As much as I enjoy the activity of writing, over the last
couple of months I haven’t written much. Each time I think it’s time for me to
write, I tend to just let that feeling pass without writing a word. For a while
I concluded that I was just feeling a bit lazy, because as much as I like to
write (and as good as it can be for my mental health) writing does require some
small effort and planning. I have always known I’m not immune to laziness-
quite the opposite. I can be as lazy as anyone. When "The Dude" (Jeffery
Lebowsky) is one of your favorite movie characters, you know you have the lazy
bug. But like all good Americans, I decided this lack of output and
intellectual exercise couldn’t possibly be my own fault. The blame had to lie
with someone or something else. So, I continued to privately examine the reasons why I
just wasn’t coming up with anything that moved me sit down and write a few paragraphs.
Being a slightly more than casual observer of politics and also relying on
politics for much of what interests and moves me to write, I came to the joyful
conclusion that the problem wasn’t me at all- it was the lack of interesting
political subjects to write about. Imagine my relief to finally know, without
doubt- it wasn’t my fault. (Note: the words, “it’s not my fault” are the most
universally recognized self-soothing words known to man- in any language!!)
I came to realize that we’re in this season of political
boredom when, for several days, I watched the newscasters and pundits
desperately making attempts to invent stories
to hold their viewer’s attention. I’m a self-confessed news and opinion junkie,
and even I had to just give up and turn the channel to something mindlessly
entertaining. Unless you’re into senseless tragedy like airliners that just
disappear, or ships full of children that capsize, or mudslides that wipe out
small towns, there hasn’t been much to look at. Maybe that’s why senseless
and unexplainable tragedies make the news for weeks at a time, even when there
just isn’t anything new to learn from them. The most we usually come away with
is that these tragic events happen because someone makes a dumb mistake, or
that nature can be unpredictable and a pretty powerful force at times. End of story.
So, usually we can count on politics to give us something to think about, react
to, or entice us to action-but not these days.
I don’t mean to imply that there is nothing to care about.
There are always issues worthy of our attention, injustices to be corrected,
and people in need. It’s just that we seem to be in a strange period when we
know nothing of consequence is going to happen. Look at the political calendar.
We are right in the middle of 2014. The next election isn’t for another six and
a half months and it’s an off-year election. That means is that there are only
State and Local races. This off-year election of 2014 really has the pundits
scrambling for a point to make- or something to create a kernel of interest. Many of
them would like to convince us that THIS off-year election will have national
significance. Why? Well, they would like us to believe that the 435 House seats
and 36 Senate seats up for grabs represents some kind of referendum on The
President, or Obamacare, or Benghazi or something of national significance. The
fact is that the outcome of this off-year election is fairly predictable,
and would be predictable no matter who is President. The Prediction is this:
Republicans will pick up some House Seats and maintain their majority for
another two years- Republicans will pick up Senate seats, enough to (maybe) create
a tie or possibly even gain a small majority. If you look back through our
history over the last century or even longer you will see that every President
faced the same outcome in the off-year election of their second term. There isn’t
any magic here. Americans rarely turn out in big numbers unless there is
national race. The failure to show up in off-year elections just seems to part
of our national character. A sad but true fact of political life in the USA. Low turnout of voters always favors the party not
in power in the White House, because only the most committed, partisan voters show up.
Look what happened in President Obama’s first term. The guy wins a huge,
landslide election in 2008, on the heels of President Bush’s disastrous second
term with the nation in crisis , then gets nailed badly in the off-year election of 2010, losing a lot of
Democratic seats in Congress. The pundits start digging his political grave for
the 2012 election, failing to heed the historical trends of off-year elections
when much smaller numbers of voters come out. 2012 rolls around and all the
predictions about Mr. Obama’s defeat at the hands of Mitt Romney are wrong-
dead wrong. He wins re-election fairly easily. Why? because a larger electorate
shows up for the general elections, and they were there supporting his
Presidency all along. The lesson here
is this: In spite of all the political chatter and make- believe significance, there’s
nothing to see here!
