A View From The Keg…

Note: this post was originally started back in January. Its relevance is even greater today…

Another day, another debate. The endless stream of media dis-information continues. I say dis-information, because none of these folks (er, candidates) can actually answer a question. Oh, they sure make it sound as though they’re giving an answer, and their mouths are moving, and words are coming out. But they absolutely, positively are not giving an answer to whatever question they have been asked. Let me clarify: by answer, I mean a straight answer.

We deserve a straight answer to simple, straightforward questions. Instead, we get this:

Question: Would you, on the first day of your presidency, crack down on people who are in this country illegally?

Answer choices: Yes or no, followed by brief elaboration.

Actual Candidate Answer: Well, that’s a very complicated question. If you mean would I move to strengthen US border security, which is where the real trouble lies, and would I enlist the help of Congress in this matter, well then I’d have to say that I believe a president can only do so much to…

Yeah. I see. And you want to become president because you’re fed up with the ways of Washington. (Note that this candidate rattled on for nearly 2 minutes without ever answering the question, or any other question that could have been interpolated from the original question).

A presidential candidate can obfuscate the answer to any question. (The perfect word to describe what any candidate for any office does with any question, obfuscate is defined as “to make so confused or opaque as to be difficult to perceive or understand”). I think that’s actually in the party guidelines for prospective candidates: “must have complete and total understanding of the concept of obfuscation and be able to put it into practice even when ordering breakfast”. To steal a phrase from John Stossel, give me a break.

I’ve had the privilege of voting in every presidential election since 1978. I have to say, I have heard the same issues discussed in every election since then. Actually, in every election in my lifetime since I became politically aware (I really became aware during the ‘68 elections, but I was first interested in politics during the ‘64 Goldwater-LBJ contest). In spite of decades of dealing with the same issues, very little has actually been solved! How is this possible? How could we all be so fooled into thinking that what we actually say come election day will make any difference at all? How can we blame the populace for just turning off to presidential politics after all the politicians have subjected us to?

This primary election cycle (aka “The Endless Job Interview”) has brought more people to the polls than I’ve seen in the past, and more new voters in particular. That’s a very good thing. Perhaps it means that the nation is finally willing to get involved again. But we’re still living in a semi-delusional state if we choose to believe things are actually going to change anytime in the near future. I don’t see any candidate with the cajones (or the ability to reach across party lines) to make that happen.

We face a number of problems that are easy to talk about fixing, but very difficult to actually fix in a nation of 300 million plus people. Like it or not, that’s reality. Here are a few of those problems, followed by the brilliant suggestions put forth from our candidates:

• Gas prices too high? Let’s rescind the federal gasoline tax for a time, that will surely help. (Truth is, in the long run, that will create more problems than it will solve. Funds for infrastructure repair come from the gasoline tax, and our infrastructure is in dire need of repair in some places - ever drive the Pennsylvania turnpike?).
• Food prices rising too rapidly? Let’s continue to look the other way while we subsidize growing corn and other grains to use for fuel. (And while we’re at it, let’s continue top look at electric cars as the “way of the future” and forget about cajoling the oil companies to get involved in the real way of the future - hydrogen. No pollution, no dead batteries to end up in landfills, cheaper in the long run).
• Economy sputtering toward recession? Let’s have a moratorium on foreclosures, that will help people who are hurting. (Well, I’m all for helping people who are hurting through no fault of their own - and I know they’re out there. But as for those who took silly risks, intentionally purchased homes they could not afford, or purchased with interest only loans in the hopes of refinancing later or selling at a ridiculous profit before the loan was due, that’s tough. I can imagine your pain. But that’s a risk you chose to take! And I don’t want my tax dollars going to bail you out of your own stupidity or my elected officials wasting their time trying to fix your problem. No one’s ever done that for me - and believe me, as a musician, there have been times when I could have used the government’s help).
• Health insurance too expensive or unobtainable? Let’s institute a national health policy and force everyone to purchase insurance. (The debate over this issue should have started in the 1960’s, when we had a realistic chance of accomplishing this without great difficulty. I firmly believe it’s high time for us to have some form of national health insurance, but I don’t hear anyone putting forth a plan that’s truly workable. And don’t start telling me about how “every other industrialized nation has national health insurance”. This may well be true, but how many of them are nations of over 300 million? China? India? You cannot compare the situation in the USA to the UK, Canada, Germany, France, or any of the other countries held up as an example for us to follow).

So what are we to do? For one, we all should read a book called “The World Is Flat” by Thomas Freeman. This book looks at many of the problems we currently face - and the misinformation being fed to us about them - from a clear and studied point of view. I think, too, that once we’ve read this book, we should to ask our presidential candidates if they’ve read this book. If they haven’t, then I don’t think they have an accurately informed picture of what’s going on in the world today.

We need to begin to listen to ideas from people outside of Washington, because the ideas coming from inside Washington are too often formed in a system where special interests and small segments of the populace have too much influence. We need non-partisan, not bi-partisan, solutions to our troubles. We need to look outside the box our elected officials have built for themselves. And although the possibility for achieving those things exists in this election, I find myself more and more afraid that it still won’t happen this time around.