the liberal side of the political spectrum concerning the Supreme Court’s decision to throw out the strictures placed by the McCain-Feingold legislation on political advertising by ‘associations’, and I sympathize with the arguments presented.  But I am not as fearful, as many are, that the conservative court has sold out democracy to the corporate interests and we are all doomed to be enslaved by some secret cabal of greedy business people so they can maintain their elitist status at the expense of the poor working man.

Clearly, we are going to see all manner of political messaging that will be fed by an apparent unending stream of corporate cash in support of all the lobbying efforts we have grown to hate over the last several decades.  Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking this is something new.  Remember the ‘Swiftboaters and TeaPartiers’?  It’s already there.  And there is no argument that the power of advertising and media  muscle will be brought to bear in support of corporate interests in an effort to intimidate the public and prospective candidates for public office in November and beyond. 

However the definition of ‘associations’ includes all those interests that oppose the efforts of heavily financed corporate lobbying efforts as well.  In theory, at least, that is the countervailing force.  Unfortunately the supply of cash is not equal.  The fundamental question being asked is whether an ‘association’ has the same status as a ‘person’ when considering the guarantees provided by the Constitution regarding ‘Freedom of Speech’.  Many say no, but just as many say yes.  It is going to be a question that we all will be considering over the next year as the election process unfolds. 

Freedom of Speech is guaranteed to our citizens in the Constitution because each of us presumably has the right to seek fairness and justice in pursuit of happiness.  Corporations are not in pursuit of happiness, they are in pursuit of money, even at the expense of happiness!  Does that pursuit in its purist form equate individuals and corporations?  I think the fulcrum of democracy will ultimately seek to answer that question.

The real moral question for me is this:  In advertising or messaging of any kind, are we being told the truth or only half truths or no truths at all?  Democracy depends on the ability to decipher truth from lies.  We want to believe that most humans, even if they are basically ignorant or uneducated (which much to my horror is a condition way too common in this country) have some ability to discern truth from falsehood.   Therein lies the ultimate resolution of whether we will be enslaved by corporate interests.  We all have come to realize that today’s media environment can twist things around so that even blatant lies seem like truth.  It is harder and harder to find the essence of truth in today’s society.

I believe that we are headed for a very interesting and emotional election season as we see all this messaging come our way.  I am hopeful that somehow we will all be able to cut through the bullshit and elect people who are honestly seeking to help all of us as ‘people’, not corporations or ‘associations’. 

Our future success as a democracy depends on it.

The Message from Massachusetts

We are all trying to make sense of the win in Massachusetts by Scott Brown.  The only thing that comes through loud and clear is the continuing dissatisfaction of the populace.  There is no clear mandate for Republican resurgence.  Brown represents the yearning of the average citizen to see positive change in his life, which has not materialized as a result of his vote a year ago.

The political positions of Brown are in some ways congruent with current Obama policies—stay the course in Afghanistan for instance….Coakley wanted us to get out.   Brown also said ‘no’ to taxing the Banks to pay for the bailout---what are the people thinking?  If they are all so pissed at Wall Street, why wouldn’t they be supporting Coakley’s tax position on that issue? 

It is clear to me that the people don’t really know what they want or completely understand any of the important reasons why the country is in the mess it’s in now.  The only thing they are certain of is their own anger at their government. 

And why not??? 

What has the government done for them over the last year?  We have seen lots of relief for the banking industry and no regulation; we have seen a bailout for companies too big to fail; we have seen a bailout for the auto companies; we have seen a rather tepid and insufficient stimulus program with no real mortgage relief or jobs program, etc. etc.  There has been lots of relief for institutional players, but virtually no relief for the common citizen.  Let’s not forget their frustration with a complicated health care reform bill that no one really understands and that has been misrepresented and lied about by those whose only agenda is to foil any real reform and change because of their vested interests and greedy self-absorbtion.

The average American is angry.  They are only just now coming to the realization of how their lives have been altered.  Unfortunately they don’t really understand the reasons behind the change.  So the only thing to do is to be angry and vote for ‘change’.  How ironic.

I think what is really apparent is the educational gap that exists between informed citizens who can analyze problems and make decisions about courses of action to make things better, and those who attend Sarah Palin book signing events!  (Go to Youtube.com and search for interviews with those people—it will take your breath away!).  Our schools are doing a poor job of preparing the populace for self government!  If ever there was a mandate for improved Civics and Economics curricula we see it here and now! 

So how do we channel this anger and ‘nouveau populism’ into postive action?  I think that is the over-arching challenge for the Democratic Party over the next ten months before the elections in November.   If they don’t figure it out, they are going to lose the opportunity to engineer real social change in our society. They will inadvertently contribute to our country’s further restiveness by returning people to positions of power who are the same ones that have delivered us into our present predicament. 

What the people currently see is a new administration that promised change, but is unable to effect it.  Instead the Democrats are seen as shackled by the same strictures that they promised to break.

What results is renewed anger, misguided election results and a worsening public mood.  Maybe the only true answer is to vote all new people into office and start over!  Get rid of all incumbents down to the statehouse level. 

Don’t laugh—it could happen.  The alternative to that kind of  ‘peaceful revolution’ is something I can’t even contemplate.

The NEW America!

There is a well worn saying that goes, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”.  Does that really mean anything at all?  Basically it seems to promote the idea that all things are the same and nothing ever changes even though we think it does…..which implies we are all living in a fantasy world where we think things are changing and that makes us hopeful; or we are doomed to despair because nothing ever gets any better.  I digress…….

