This New Year, I resolve to foster an environment of intolerance for bullshit.
I apologize if that choice of words offends you, not because I didn't mean to offend; bullshit, by its nature, is offensive. I apologize because some of you will stop reading there, offended enough by the words to not be offended by its perpetuation. You see, bullshit is popular these days. Extremely popular.
The right wing perspective on the "value of life"? Bullshit. The left wing's identification with the "working class"? Bullshit. The entire "global climate change" consortium's overwhelming concern about carbon footprints and human impact? Complete and utter bullshit. And yet, we the people for some reason swallow huge amounts of bullshit, and do nothing about it.
Why?
As a registered independent, and centrist, I think I may have an outside perspective that so many of you fixated on the red vs. blue just don't get. There is an instinctual response to forgive "our guy" for the same sins over which we crucify "their guy". My Republican friends roast Al Gore for his blatant environmental profiteering, but are offended at commentary on the extremely poor planning and execution of the Iraq conflict. My Democrat friends take exceeding glee in the hypocrisies of Larry Craig and other closeted Republicans being dragged out into the light of day, yet bristle at the suggestion that blue blooded white folks of privilege and property with D, State Name at the end of their title are perhaps not the facilitators of social equity they claim to be. The bipartisan process encourages irrational belief sets based on "team" emotion as opposed to fact, because independent thoughtful analysis leads to accountability at the hands of the electorate, which translates to an end of the gravy train of personal advancement our so called congressional representation has been helping themselves to.
The fact is, the core social ideals of both parties, when removed from the history of the actions of their respective members, are both lofty goals to shoot for. The Democractic platform is built on a somewhat socialist ideal: progressive social policies for opportunity, education, and healthcare, and regulatory oversight of corporate interests. The Republican platform is built on personal accountability and opportunity: smaller government, less federal interference, personal freedoms, and fiscal conservatism. Either of these platforms, when removed from the labels and faces we connect them to currently, are admirable platforms for action in their own way. When the individual precepts are chewed upon at length, there are some notable similarities in the two, as at their core, they both seek a fair opportunity for the average American...they simply have different philosophies on how that is accomplished.
So, step one in lowering the bullshit tolerance factor is letting go of the "us vs. them" mentality. Republicans are not all evil industrial military supporting redneck having shotgun bible wife three kids and a dog in a double wide...although there certainly are some who fit that exact description. Conversely, Democrats are not all tree hugging america hating pot smoking commie pinko hippie pseudo-intellectual elitist snobs...although I've met a few of those. The people who continue to try and convince you otherwise, the Limbaughs, Coulters, Paglias and Sharptons, they do so because they profit from your belief in it, both materially, and in influence and power.
We have important issues facing our country right now. There are serious domestic economic concerns, and a very expensive and messy foreign policy debacle that must be worked through. Emotionally charged rhetoric, bipartisan mis-characterizations, and a disproportionate focus on overblown non-issues of religion, race, gender and carbon emissions only serve to distract from those issues. Let's cut away the bullshit in 2008, and demand real accountability and measurable results. An informed and rational electorate with a low tolerance for bullshit is the greatest enemy that a corrupt and self serving leadership can have.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
A Little Dare for the Internet Generation...
Nine seconds. That's the length of the attention span of the average fully acclimated internet user, according to experts at MIT. Apparently, in the age of endless channels of content at the click of a mouse, we have turned into goldfish, no longer capable of extended thought, and long term analytical reasoning. No wonder, then, that our political leadership accomplishes so little in the long term, and revolves around current campaign buzz and canned talking points.
It's all our fault, though. We, as a democratic society, have become complacent victims of our ever decreasing attention spans, leading to a government full of self serving politicians who find it less and less difficult to manipulate us with consulted images and slick presentations, and then promptly rob us blind of both our rights and material wealth. We are the electorate. Why would we put people in power who handle it so poorly, and act in such a self serving way? Because our attention span is so short, and our focus so shallow, that we never stop to spend thoughtful time in consideration of our society's leadership, and our role in determining who and what that leadership is.
8 Short Years is dedicated to expanding that narrow scope of focus, and to providing a long term view of our political landscape. Eight years is long enough, in our society, to see massive social and technological change. With an organized and informed electorate, it can also be long enough to see substantial political change.
Stop and think for a moment about eight years ago. New Year's Eve, 1999 seems like an eternity ago. Bill Clinton was sailing out of office on an economy beginning to show signs of the market correction to come. The country was split on who had actually won the election to replace him. A large chunk of the country was concerned about the supposed impact of the Y2K bug, some of them enough to fortify bunkers with guns and food. "Google" was still an adjective connected to eyes rather than a verb connected to damn near all the data in the world. A majority Republican congress was enjoying a juggernaut run of control, with no end in sight (oh, and everyone pretty much assumed that most of them were not the kind of guys to be arrested in a bathroom for willie wagging. How little did we know).
9/11 was just another date on the calendar.
