Will We Ever Get Some Relief From the Witless Muddle that Still Afflicts Our Public Dialogue?
FINDING A VOICE by Ann Davidow
'Let's be clear' has become a popular phrase that usually portends a muddled message. Listen as hard as you might, clarity is not what you'll be hearing most of the time. In fact the phrase is just what politicians use when they are at a loss for words or at least a loss for anything that makes sense. Euphemisms abound in discussions that run the gamut from tax policies to how our various armed conflicts are proceeding.
Everything is on the table we're told when it comes to making a dent in our massive national debt, but of course nothing could be further from the truth. Depending on one's perspective solutions are to be found in what are called "entitlements", teachers' salaries, union contracts and measures to protect the environment, the favorite whipping boys of the right wing while defense and tax cuts remain inviolate. Even when taxes are part of the discussion they are expressed in terms like "tax code expenditures" that soften the effect of procedures that in fact hide special-interest set-asides.
What could be more fiscally irresponsible, for example, than House Republican's intention to support the Defense of Marriage act by insisting legal fees be undertaken despite the Justice Dept's refusal to funds a defense of the legislation? These are supposed to be the "adults", caretakers of our economy, not the purveyors of partisan views that appeal to right-wing supporters. The public is being flummoxed once again by political entities that fail to come clean about what their real goals are, using a phony 'values' context to hide the true nature of narrow views and often a religious sub-text.
Deniers on the right pursue bizarre notions that tend to reduce the viability of their cause - - there was no holocaust, the earth is only six-thousand years old, the president is a secret Muslim who is not a natural born citizen. To carry on such divisive prattle suggests a dearth of ideas in the GOP. Why would wanna-be leaders spend so much time on matters that marginalize their party?
Interspersed with the nonsense, however, conservatives throw in matters of real concern such as rising fuel prices, joblessness and the cost of never-ending war so that voters face absurd battles among the witless. How often is the public informed about the manipulations of speculators on Wall Street who drive fluctuating oil prices at the pump? Does it occur to anyone that there is no good reason for sudden changes in price? After all oil that started out in a pump didn't suddenly become more valuable during the day. I once sat a pump, having paid beforehand for my purchase, watching a young man place cardboard placards on the pumps raising the price of gas by several cents. There had been no intervening delivery so obviously the increase was an arbitrary assessment by the gas-station owner not a reflection of market forces. We've all fallen down the rabbit hole and are having great difficulty making sense of our environment.
In addition to current predicaments at home and abroad we are confronted by people from our past who just will not go away. Donald Rumsfeld's book takes an exculpatory look at the mess he and others in the Bush administration created. At the conservative Hudson Institute Rumsfeld, Scooter Libby and retired General Pace 'examined' the course that took us to Iraq each justifying for the audience a path that led us into a quagmire from which we are still unable to escape. Douglas Feith, former Undersecretary of Defense for policy in the Bush administration, and once referred to by General Tommy Franks as the "dumbest fucking guy on the planet" moderated. It was said early on "that everything that has gone wrong in Iraq - especially those matters that Congress is either investigating or is poised to probe is linked to his office." Nevertheless these Bush stalwarts were pleased to defend their dubious exploits and, infuriatingly, even found moments of hilarity as they elaborated on their observations. Apparently the public's memory is of short duration; many will be content to look back on the Rumsfeld years with reverence, content to celebrate the mindless claptrap that so misled us in the past.
Today, Donald Trump, new-found leader of the mindless, must have nothing much to do other than to keep track of what others are saying about him. He has attacked actor Robert DeNiro for his criticisms saying he wasn't "the brightest bulb on the planet." For his part Trump isn't just a dull bulb he's an electrical grid gone dark.
Will we ever get some relief from the witless muddle that still afflicts our public dialogue?
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