The election is upon us, and it probably won't change much of anything. If Obama wins, the Republicans will control the House, and nothing will get done. If Romney wins, the Democrats will control the Senate, and nothing will get done. Then again, that's the point. The election coverage (and the hyperpartisan feuding in general) is infotainment, a cloud of dust that obscures the real issues.
Many people, myself included, predicted a bad outcome from the Citizens United decision (see another post). The Money Party is pouring record amounts of money into the campaign, much of it in secret. The media are obscuring the real issues by distracting their viewers with infotainment.
I consider myself a moderate. I'm more interested in balancing the two major parties than in following one or the other. At the moment that means pulling left to counteract a pull to the right. If the left had a big advantage, I'd want to pull right. I point this out because, during my hiatus, I tried to convince people on both sides to see the big picture. As in my driving analogy (in an earlier post), both parties are so consumed with fighting over the steering wheel that they don't see where the truck is going. Apart from these activists, there's a significant portion of the country that doesn't care where the country is going. Either they're too busy trying to survive, or they're too wrapped up in their infotainment.
See the common thread? Infotainment. It's an endless diet of garbage served up on televisions, computers, radios, magazines, and anywhere else someone might suffer the risk of momentary boredom. I can't possibly compete with the quantity, but I have a shot at producing better quality.
So Wachagonadu will continue. As far as I know, only one person currently reads it (and you know who you are). That means doing some marketing, publicity, whatever you call it, to get more eyes. I have to hope that my observations and ideas will draw more attention once people become aware of the blog. Without a voice of sanity, our civilization on its present course could well spiral down into anarchy or oblivion.
Or not. Things rarely get as bad as you expect (but see my later post on "climate change").
That's one thing I learned. The other is that Americans are lazy. We want something for nothing.
Think about it. In general, people on the right want lower taxes, but they don't want any decrease in government services. People on the left want more services, but they have only vague ideas about how to pay for them. Both want the government to give them something for nothing.
Same thing with schools. The right wants lower property taxes, which is how most places fund their schools, but they expect their children to get a good education. The left wants schools to do what parents ought to do.
Health care? The right wants government completely out of it, but they ignore the huge cost increases that HMOs have brought. The left wants everyone to have world-class care, no matter what it costs, but someone down the line has to pay for that.
Politics? Worst of all. The right wants their entire agenda implemented, no compromise possible, and they'll hold up everything else until they get it. The left is even more cowardly, if that's possible, for letting them get away with it. And again, that's the point. Who benefits if the government is in perpetual gridlock? Only the people who can already pay for the services they need--the Money Party.
What ya gonna do? We expect the government to do ... something, even if we're not sure what, and we don't want to know the details of implementing it or how to pay for it. Because we're lazy.
I said I hadn't found a better way to redeem America. I now believe that this blog is the best way. If nobody listens, I've done what I could, but if there's an audience, my work will at least start a helpful discussion.
So it's time to stop being lazy. Find out how government works. Go to your local school board meeting, city council, or homeowner's association. Lurk for a while. Find out what the issues are. Then get involved.
Or you could follow my master plan for reviving America. It starts next time with ... football?
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