The face of our country has changed dramatically in the last eight years, and the people driving that change were small in number, and not focused on any of the topics that government should be focused on. By creating a polarized bipartisan process, they have effectively erased the power of our vote; 50-50 results in the last two presidential elections show how easy it is to rig a situation where they get the president they want. If I vote for him, and you vote against him, our votes cancel each other out. When it becomes finite, it's sent to the Supreme Court, who through jurisprudent oversight, determine the winner. How is this democratic, and why are we letting it continue?
Congress, on the other hand, is not polarized. Because so many career politicians have been in power for decades, they have the long term view to understand compromise and diplomacy, and calculated long term strategies to accomplish a goal. It's time that we, the electorate, stop playing Democracy Light: The Interactive Card Game, and start approaching our role in this society with the same intelligence, comprehension, and calculated action that our leaders do.
What does that mean? It means that we educate ourselves on our history, rights, and powers. We dig for the facts on legislation and issues at stake, we learn the history and nuances of that issue, and we understand the impact that such legislation can have. We shine a hard light on political candidates, not focused on sensationalistic non-issues such as marital history and crime in the family, but on political connections, corporate interests, and voting history. We elect progressive politicians with like minded goals, we demand action from them, and we hold them accountable for their performance. This is our team, we pick them, and choose whether they stay or go, and it's past time we stopped sticking with losers simply because they've elevated glibness to an art form.
Eight short years. Two Presidential elections, four congressional elections, countless state and municipal elections. Plenty of time for all of us to have the government we want, the society we want here in America. Over the next eight years, I dare you to believe in Democracy, and to take an active part in it. Together, we can examine the people and decisions being made in depth, put them in the context of history, and try to strip away the emotional camouflage so that the bare facts are exposed. If we can find a way to productively debate and compromise on issues the way congress does, we can wield the same kind of power.
I hope you have it in you. I'll be here when you decide.
It's all our fault, though. We, as a democratic society, have become complacent victims of our ever decreasing attention spans, leading to a government full of self serving politicians who find it less and less difficult to manipulate us with consulted images and slick presentations, and then promptly rob us blind of both our rights and material wealth. We are the electorate. Why would we put people in power who handle it so poorly, and act in such a self serving way? Because our attention span is so short, and our focus so shallow, that we never stop to spend thoughtful time in consideration of our society's leadership, and our role in determining who and what that leadership is.
8 Short Years is dedicated to expanding that narrow scope of focus, and to providing a long term view of our political landscape. Eight years is long enough, in our society, to see massive social and technological change. With an organized and informed electorate, it can also be long enough to see substantial political change.
Stop and think for a moment about eight years ago. New Year's Eve, 1999 seems like an eternity ago. Bill Clinton was sailing out of office on an economy beginning to show signs of the market correction to come. The country was split on who had actually won the election to replace him. A large chunk of the country was concerned about the supposed impact of the Y2K bug, some of them enough to fortify bunkers with guns and food. "Google" was still an adjective connected to eyes rather than a verb connected to damn near all the data in the world. A majority Republican congress was enjoying a juggernaut run of control, with no end in sight (oh, and everyone pretty much assumed that most of them were not the kind of guys to be arrested in a bathroom for willie wagging. How little did we know).
9/11 was just another date on the calendar.
The face of our country has changed dramatically in the last eight years, and the people driving that change were small in number, and not focused on any of the topics that government should be focused on. By creating a polarized bipartisan process, they have effectively erased the power of our vote; 50-50 results in the last two presidential elections show how easy it is to rig a situation where they get the president they want. If I vote for him, and you vote against him, our votes cancel each other out. When it becomes finite, it's sent to the Supreme Court, who through jurisprudent oversight, determine the winner. How is this democratic, and why are we letting it continue?
Congress, on the other hand, is not polarized. Because so many career politicians have been in power for decades, they have the long term view to understand compromise and diplomacy, and calculated long term strategies to accomplish a goal. It's time that we, the electorate, stop playing Democracy Light: The Interactive Card Game, and start approaching our role in this society with the same intelligence, comprehension, and calculated action that our leaders do.
What does that mean? It means that we educate ourselves on our history, rights, and powers. We dig for the facts on legislation and issues at stake, we learn the history and nuances of that issue, and we understand the impact that such legislation can have. We shine a hard light on political candidates, not focused on sensationalistic non-issues such as marital history and crime in the family, but on political connections, corporate interests, and voting history. We elect progressive politicians with like minded goals, we demand action from them, and we hold them accountable for their performance. This is our team, we pick them, and choose whether they stay or go, and it's past time we stopped sticking with losers simply because they've elevated glibness to an art form.
Eight short years. Two Presidential elections, four congressional elections, countless state and municipal elections. Plenty of time for all of us to have the government we want, the society we want here in America. Over the next eight years, I dare you to believe in Democracy, and to take an active part in it. Together, we can examine the people and decisions being made in depth, put them in the context of history, and try to strip away the emotional camouflage so that the bare facts are exposed. If we can find a way to productively debate and compromise on issues the way congress does, we can wield the same kind of power.
I hope you have it in you. I'll be here when you decide.
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