Our current Congress has added heaping helpings of boredom
to this political season based on their unwillingness to actually do their job.
Last year was officially the most unproductive year for Congress since they
started keeping track. I think they are going for a new record in 2014. It is
late April already and there has not been a single action by Congress of any
note this year. Like I said before, it’s not that aren’t good things for them
to do and worthy issues to debate and vote on; they just won’t do it. The Democratically
led Senate passed a badly needed extension of benefits for the long-term
unemployed. The Senate passed Immigration reform; they passed gun ownership
background check legislation; they passed a minimum wage law for federal
employees and contractors, and acts requiring equal pay for women. But the
House leadership (Speaker Boehner) will not even put these issues up for debate
or a vote. All of the issues the Senate has passed or worked on have large
margins of public support. But this one man (Speaker Boehner) has them all shelved,
and he going to keep them on the shelf for the next two years, then whines publically about his own Party not doing anything. To be fair the
House did repeal Obamacare for about the fiftieth time, and they did pass the
Paul Ryan budget which has been roundly dismissed as destructive non-sense by
every economist to analyze it. So here we sit at a legislative stalemate.
This stalemate has been the hallmark of the Obama years, but
of course it’s even worse lately for the reasons stated above. But we might as
well face it, with over two and a half years until the next President takes
office, we can count on very little getting done. Oh, let’s not act all shocked
or disappointed. We knew this was going to happen. The Republican leadership
told us so in the first year Mr. Obama was in office. The Party leaders met and
simply decided they would not support a single thing he wanted- and they
haven’t. Since they made that decision the Republicans have not supported a one
thing he has tried to do, even the things that were their ideas. I have a
feeling the judgment of history on the Republican Party will be one of shame
for the way they have acted toward the President during this period. So,
instead of honestly trying to do something for the country, the Republicans
keep falling back to the same old talking points.
If I happen to listen to Talk Radio on the frequent road
trips I take for work now ,or catch the news on MSNBC or Fox News(?) I catch
myself just laughing at the same discredited politicians or Talk Show guys
spouting the same arguments they are always wrong about. It is as if the
Republicans can’t learn or something. You would think that these people have
somehow lost the ability to see the events occurring in the world and the
nation as they really happen. I have long felt that Republicans have painted
themselves into such a staunch, ideological corner that they are truly trapped.
I don’t feel sorry for them though because they created this monster by
allowing the far-right fringe to take over the Party. Now Republicans candidates have to
pass the fringe-element litmus test to get nominated, but can’t get elected to
the White House because the fringe doesn’t have much appeal in the general
elections. (Gerrymandered districts notwithstanding).
Another factor in making this such dull time in our politics is that the crazy
predictions just didn’t happen. The Affordable Care Act is beginning to work.
By the next General Election 20 million people will have health care that
didn’t have it before-so forget Repeal. The fiscal deficits are falling, and
economic growth has been steady for several years now. So far, 9 million new jobs have
been created since the Great Recession of the Bush era. All predictions say
that we are on the cusp of much greater economic growth in the next six
quarters. So that old saw is gone. Obama won’t stop Russian incursions into Ukraine,
but Eisenhower, Reagan, and G.W. Bush had the same issue with the same results
in their time; and the best the pundits can do is question Obama’s “manhood”.
Please??? They have done their level best to create a scandal to sink Obama,
and for two years now Darrel Issa hasn’t come up with a thing. You know why?
There’s nothing there. But they just keep talking -in spite of the fact there’s
just nothing here to see.
In some ways it’s kind of nice to have a lull in the
political action, even if it is not a particularly inspiring time for my
writing. Perhaps this period will give us all a chance to just reflect and get
ready for the next leader to come along. I wish the media would give it a rest,
even for just a little while. They look silly trumping up non-existent stories. I doubt they will though as I constantly hear
nothing but meaningless conjecture about Jeb, Rand, Chris, Ted, Elizabeth, and
Hillary. Face it, nobody knows anything at this point. Wouldn’t it be fun to
just hear all those media types say, “way too early folks, move along- there’s
nothing to see here”.
Thanks for looking in.
