Brian the Education Geek writes an occasional blog with observations about life, geek stuff, politics, and just whatever strikes his fancy.
At the coffee shop yesterday morning, the headline on the newspaper's front page read "CAIRO DESCENDS INTO CHAOS." Chaos. A lot of that going around lately. In Egypt, in Tunisia with their popular uprising, in Greece with their debt situation.
Since about Y2K or so, I've seen a lot of ink/digital characters spilled about what all is wrong with American politics. So much of what I've read is merely partisan bickering, or is fuel to stoke the fires of partisan bickering, that it's been hard for me to put my finger on what it is that's gone awry in our political system. But the feeling is there--Morpheus in Hollywood's The Matrix described it as a splinter in my mind--the feeling that something is simply amiss, something larger than Democrats, Republicans, or anyone in between.
When I saw that word CHAOS in the newspaper yesterday, this feeling I speak of finally started to gel into something tangible. I think what's bothering me about politics in this country is the politics of chaos.
We in America generally don't think much in terms of chaos vis-a-vis our political system. And why should we? We've enjoyed centuries of the peaceful transfer of power in the White House and in the leadership of our states and cities. There's never been a war fought on our soil (save for our own civil war), and we have a system of checks and balances in our government (executive, legislative, and judicial), assuring that it's the will of the people that drives the laws and policies of the land.
But I doubt the countries of Egypt and Tunisia would have guessed a month ago that chaos would descend upon their governments the way it has. Personally, I share John Corbett's view on chaos, from his character Chris in the Morning on TV's Northern Exposure. He said, "No matter how much order you have in your life, chaos is always there. Waiting. Just beyond the horizon."
And now that I've actually been looking, I see signs of chaos in our political landscape all the time.
I see chaos in the form of political extremism. By extremism, I don't just mean politicians who lean far to the left or the right, mind you; I mean politicians like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush who didn't show one ounce of compromise in them during their respective presidencies, no give-and-take whatsoever. It was basically their way or the highway. Remember trickle-down economics? Remember Reagan's escalation of the Cold War? The war in Iraq? These things were going to happen, whether the people liked it or not. To me, that's extremism.
Yes, Barack Obama made this whole economic stimulus package thing happen (a stimulus that doesn't really seem to have helped the economy much, by the by). But the difference is that he at least sought public opinion on the matter before doing so. He met with grass-roots community leaders, had town hall meetings, he even made a blog on www.whitehouse.gov. That to me isn't extremism. Extremism to me is when a political leader says, "I've decided that X should happen, I have the votes necessary to get away with it, and to hell with anyone who says otherwise." Not in these words, of course, but that's the attitude. No debate, no question. And WOW have I seen a lot of that over the past 10 years or so.
I see chaos in the demeanor and the attitudes of more and more American voters, particularly after September 11, 2001. Nowadays, fear sells. And we're buying in droves. The news media, politicians, corporations, this Tea Party thing...they all seem to have an abundance of fear propaganda to supply the demand. We have to go fight the awful terrorists in Afghanistan, or someday they'll be beating down your door! We have to illegally wiretap some people in order to protect everyone! Vote Republican and you may lose your job to budget cuts! Vote Democrat and you may someday have to pay a few more dollars a year in taxes! EEK!
And all this fear is slowly manifesting itself in the voting booth, mainly in that more people seem to be voting for themselves now, rather than voting as a community. Health care reform, for example. Ten or 15 years ago, the need to reform our health care system would have been a no-brainer. For us, for our neighbors, for the common good. (Do you know at least one person who's had health care or health insurance problems?) But no longer. Now, even the most basic needs of the community at large seem to be overshadowed by our own personal concerns and fears. Now we cast the vote that we cast because we want to keep our gun. Or we don't want our taxes to go up. Or we don't want those carn-sarnded illegal aliens getting in! It's less about what's good for everyone, and more about what the voter is afraid of. Quite a chaotic situation if you ask me--for a country like ours that got to where we are today by sticking together and by celebrating our differences rather than fearing them.
I see chaos in the petty and ridiculous actions of our elected leaders lately, and in their abuse of the power we've given them. Like when the governor of South Carolina up and disappeared on us last summer, and we found out later that he was using his taxpayer-funded jet to go see his chickie friend in Argentina or wherever it was. Or when Representative Charles Rangell (D-New York) stepped down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee last March amid accusations of taking corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean and of failure to pay income taxes on some of his real estate. And the hits just keep on coming:
"Geithner's Senate Confirmation Hearing Delayed By Republicans." That was for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in January 09.
"No Further Delay of Liu Confirmation Hearing". That was was for 9th Circuit Court of appeals judge Goodwin Liu, whose confirmation hearings were delayed for months by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alaska) and others, before finally proceeding last spring.
I found other incidents of such behavior, and the reasons given for creating these delays were many and varied, but of what I found, they had one thing in common: they had nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not the appointee was qualified to do the job.
The best may be yet to come, however; many of the newly-elected Republicans in congress have hinted that they'll sabotage the allocation of the funding necessary to implement health care reform. To me, this is chaos incarnate: Congress and the President pass a law, more than half of the American people support the law, yet dozens of our elected officials are apparently planning to use their political office to keep the law from happening.
Yeah.
I see chaos in the form of the vitriol and rudeness and general ugliness taking place in our government institutions. For example, remember the Joe Wilson thing a couple of years ago? This Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) interrupted a speech being given by President Obama in the Capitol, by shouting "You lie!" This wasn't during a debate or a press conference; it was in the middle of the President's speech. The guy later apologized, but chaos--however slight--had been visited upon a proceeding that heretofore had known only order. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel would later point out that "No president has ever been treated that way. Ever." Now, are the words "You lie" particularly venomous? Hardly. But could they have waited for a press statement by Wilson later on? Duh. I imagine he simply wanted to say them where they'd have the most effect, with no thought toward maintaining simple respect and decency for the president that his country elected.
At the time, I thought this was merely an isolated incident, but I've seen stuff like this on a regular basis since then. Not so much outbursts directed at the President, but just general nastiness and infighting between politicians in general. Even between the people themselves. Whichever political philosophy holds sway at any given time, the other side is no longer merely indifferent or disgruntled about it; they're download nasty about it. They're angry. And folks, that's not what made America the great country that we are.
What it is, is very possibly the first baby steps toward a newspaper headline like the one I saw in the coffee shop...but one that reads "AMERICA DESCENTS INTO CHAOS."
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