Listening to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly makes me sick to my stomach. Listening to Keith Olberman, while not as bad (he doesn’t yell and scream and shout down people with opposing views), still makes me shake my head. Realizing that many Americans take talk show hosts extreme right and left rants as gospel makes me sad and frustrated.
The flock on both sides are culpable of the same thing. Ranting and raving, painting anyone with a different opinion as a Nazi, fascist, evil or idiot, and not listening to any facts that contradict your position are not personal traits that adults encourage in their children. What adult would thank a school system for saying, “we’ve successfully turned your child into a narrow minded simpleton who paints every issue in black and white, doesn’t listen to people with different opinions and doesn’t budge from a position on any issue once he’s decided where he stands on that issue. He’s now ready to be a contributing member of society.”
But adults certainly don’t practice what they preach.
Media on both sides of the political spectrum are fear mongering propagandists who help their respective political teams to incite hysterical, partisan mobs.
My main problem with partisan media is that because they are known to be partisan they are immediately dismissed by the other side, for good reason. If someone is left wing and rants constantly about the right, the few times they actually make a valid point gets diluted. The other side can dismiss the ranter because they have a history of simplifying issues and calling the other side names. Similarly, even if Bill O’Reilly has a valid issue he’s ranting about on a Tuesday, as a moderate, I can’t be sure if he’s based in fact or not, and the other side can dismiss him because of his history of not living in facts and being one-sided in his critique of politicians.
Focusing on Washington politicians, I asked my dad today if in his 79 years he’s ever seen the federal government run as contentiously as we’ve witnessed over the past few years. Democrats live to thwart Republican ideas. Republicans live to thwart Democrat ideas. No one, it seems, has a goal of getting things done, making decisions and implementing those decisions.
I always compare our government to a company. Could a company survive if the entire top level of management has, as a goal, to throw a monkey wrench in any idea proposed by anyone who is, as an arbitrary differentiator, of a different color or gender?
That company would be on a fast track to failure. My dad is generally republican but couldn’t stand George Bush. Some of his most die-hard republican friends couldn’t seem to see the shades of grey in the world that exist between the extremes of black and white. Their logic seemed to be, “George Bush is a Republican. Republican is good. George Bush is good.”
Similarly, I’m all for Republican ideas of small, efficient government, encouraging businesses to grow and prosper, which leads to individual and societal prosperity. But those same friends think Sarah Palin is a fantastic voice of the party. She represents the party…What? I would be embarrassed to acknowledge that Sarah Palin represents me. While she is a master of high school click put-down tactics, throwing catchy phrases like “death panels” into debates and getting her friends to laugh and say “you go girl”, I wouldn’t put her on a debate team where she had to debate policy with real, fact based arguments rather than scare tactics. She is, however, a great populist.
I liked Tom Friedman’s article in the NY Times outlining the difference between the American political aparatus’ ability to get things done and that of China’s one party system. From an economic competitiveness stand-point, China is going to crush us going forward. Why? Because they can aim the entire resources of the government and society towards helping business get things done. Now, will they sometimes make a wrong bet? Sure. But so do venture capitalists. Good venture capitalists make enough good bets to make a lot of money for their stakeholders.
An example is clean technology. I’ve been pulling my hair out waiting for our government to develop a modern day version of the Manhattan project focused on clean energy. Obama wasted a lot of good will and political capital by trying to tackle health care first. He should have mobilized national dialogue, debate and conversation on energy independence (right wingers can get behind this) and environmental policy (a treat for the left wing).
What would our economy look like in 10 years if instead of writing a trillion dollar check each year to oil producing countries, or a $750 billion bailout to banks, we had millions of americans employed building, installing and maintaining a national network of solar, wind, nuclear, and algae biofuel?
Once the investments are made, our energy costs become negligible. Imagine the competitive advantage that would provide to American business.
