Thursday, August 17, 2006
Yeah, I Got Some Issues...
Chris Cillizza had this post recently in his The Fix column in the WaPo, asking for readers' thoughts on various issues for the 2006 election.0 comments
My first thought was that this was simply lazy punditry. I still think so.
But here's my take:
On the subject of issues driving this election cycle, everyone misses one important truism:
All politics is local.
Very local.
Like pocket-local; purse-local; tip of your nose-local.
Despite all the various analytical approaches that will be tried by the punditocracy in the coming months, this is quite the simple political year.
It's the return of Richard Nixon's great Silent Majority.
Only this time, it's pointed in the opposite direction.
It's the war, Stupid. The Great Main Street / K Street War.
And it sits upon the very definition of governance.
Main Street thought these guys could govern better than the other guys. They failed. They're out. The math is simple.
The GOP thought they were truly special. Main Street thought they were simply different. They're not. They're actually worse. So, they're out.
Call this a civics class on steroids. America simply wants good government. It's what they've paid for. They haven't had it; they want it. Period.
Perhaps since 1994, but certainly since 2001, the average American, having voted to change things to make them work better, first paid no attention, then denied, then slowly began to understand, that this Republican-controlled government, despite its vast political power, has done NOTHING during these years to help make his or her Main Street life any better—in any way. In fact, most Americans have spent years watching things fall apart around them with increasing speed.
Awake and now paying attention, they clearly see that the ones who've prospered under GOP leadership are the money boys, and the rich guys, and the vast army of K Street lobbyists who shill for them. The world has been an exciting, enriching place for this group these last six to 12 years. Greed, corruption and indifference to suffering are now the coins of the realm in our nation's capital. It's a lobbyist party!
And Main Streeters are becoming aware that it is THEIR kids and grandkids who will end up footing the bill.
Main Streeters now fully realize that their voice no longer counts in Washington. That they are political chum. They know now that the K Streeters can and will break every law on every level to gain every legislative advantage for their corporations—the job of every good K Streeter is to eliminate any vestige of federal and state guidance or control over corporate malfeasance in the name of profit. And they're very good at their jobs—perhaps, the only truly competant people left in Washington.
When Ford Motor chose to pay off the population of dead and maimed Ford riders, since it was cheaper than fixing a core design flaw, Americans were outraged! Today, most Americans simply assume that that's how things always work. Your family dies, but a corporation will still flourish. Your sacrifice is duly noted, and appreciated. Here's a check.
A deeply moral lot, Main Streeters watch their country overridden by soulless people who think their corporate positioning carries more weight than the nation's quality of life. Or its very life.
Average Americans now know their water is dirtier; their job security non-existent; their most personal, intimate details will be dumped on the Internet by AOL or somebody else for the world to ogle; every physical object they come in contact with (cars, roads, bridges, toys, mineshaft safety materials, coffee containers) are more shabbily (cheaply) made and, therefore, more dangerous to themselves and their families. They see their world has gone toxic. And out of control. And nobody cares if they live or die.
And they clearly see that if they complain or question, they're called whiners, rather than heroes.
They see they can no longer afford to pull out of their driveway, let alone send their kids to college.
They see their lives diminished in every quantifiable way.
They also see large, gaudy Rolexes on GOP wrists. They see $3,000 suits. They see expensive cars.They hear GOP politicians talking to them like they're morons. They see houses worth $320,000 being happily snapped up at $1.3 million. Mostly, they see very connected, successful people running their lives, and now moving into their stable neighborhoods, forcing the prices of housing, retail goods and everything else through the roof. They sense the "Tough luck, loser; I've got mine" response from the new affluent neighbors when they offer a simple welcome. And they now know that their lives will be lessened in the months and years to come, until they're forced to move on, as their neighborhood becomes a rich-folk enclave.
What you see this year is glacial. Slow and very, very powerful.
It's called anger.
It's where people live.
In short:
"If MY life stinks, YOU'RE going down, bub, I don't care WHO you are. Or WHAT your philosophy is."
Politicians and pundits miss this at their peril.
The only thing that can stop this is a Diebold machine.
posted by Gotham 9:51 PM
0 Comments:
