The group of people who call themselves independents are at least
as large people who call themselves Republicans or Democrats.
Some of them are, in fact, Republicans or Democrats,
but they want to be regarded as independent from that.
The other fast-growing segment of politics is the Tea Party.
Independents sided with Democrats in the last general election
and put Barack Obama and many others into office. Right now,
the Independents appear to be determined to do what they
did the last time: put the incumbents out of office. The Tea Party
agrees. Throw the bums out!
Old-time politicians are trying to line us up to take sides with
one or the other of them. They howl about taxes and deficits
and health care federal spending and the Constitution.
The electorate throws out whoever is in power.
What is going on?
Matt Bei, in the New York Times, says that an interesting study
is going on in New Jersey. Focus groups are being asked, not
whether they agree with Democrats of Republicans, and not even
about existing, established political debates, at all. They ask people
to invent their own country, and to compare it with the one they
presently live in. They talk about the breakdown of civil society,
about the torrent of data from digital devices, about how many
lawsuits there are, and how their children are influenced by
electronic media, and how politicians are simply mouthpieces
for whomever holds the power in business, the media, and society.
They compared politicians to out-of-control kids having
a food fight in a lunchroom: an uncivil breakdown. So they
throw the SOBs out! One after the other, they throw whomever
is in power out, and look for someone who will change things!
And that, perversely, makes it worse. A government in
constant turnover is almost worse than no government, at all,
and it is the inability of the nation to govern itself that perpetuates
everything people hate about the country we live in: road rage!
What they are describing is not simply a departure from civility,
or order. If that were the case, we should simply return to
whatever it was that we have discarded. They are describing
the first stage of change, and not just of change, but change
to something that is not at all clear, yet. The kids rebel,
and the politicians act like unruly children. Lawsuits take the place
of consensus, or orderly, understood procedures. We are
not sure just what the role of government is, our ought to be,
so we just scorn it, and have to live with the consequences
of hapless governing. Of amateur governing. Of idiots
running for public office, who get in because maybe they
will stop the political food fight. Fat chance!
It is not just a change from what was to what will be:
it is entering change at such a rate that nothing seems normal,
nothing seems stable, nothing seems certain or secure.
We have not figured out how to do that. We just throw
whomever is in, out! Well, that is change, too! It isn't
change with a sense of direction: it is chaos. How can it
hurt, we ask ourselves, if we put Christine O'Donnell
into the Senate? Maybe we ought to put an airhead like
Sarah Palin into the Presidency! Let's pretend that saying
"No!" is a plan and a program! Let's require a 75% majority
to do anything: they are all idiots!
It isn't a rock we live on, with good earth and seven seas.
It is a spinning globe, in space, and its climate is changing,
and the fences are down. Everything is changing.
Even our old truths must change. Honking the horn,
throwing food in the cafeteria, throwing the bums out,
and reducing all parts of language to something beginning
with an "f" and ending with "uck" is no substitute for thought.
What would make sense? A more civil society?
as large people who call themselves Republicans or Democrats.
Some of them are, in fact, Republicans or Democrats,
but they want to be regarded as independent from that.
The other fast-growing segment of politics is the Tea Party.
Independents sided with Democrats in the last general election
and put Barack Obama and many others into office. Right now,
the Independents appear to be determined to do what they
did the last time: put the incumbents out of office. The Tea Party
agrees. Throw the bums out!
Old-time politicians are trying to line us up to take sides with
one or the other of them. They howl about taxes and deficits
and health care federal spending and the Constitution.
The electorate throws out whoever is in power.
What is going on?
Matt Bei, in the New York Times, says that an interesting study
is going on in New Jersey. Focus groups are being asked, not
whether they agree with Democrats of Republicans, and not even
about existing, established political debates, at all. They ask people
to invent their own country, and to compare it with the one they
presently live in. They talk about the breakdown of civil society,
about the torrent of data from digital devices, about how many
lawsuits there are, and how their children are influenced by
electronic media, and how politicians are simply mouthpieces
for whomever holds the power in business, the media, and society.
They compared politicians to out-of-control kids having
a food fight in a lunchroom: an uncivil breakdown. So they
throw the SOBs out! One after the other, they throw whomever
is in power out, and look for someone who will change things!
And that, perversely, makes it worse. A government in
constant turnover is almost worse than no government, at all,
and it is the inability of the nation to govern itself that perpetuates
everything people hate about the country we live in: road rage!
What they are describing is not simply a departure from civility,
or order. If that were the case, we should simply return to
whatever it was that we have discarded. They are describing
the first stage of change, and not just of change, but change
to something that is not at all clear, yet. The kids rebel,
and the politicians act like unruly children. Lawsuits take the place
of consensus, or orderly, understood procedures. We are
not sure just what the role of government is, our ought to be,
so we just scorn it, and have to live with the consequences
of hapless governing. Of amateur governing. Of idiots
running for public office, who get in because maybe they
will stop the political food fight. Fat chance!
It is not just a change from what was to what will be:
it is entering change at such a rate that nothing seems normal,
nothing seems stable, nothing seems certain or secure.
We have not figured out how to do that. We just throw
whomever is in, out! Well, that is change, too! It isn't
change with a sense of direction: it is chaos. How can it
hurt, we ask ourselves, if we put Christine O'Donnell
into the Senate? Maybe we ought to put an airhead like
Sarah Palin into the Presidency! Let's pretend that saying
"No!" is a plan and a program! Let's require a 75% majority
to do anything: they are all idiots!
It isn't a rock we live on, with good earth and seven seas.
It is a spinning globe, in space, and its climate is changing,
and the fences are down. Everything is changing.
Even our old truths must change. Honking the horn,
throwing food in the cafeteria, throwing the bums out,
and reducing all parts of language to something beginning
with an "f" and ending with "uck" is no substitute for thought.
What would make sense? A more civil society?
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