Tuesday, June 04, 2019
The Cost of Inattention
I know that everyone is constantly up in arms about things that President Trump has said, often through Twitter. And a lot of it is beyond imagination-- why would you tweet out insults about the nation you are about to visit?
But as the press and much of the nation stays in a state of constant tumult over this, little seems to be said about the fact that nothing-- nothing at all-- is being done about (arguably) the six biggest challenges facing our nation right now. Let's discuss those (in no particular order).
1. Guns
Since 2009, the United States has had 57 times more school shootings than all of the other G7 industrialized nations combined. We have had 288, Canada had two, France had two, and Germany had one. There is something terribly wrong. We can and should have a discussion about solutions (and people may have very different solutions) but the fact is that our political leadership is avoiding the discussion.
2. Debt
I have written about this before-- the Trump tax cuts exacerbated the acceleration of our national debt. Republicans are very very concerned about this-- but only when they are not in power. Our political leadership, again, is simply avoiding this discussion (as is much of the media).
3. Climate change
The fact of this is before our eyes. Yet our political leadership is avoiding the discussion.
4. Russian interference with our past and future elections
When Robert Mueller appeared last week and finally made a public statement, he was opaque on some things and muted on others. But on this he was crystal clear: Russia interfered with the 2016 election, and is intent on doing so again. And yet, our political leadership is avoiding the discussion and the press is not engaging the issue. Instead, we obsess over tweets.
5. Income disparities
This was a big issue in the last election. It has not gone away. And yet, our political leadership avoids the discussion.
6. Health care
It seems that no one is satisfied with our health care system. But our political leadership is doing nothing to propose alternatives.
When we obsess over tweets, we effectively give the Trump administration a pass on all of these issues. The press is culpable as well-- they know that the profitable click-bait is in the tweets, and they cover every salacious bit and ignore all of the above most of the time. The Trump administration has successfully turned our political discourse into a reality show, plump with manufactured drama and disconnected from what is going on in the real world outside of the mansion. [and yes, that is a picture from the web series "Burning Love," which was awesome]
Comments:
<< Home
Agree that each of these pose difficult, real, addressable (by government, at least in part) problems for our country.
I think No. 4 is illustrative of perhaps the greatest hurdle to good governance in today's politics: we have identified a specific threat, posed by a traditional geopolitical foe and longtime U.S. foil, the response to which does not require either party to stray from its animating themes or to upset its donor base. In a sane world, Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi would walk arm-in-arm, draped in an American flag Snuggie-for-two, to happily and jointly press a big red, white, and blue "apply sanctions" button. AND YET, we cannot have an honest discussion about the problem because (1) the Democrats are obsessed with re-litigating 2016 and propagating new theories of obstruction of justice while (2) the erstwhile the party of Reagan and "tear down this wall!" is busily--to the point of moral necrosis--buttressing the fragile ego of our tangerine-tinted made-for-reality-TV president. Put another way, partisanship has so deeply rooted itself in our social order that even RUSSIA cannot compete for our collective ire. The House Intelligence Committee is more concerned with William Barr than with Vladimir Putin. The White House is more concerned with announcing victories than actually achieving them. And we eat it up -- bread and circuses.
So while in the background our national security apparatus is actually responding to the Russian cyber threat, and while the Trump administration--given its due--has taken real, active measures to press Putin, the threat is largely invisible to our political consciousness. Which, in a republican democracy, is much more dangerous than Russian hackers. We have given up governing ourselves, opting instead to dwell in the dramatic but absurd realm of political theater. Why should we expect anything else from our politicians?
This is not a Republican problem or a Democrat problem, it is an American problem. Our culture is infected. And given the trajectory, the prognosis is not a particularly hopeful one. But, as they say, the night is darkest just before the dawn, and I remain optimistic that the end result of our modern joke politics will be a collective sobering up. Hopefully without too much pain in the meantime.
I think No. 4 is illustrative of perhaps the greatest hurdle to good governance in today's politics: we have identified a specific threat, posed by a traditional geopolitical foe and longtime U.S. foil, the response to which does not require either party to stray from its animating themes or to upset its donor base. In a sane world, Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi would walk arm-in-arm, draped in an American flag Snuggie-for-two, to happily and jointly press a big red, white, and blue "apply sanctions" button. AND YET, we cannot have an honest discussion about the problem because (1) the Democrats are obsessed with re-litigating 2016 and propagating new theories of obstruction of justice while (2) the erstwhile the party of Reagan and "tear down this wall!" is busily--to the point of moral necrosis--buttressing the fragile ego of our tangerine-tinted made-for-reality-TV president. Put another way, partisanship has so deeply rooted itself in our social order that even RUSSIA cannot compete for our collective ire. The House Intelligence Committee is more concerned with William Barr than with Vladimir Putin. The White House is more concerned with announcing victories than actually achieving them. And we eat it up -- bread and circuses.
So while in the background our national security apparatus is actually responding to the Russian cyber threat, and while the Trump administration--given its due--has taken real, active measures to press Putin, the threat is largely invisible to our political consciousness. Which, in a republican democracy, is much more dangerous than Russian hackers. We have given up governing ourselves, opting instead to dwell in the dramatic but absurd realm of political theater. Why should we expect anything else from our politicians?
This is not a Republican problem or a Democrat problem, it is an American problem. Our culture is infected. And given the trajectory, the prognosis is not a particularly hopeful one. But, as they say, the night is darkest just before the dawn, and I remain optimistic that the end result of our modern joke politics will be a collective sobering up. Hopefully without too much pain in the meantime.
^that got a sensational toward the end, so it bears noting how Russia interfered in our politics in real terms: They didn't hack voting machines (at least not successfully); they didn't infiltrate our government; they didn't undermine the rule of law or attack our institutions. Instead, they largely manipulated us by trolling on freaking facebook. We let them turn the vapid website where people post questionable pictures of their potty training kids and proudly display their overcooked asparagus and feature their #nofilter (but there's definitely a filter) vacation photos into a geopolitical lever. I doubt the claim that Russian interference was decisive in our election (I mean, Hillary did not even campaign in Wisconsin), but it obviously had some marginal impact. And I don't blame Obama or Mark Zuckerberg. This one is on us.
You are right, CTL, that the problem is the American public-- we get the press reporting that we deserve through our consumption, unfortunately.
Guns, climate change, healthcare, inequality, Russian interference, and debt are challenges. They are are known to our politicians and to the public that reads. The Republican party will not invest in solutions. This is not a systemic problem nor a press problem. It is a political problem. As long as Mitch McConnell is in charge of the Senate all actions will be deferred. The Republican party has staked their fortunes on only acting on judgeships and appointments that assure their agenda of no government interference
prevails, except in social matters. The Senate vote next year will be critical to our addressing the threats you described.
Post a Comment
prevails, except in social matters. The Senate vote next year will be critical to our addressing the threats you described.
<< Home
