An American Tragedy

It is an American tragedy that no matter who wins in November, nothing real will change. Barack Obama is not qualified to be President. John McCain, in a fit of pandering to the lowest instincts of the fundamentalist wing of the Republican party, picked a running mate who is equally unqualified. Both candidates have jettisoned their supposed maverick, outsider status and jumped head-first into the cesspit of Presidential politics.

To be fair, neither man could escape the five forces that shape the political landscape in America.

1. Money Talks; Principle Walks—Both men’s campaign teams are loaded with lobbyists, seemingly with every major player in each team connected with some ugly episode in recent American history. Even if Obama and McCain were the two most principled men in the world—and the current state of the race skewers that laughable notion, the billions of dollars involved for either party to secure the White House and Congress absolutely guarantees that the last voice heard in the first days of the next Presidency will be that of the American people.

2. Extreme is the New Normal—Closed primaries (nearly half of all states still run closed or semi-closed primaries) reward the party faithful with the choice of candidate for a given race. The men and women moved to vote in these primaries are usually more doctrinaire and extreme than the population as a whole. As a candidate it pays to be prejudiced, partisan and unflinchingly dogmatic if you want to be successful at this first stage gate of the electoral process.

3. The Superfluous Voter—Once selected in a primary, gerrymandering on an unprecedented scale means that only 13% of Congressional Districts are seriously in play during any given election. An astonishing 87% of the House of Representatives need have no fear of the electorate at large. As long as they do their part for the local party machine and hold true to party orthodoxy, they will be returned to Congress again and again and again.

4. The New Propagandalism—If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. In the news business, the lesson of the last several years is partisanship pays! Talk radio and Fox News proved that the American people apparently can’t get enough of other people who think just like them—especially, if they shout a lot!

MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, and NPR have all decided to give their viewers, readers and listeners what they want—lashings of liberal orthodoxy with a sprinkling of conservative commentary to remind their audiences who to hate. (Network television news has decided to ignore its demographic and give its audience the liberal line, whether they like it or not!). This may be financially astute and truer to the underlying beliefs of the journalists involved, but it is somewhere between pointless and destructive for American democracy.

Liberals are overjoyed at the success of Maddow and (until recently) Olbermann, but what’s the point? Will either of them change one vote? If you are a liberal, ask yourself this question, “would you become a conservative because of anything Bill O’Reilly said”? No? Well, surprise! It works both ways.

This echo chamber of self-defeating nonsense that rewards the loudest, most stupidly partisan hate speech is destroying our democracy. (Bernhard’s recent gang rape joke at the expense of Sarah Palin, which incidentally said more about Ms Bernhard’s attitude to African American men, than it does about the Republican VP candidate, is an increasingly typical example of modern political discourse—see HuffPo, Kos, Hannity, et al.). Ignorant people shouting at each other will not move the country forward….. in any direction.

How about some facts? Some comparative analysis? A hint of objectivity? How about getting creative in explaining challenging concepts in compelling ways? How about holding politicians accountable for their actions, no matter their political affiliation?

One third of Cook County (covering Obama’s home town of Chicago) healthcare centers have closed in the last year due to corruption, cronyism and incompetence. Presumably, poor people have died or at least suffered because of this. Does it matter that the hopelessly inept President of Cook County is a Democrat? Apparently, it does to most journalists in Illinois who assiduously avoid all mention of this and may other corruption issues facing the state. The press sins of commission (outright bias and misreporting) and omission (keeping stories that harm favored candidates out of the press) is a kind of Miracle Grow for appalling governance.

5. Any low you can reach, I can go lower—Whether it is our political discourse, television, education, manners—you name it—we are in a committed race to the bottom. The tragedy of democracy is the triumph of idiocy over civilization. Where a stupid thing and the right thing come into conflict; too many times the stupid thing wins out.

There are a lot of stupid people out there and increasingly, leaders are not willing to tell us what we NEED to hear, rather than what we WANT to hear. (Note to Democrats: just telling people they are stupid, is stupid! You need to be more constructive in your observations. And, of course, real leaders, Al Gore, walk the talk and inspire people through their example too—do as I say, not as I do is a recipe for cynicism and failure, as you are finding out).

These five challenges underpin all the other problems that American faces. Bi-partisan solutions to climate change, comprehensive healthcare reform, social security and all the other challenges we face are out there. Except that in our system, no one, apparently, is rewarded for sticking their neck out and trying something new.

No matter who runs his hand across the desk in the Oval Office for the first time next January, THEY won’t have the power or the stamina to change any of this. No Congressperson is going to vote away their safe seat. No Managing Editor is going to watch her audience evaporate as she experiments with real news for articulate people. No money man is going to shrug his shoulders and write-off his million-dollar check for nothing. No politician is going to antagonize a local party elder who can sink her with the base of her own party.

How this tragedy plays out depends on the AMERICAN PEOPLE, as always. There are answers to these five challenges. We can cut money out of the election process; institute an independent electoral commission to define Congressional Districts; hold open primaries; implement a modern version of the Fairness Doctrine; and, find ways to reward civic virtue and thinking of the good of the many, rather than the comfort of the one.

The important point, however, is that this election is not that time, unfortunately. Only a third party candidate, backed by a boiling mad bi-partisan electoral coalition will have the power to do this. Our audacity in hoping that this time would be different has been drowned in the mud-wrestling pit where the 2008 Presidential election is being played out.