Giving The Impression Of Doing Something

[Stinky The Clown]

That's pretty much what goes on in government these days. We watched all that delicious drama play out over the last week.Down to the Wire. Avert a Crisis. Stalemate. Compromise. All the usual cliches.

Meanwhile, the really heavy lifting remains undone.

Lest you think this is about Obama, please disabuse yourself of that right now. The sentiments I am expressing have been expressed for many years. For decades. Not always in the same way, but always about the same Big Thing.

Political Cowardice.

All the drama we witnessed, all the blow dried reporters breathlessly giving us the blow by blow commentary, was about PENNIES. Pennies at the edges. Planned Parenthood became the whipping boy. Congressional women stood in solidarity. We heard of their own personal pathos. We watched as they scolded their male counterparts. The arguments were all good. The sentiment expressed was one I agree with fully. I cheered along with you as this was played out.

It, and every other stunt, heartfelt speech, questionable accusation, and crassly calculated concession or demand were simply beside the point. All of it was cover for political cowardice.

Yes, I said it again. Political Cowardice.

Our country will not move forward with $38B street theater productions. Even a few hundred billion will matter little. Within the news coverage was a term I'd not heard before: "Trillion Dollar Issues."

Tackling those is what's needed. I'll expand that term from its intent when I heard some talking head use it in his more limited context. The Trillion Dollar Issues are the really big ones, money cost aside.

First and foremost is immigration. It is not my intent to suggest a solution. I have opinions, but so do you. They're immaterial right now. No American government has ever tackled the immigration issue head on. Instead, we get see politicians Giving The Impression Of Doing Something. Protect the children of immigrants. Very noble. Open a "path to citizenship" for those who have been here a while. n the next breath, another arm of government closes the path. The public is pissed. Cesar Chavez. The new armed to the teeth wannabe troops on the southwestern border. Increase the Border Patrol.

All of that is simply pecking at the edges. There is no one Big Policy because no one has been brave enough to tackle it. Political Cowardice. It is pretty much assured that no matter what solution one crafts to this issue, half the country, more or less, will despise the decision and those who put it in place. That doesn't make it right or wrong. That just makes it undone.

Energy Policy is another Trillion Dollar Issue. The special interests, each comically playing against each other (Coal vs Gas vs Oil vs Alternative) with armies, literally, of lobbyists working tirelessly to cloud the issues. We get ballsy self interest from T-Bone Pickens. Right out there and in your face. We get Big Oil and Big Saud paying for whatever they want this politician or that to do for them. The Alternative guys are like little dogs vying for attention in a pack of larger ones - ankle biting and barking in high pitched tones. Subsidies and Offsets and Offshore Drilling and Strategic Reserves.

All the equivalent of deck chair rearrangement. There was a vignette on television within the last few weeks that showed every president since HST calling for "American Energy Independence" and a moving away from the evils of "Imported Oil." Nothing happens because of political cowardice. Not the voters, this time. The LOBBYISTS. Imagine how dead the political career of a career politician who opposes Big Energy. The oil coverts to cash which converts directly to electoral success. To not do the right thing is pure Political Cowardice.

The Department of Defense and the Military Industrial Complex. You can't say we weren't warned. And by no less than a general-turned-president and big time consumer of the churn of the MIC. To not act on this Trillion Dollar Issue is political cowardice. Instead, we see arguments about how to pay to replace the legs of damaged soldiers. If you think the government gives a damn, look up Wounded Warriors. We're having what amounts to bake sales to pay for what the government ought to be paying - but someone cut that program. They didn't do a damned thing to stem the tide of maimed returnees, preferring instead to give their aftercare to some non-profit, private group.

Where is the War on War?

The hot Trillion Dollar Issue that no one has done anything about is what has been so ironically named: Entitlements. Think about that. Simply using that term to describe things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, WIC, Head Start, etc., etc., says a great deal about the national mindset. "Entitlements." It had to be a scientific, Frank-Luntz-Like effort to come up with that name.

What we don't know is what the national posture toward the care of us and all our fellow citizens is. We argue about the minutia, but no one addresses the Trillion Dollar Issue head on. Why do we fight about Planned Parenthood? We ought to be fighting about whether or not this country will or will not stand by its citizens in their times of need. Yes or No. Long ago, the answer was a nascent "Yes" from the Congress when FDR wanted it established. The answer was "Yes" when LBJ expanded it.

