Are You Better Off?

            We call the politicians who hold elected office our “leaders.” And just maybe that’s what is wrong with America. The guy I voted for last time around inspired us to “hope” and convinced us to make a “change,” a change of party and culture. The problem is that “hope” and “change” are not policies: they are concepts, one-word concepts to shape the brand “Obama.” It's just marketing. The guys he runs against always seem to be for “freedom” or “country first” or “believing in America.” Maybe you voted for McCain, or maybe you plan to vote for Romney. Anyhow, we probably vote with a more similar attitude than you realize. We pull lever for the empty term and then expect the empty term to make America just peachy. We decide that, when candidates say “freedom” or “hope,” they understand that term exactly as we do, exactly as all Americans do, and that we will get freedom and hope.

            But that’s not how it works. The thing that gives me hope may dash yours, and your freedom may come at the expense of mine.

Campaign slogans and sound bites are symptomatic of naively ideological thinking. They are meaningless expressions. They are not true, but they are not lies either...

Rather such phrases are empty. And they place the human race in peril. When a candidate’s ideology breaks down, or indulges nuance, or might alienate a constituency, they pull the wool over our eyes with a meaningless term, a term that we can give meaning to to gain an illusory sense of security. It’s kinda like voting for a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. It’s kinda like moving the couch over that stain on your living room carpet so that you can imagine the carpet as stainless when it really has this congealed scum of blood and dog shit ground into it.

And then we just expect hope and change to lead.  Likewise, if we elect believing in America, we will have the same expectations for that meaningless drivel.  And what happens as a result?

Democrats elected another candidate on the notion of “change”: William Jefferson Clinton. And then we just let him do his thang. He found it rather difficult to pursue a traditional liberal agenda, so he decided to pass NAFTA and Welfare reform and repeal bank regulations like Glass-Steagall (those were all things that Republicans liked). You see, Americans like a winner, a guy who can get some shit passed...and that was some shit. So Bill Clinton turned “New Democrat” (which I call “Republican Lite”) and cruised to a landslide reelection. That’s where “change” led us.

So when Republicans say that we can’t just blame W for the financial crisis, guess what: they’re right. We can also blame Bill Clinton’s conservative economic policies. 

Huh? What? You weren't aware that Clinton and Bush and Obama (yes, even that “socialist” Obama) all pursue a right wing economic agenda? I’m not making this up: it’s called neoliberalism, or monetarism. It’s sort of a three pronged demonic pitchfork of deregulation, “free” trade, and consolidation of economic power in the Fed, the IMF, the G20, and--  Oh, what’s that? You’re bored?  Good. Coz that brings me to my main point.

We can mostly blame ourselves.

Why? Because we don’t care. We are tired. We are bored with such trivialities. I know, I know. I get it. I have a job and a kid. It’s hard enough to remember to pay my bills on time and scrape up some semblance of a social life.  How can I possibly expect you to take the time to get informed and politically active? Because that’s what we need to do.  It’s all we can do. And it’s do or die.

Instead we vote like frightened people in the dark. We run right and stumble into Freddy Kruger and run left and collide with Jason. So then we run back right…  Isn’t that Mitt Romney’s argument this time round? Wasn’t that Obama’s last time? And Clinton’s in ’92?  The differences are a matter of degree rather than kind.

We are told that our politics are polarized. It’s true. One side if for raping us up the anus once a month and the other side plans to do it on an hourly basis. Is that too crass? Okay. One side plans to deregulate, globalize, and consolidate economic power over a period of decades while the other plans to do it in a period of months. I’m voting for Obama because a) it will give us time to stop it from happening and b) he might accidentally appoint a couple of Supreme Court justices that will help us stop it from happening.

Why is it crucial that we stop it?  We have been fighting wars for over a decade and another with Iran looms like an angry black mushroom cloud on the horizon. Neither party questions the militarization of our foreign policy or the paramilitarization of our police forces. We have serious issues surrounding a scarcity of resources. The planet is getting hotter and more crowded. We are already seeing pressures on energy supplies and access to medical care; soon we will see pressures on food, shelter, and clean water. Are your kids making you too busy to care about this stuff? These are serious, long-term issues that cannot be addressed by slogans that serve as the mask for greed.  It’s time for the public to embrace an ideology of pragmatism, and ideology of compromise, an ideology that places our politicians on notice that they will be led by us. We are the leaders, not them. They are the public servants.

Do you know what a technocrat is? We need technocrats, men and women who will legislate in order to solve problems rather than adhere to ideologies. Do we want to reduce the number of abortions? Okay, fine. The notion of overturning Roe v. Wade is impractical and divisive and would bring an end to abortion...and it ain’t gonna happen anyway so let’s quit fighting. What policies will both reduce abortions and respect the individual rights of mothers? Turns out there are quite a few. That’s called a compromise. That’s called pragmatism. What's next?

Oh, and it must also be an ideology of patience and long term thinking. The political perspective I’m advocating isn’t about the unemployment rate or the monthly jobs report. Who cares how many jobs are created if they pay half of the jobs we’ve lost. That’s one charge Republicans make concerning “Obama’s” recovery—that the new jobs aren’t as good as the old jobs.  And, guess what: they’re right.  But that been true of every economic downturn since, at the very least, the late 70s. As a result of recessions, unionized manufacturing jobs become non-union manufacturing jobs. As a result of recessions, insourced high-tech jobs become outsourced high-tech jobs.  You want fries with that?

Obama didn’t cause this change. Bush didn’t cause this change. It’s kinda a funny coincidence that this change seems to coincide with the televisation of Presidential campaigns. Hm. Weird.

Of course, a small set of  über wealthy people have other ideas about who our public servants serve. In fact, they pay to disseminate politicians’ empty rhetoric. The Pols get to keep their jobs, the greedy get richer, and we get the shaft. In addition, we are encouraged to blame and even hate all sorts of innocent groups: blacks, gays, immigrants, teachers, unions, teacher unions, atheists, Jesus freaks, and, yes, lawyers and corporations and the rich. As much as I hate to say it, we probably need corporations and rich people…but that’s not to say that the system isn’t slanted towards these people. Ever wonder why so many politicians are former lawyers and businessmen? Where are the academics, the scientists, or artists? I mean we even get the stray quarterback, but never an artist.  But I digress…

In a nutshell, no matter who wins the election in 2 months time, economic conditions will continue to erode for about 90 percent of us…and the environment will erode for everyone. But there is hope, real hope, hope I can define. We can have a government that solves problems. Last summer when the rag tag Occupy movement banged a few drums in the streets, some politicians decided they should start taking the idea of “fairness” seriously. Oh, you think that the Occupiers were a joke? That’s my point. Even that small of social movement can grab the politicians by the nostrils in this media environment.

So, right now, you are complacent, but I hope that will change. I hope you will get involved. I hope that no matter whom wins that you will grab him by his big ole ear and make him look at what’s wrong and demand that he do something about it. Ask for an explanation of the policy and try to understand how it’s supposed to work. Oh, and don't judge a policy before it's even implemented. Do you hate Obamacare? Do you know what it does? Have you seen whether or not it works? And for Pete’s sake don’t call him--whether it's Obama or Romney--a socialist or a reactionary or a fascist either. After all, our “leaders” are just a reflection of us. Want better leaders? Try becoming a better, and better informed, citizen.