You may ask from what, and since I have not yet hinted what I am writing about, digression is simply a left turn to nowhere.  But I digress…..

Sarah Palin has joined Fox TV.  Are we surprised? (The more things change, the more they stay the same).  A match made in heaven, or wherever.  The vacuous brain comes to rest at the vacuous network where it can vomit forth its vacuous nonsense to be absorbed by its vacuous audience.  How perfect.  What is terrifying is that the vacuous audience is so large.  I grew up thinking that the nation of America was filled with intelligent, literate thinking individuals.  What I have discovered during the past several decades is that I was horribly misinformed.  America is filled with humans with sawdust for brains who only are concerned about things that have no relevance to anything.  Just think about this:

The media and the public has been riveted by comments made by Harry Reid that Obama would succeed because he was light skinned and could turn on his ‘Negro’ dialect when he needed it.  Now there is an important issue to focus on!---Just ask the Fox TV-ites!  Fortunately for all of us, Haiti has turned our attention to more pressing matters, however unfortunate for the Haitians.

Or how about some more ‘sturm and drang’ about how our privacy is being invaded by machines that check for bombs in our underwear!  Now there is an issue that bears some long-winded debate!  I wonder what Sarah Palin thinks about that!  Maybe her Presidential platform will include a plank to ban lead lined jockey shorts and aluminum thongs!

Oh, and let’s not miss the opportunity to dwell on whether Martha Coakley’s victory or defeat in Massachusetts portends whether all of our brilliant insightful citizens will turn the country over to the Republicans again in 2010.  I am sure Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck will spend countless hours analyzing that momentous possibility and characterizing the results of the special election as the ‘Hand of God Almighty spurning the Communist, Marxist, liberal progressives attempt to shackle the poor dumb citizenry with the chains of universal health care reform’!  (What?-- You didn’t realize that Pat Robertson is actually the closet spiritual advisor to the Fox Network….but I digress!)

Ah yes, and they say we are in decline!  How could that possibly be with gurus like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh to guide our misguided thinking.  We must all practice the politics of ‘NO’.  That is the true path to enlightenment and progress.  Our new national motto should be “Two steps backward, one step forward!”

It is time to throw out the old/new corruption in government and return a new/older corrupt government to power!  Now there is change we can believe in!  But I digress……

Sarah Palin for President!!…..or Pope…..or Community Organizer!

Congressional Guts

It is hard to believe, but it looks like the Congress will actually deliver a health care reform bill to the  President’s desk in January, and we can all sing ‘Hallelujah’ that finally we have struck one for the un-lobbied interests and the common folk of America.  All you have to do is look at all the self righteous Republicans, who to a man (or woman) voted against the reform in lock-step with some ideological premise that had them by genitals, issued forth by the health care and pharmaceutical lobby, to recognize the bald face of self interest and immorality.

This action has been a long time coming.  Ted Kennedy and all the other Democrats have been working on this for decades and finally.... finally!, have been able to beat back the naysayers and “Chicken Littles” to the advantage of all Americans.  It ain’t perfect, but it is at least a beginning.  For the first time, we will all have equal treatment by the insurance companies, and the Federal Government will have the ability to control the most egregious abuses.

Finally the Republicans have been rebuffed, and stopped in their two-decade old jihad to create a more fractious and self interested society.  Just look at the vote in the Senate and House.  Not one Republican could find it in their cold, tightly squeezed little hearts to find something good in this effort worth voting for.  Instead their leaders are warning of horrible budget deficits and higher premiums and higher taxes.  How does the party that brought us unregulated banking and the worst economic crisis in 70 years know with such certainty that all that bad stuff is going to sink the ship of state?  They don’t.  Just like they didn’t know in 1993 that Bill Clinton’s tax hike on the richest sliver of American society and tax cut on the poorest and smallest businesses would leave America with a  $559 Billion surplus, and yet they all voted in lock-step against that action too.  In fact that was the beginning of the current vitriolic partisanship that has epitomized this era of Republican self interest and self righteousness, complete with screaming, frothing talk show conservative loudmouths.

Expect the absolute worst from them over the near term, too!

I have a different hope.   I think that this is a good thing for our country if, for no other reason, than we have a chance to see if ‘change we can believe in’ , personified by this action of moral courage by the Democratic Party, can actually be realized.  Let’s give this a chance.  It certainly could not be any worse than what we are living with now!  As Timothy Egan of the New York Times says in an editorial today, “As people get a chance to see what’s actually in the bill, sentiment will shift. Over time, it closes the dreaded doughnut hole, which makes cash-strapped seniors pay for their meds at the point when they are most in hock to Big Pharma. It forces insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions. By creating an exchange where people can shop for coverage, the bill seeks to bring care to 31 million additional Americans. And it does all this, according to the independent Congressional Budget Office, by reducing the deficit $132 billion over 10 years.”

What is so terrible about those things?  Just ask a Republican and they will tell you all the things it MIGHT cause.  Like I said before, why should we believe anything they say?  Look where they have led us……

Obama may have bitten off more than he should have with all the difficult issues he is trying to deal with, but let’s give the guy some kudos for having the balls to push on this so that at least we can say we tried to make things better.  And let’s at least give the Democrats the benefit of the doubt for the present, and our admiration for trying to do something in the people’s best interest for a change. 

Let time tell us whether this is a better path.  It is certainly better than no path at all!