I'll actually give some credit to Obama and Boner. They're at least putting Social Security and Medicare on the block. They won't change it, of course. Their motives are terrifying (Yes, both of them want to move in the same direction, with the only question being how far.) But at least they're addressing it. Wrongheadedly, I think. Ill intentioned, I think. With some malevolence, I think. But kudos for at least going after it. In the end, this can, like all those before it, will get kicked down the road. Another Trillion Dollar Issue that they will make themselves appear to care about by artfully, with maestro-like skill, Giving The Impression Of Doing Something, while not doing anything.

Giving The Impression Of Doing Something. That's what's going on. Little different from Bread and Circuses. A Public Spectacle.

Ever has it been thus. Ever shall it be. This is just one moment in time, as important - or meaningless - as any other of the last oh-so-many years.

Giving The Impression Of Doing Something.

[marew]

1. Why can't people see this?

It is so discouraging. Smoke and mirrors, nothing more.

[tavalon]

4. Because to see this means we need to see something even worse

There are forces that are not amenable to politics and if left unfettered, will destroy this country, hell, this world. That's pretty fucking daunting. But it is what it is. When money bought politics it stopped being about anything but money. Who hasn't and who doesn't. We're having to face that we aren't classless and that the elites would rather we be worm food or cannon fodder than be anything stronger than we are. They are actually terrified of us but their divide and conquer and distract, distract, distract has worked so well for so long, they just assume it's still working. But, there is a sea change happening out here.

[marew]

8. Divide and conquer-- exactly!

Those "greedy government workers" are all to blame! Let's forget about the giant corporations, Wall Street, military industrial complex, etc.
I so hope you are right that change will eventually come. It is so discouraging. My father was a career Army officer in WWII and Korea. He spoke of what he fought for, what he believed America stood for. He died in 1999 but if he were alive today, he would not recognize this country. So terribly sad.

[elias49]

2. And we pay the slackers $170,000 a year for the drama.

This is a reality show I'm sick of.

[monmouth]

3. A Masterpiece Theater classic PBS couldn't touch...K&R...n/t

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Sal Minella]

6. Even a cursory look at the health care in other countries should

make our Congresscritters think twice about letting corporate insurance greedheads run off with the cash people are paying for health care, which they are then regularly denied.

We spend twice as much on health care as any other country, and nobody keeps an eye on the expenses, or calls Big Pharma on their outrageous drug prices, while our citizens suffer and die.

We just act like corporate "health insurance" is the only possible way to provide health care. We manage to keep close tabs on the political systems in other countries, but seem to be totally blind to health-care systems that work admirably in other countries.

Fire departments and roads and health care should be provided by all citizens as a group. I just don't understand how we've strayed so far from common sense.

[tigereye]

7. people don't want to give up those entitlements -

they are long established and benefit many millions of people. Most voters want them to remain intact - we want our elderly to have health care after they retire and we want folks with few resources and their children to have health care and food. What would you actually have them do? :shrug: Many people here want to see more entitlements- such as single-payer health care, which could probably be managed if we were paying for fewer wars.


I agree with you to some extent about Immigration and Energy Policy - EP reform has been thrown around for decades.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. The OP did not take a position on "entitlements" so as not to attract the ire of any one group

If you've ever read any of my rants, you would know I make no effort to hide the fact that I favor single payer healthcare for all and a formalized Minimum Standard of Living.

I would bet that most people favor that for themselves. The issue comes down to those who have no desire to see everyone else get what they get, or those who are angry based on their perception that someone gets more than they do.

I also see terms like "Minimum Standard of Living" as the name for the whole Trillion Dollar Issue that might be encompassed by that title.

[tigereye]

10. I've only read your rants about food!

:rofl:

I think you are right about how some people see "entitlements" and how people see providing a safety net since we don't seem to be able to provide consistent standard of living, particularly given the boom and bust cycles we seem to prefer and allow. A woman economist gave a wonderful analysis of this on the Daily Show one time.


I'm just not sure about the idea of "the impression of doing something" - I think Obama made a strong effort to do something about health care, even though not everyone was happy about it. They did pass a bill that made positive changes in people's lives.