Nothing to See Here

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.