An Unpromising Future?

Our seemingly perpetual state of warfare based on a misguided and exploited paranoia is causing me to become progressively disenchanted with the current state of our political system. Our government and the acquiescent mainstream media have successfully shifted the public’s focus away from the country, which is literally crumbling before them, to terrifying and cruel criminals in faraway foreign lands that contain huge supplies of oil.

President Obama has been an improvement over his predecessor, but just barely. It appears that he also is going to bear the legacy of leaving the country in another military quagmire. And the leading presidential prospects, as of this writing, promise more of the same.

I've lived through some tumultuous times, Vietnam, Watergate, and 9-11. But I must admit that, right now, I’m having the most pessimistic feelings about the United States I've ever had during my 57 years of life.

2013: The Year of Twerking and Selfies

It has become a customary ritual during the waning days of every year. And as 2013 is poised to become history, like clockwork, folks are reflecting on the people, events, and trends that have made the past 12 months unique.

While having its share of politics and news of great significance, 2013, it seems, has had a curiously high percentage of catchy words and phrases. In my humble opinion, the following two entries are the most memorable:

Twerking

Hands down, “twerking” wins the award for generating the most news, social networking talk, and controversy during 2013. The Urban Dictionary defines a twerk as ‘the rhythmic gyrating of the lower fleshy extremities in a lascivious manner with the intent to elicit sexual arousal or laughter in ones intended audience’.

Pop singer Miley Cyrus and her infamous, and, shall I say, abominable, performance at this year’s VMA music award program catapulted the term into the national lexicon.

Due to my general lack of knowledge of contemporary pop culture, Cyrus’ performance, which was shown on seemingly every media outlet capable of playing video, was my first exposure to the term. My teenage sons, however, say they knew about twerking long before her performance last August.

Selfie

While not quite as earth-shattering as “twerking”, the entry “selfie” has made some significant headlines during the last year. The Urban Dictionary describes a selfie as ‘a picture taken of yourself that is planned to be uploaded to Facebook, MySpace or any other sort of social networking website.’ The picture of me on the right, which I’ve used as profile pic on Facebook, is an example.

The term gained a national audience when President Obama was caught snapping one with other world leaders attending the recent funeral for former South African President Nelson Mandela.

Within hours after its release, Obama’s selfie went viral, and his political opponents saw quickly another way to score some partisan points over his supposed narcissism. (First Lady Michelle’s body language in the pic suggested she was bothered, and this also lent fuel to the fire.)

Again, it wasn’t until the incident at Mandela’s funeral until I learned about the term, selfie. On the other hand, I suspect millenials have known about selfies for quite some time.

A True Equivalency

With the federal government shutdown now entering its fifth day, much of the mainstream media continue to frame the impasse in a false equivalency setting. This inaccurate portrayal appears in media reports complaining about "a failure of leadership", "partisan gridlock", or similar memes. John Darkow's political cartoon that ran in a recent edition of the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune illustrates this widespread view quite nicely.

Fortunately, not all journalists are buying into this misguided effort to play the middle ground. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow reveals in her blog the absurdity of this false equivalency by creating a fictional situation where a true equivalency occurs.

Let's say President Obama, feeling good after winning re-election fairly easily, adopted an overly confident posture with lawmakers. He started boasting about the fact that his approval rating is four times higher than Congress' approval rating; his policy agenda enjoys broader public support than Republicans' policy agenda; and he decided it's time they start rewarding him before he considered engaging in basic governance.

"Sure," Obama said to Republicans in this imaginary scenario, "I'll sign the spending measures to prevent a government shutdown, but first you have to raise taxes on the wealthy. And end the sequestration policy. And pass comprehensive immigration reform. And approve universal background checks. The American people are with me, so I expect you to compromise and negotiate with me on these matters."

The president then said to GOP lawmakers, "And sure, I'll sign a bill to raise the debt limit, paying the bills you already piled up, but I'm not ready to sign a 'clean' bill. Instead, I also expect Congress to pass a cap-and-trade bill, a public option for the health care system, universal pre-K, and billions in infrastructure investments. If you refuse, I'll have no choice but to tell the public you refuse to compromise and negotiate."

-Rachel Maddow, The Maddow Blog

Maddow says reports claiming that Obama refuses to compromise or negotiate as if it were a legitimate debate point aren't just misleading, but "demonstrably silly". I agree. This isn't normal give and take. It's extortion. Part of the minority party is strong-arming the majority to get everything they want. To report otherwise is a failure of journalism.

AND SO THE MYTH CONTINUES…

Republicans still seem to have most Americans convinced that their way is the path to austerity and fiscal responsibility. Despite a contrary record of governance during nearly the last four decades, the GOP continues to campaign by boxing progressives into a corner using the old name calling, sucker punch tactic: calling Democrats “big spenders”.

But now this image has grown to be so entrenched, the 44th President of United States, who was elected just two years ago on a left-of-center mandate of change, has allowed himself to be portrayed as one. While yielding to yet another Republican talking point, President Obama has offered to freeze the pay of civilian federal workers for two years.



A federal pay freeze isn’t the worst idea on the table. At least it’s better than federal job cuts, which is what many in the GOP want.

But what’s so troubling about this latest effort at bipartisanship isn’t so much the nuts and bolts behind the idea, but the consequences it will have on public perception. Obama’s federal pay freeze idea reinforces this false notion that Democrats are ‘big spenders’.
Why has Obama ceded this argument when the record clearly shows that the GOP has been the party that’s run up biggest deficits?

And what makes this idea so depraved is that it’s an ineffective and unnecessary gimmick that puts undue hardship on many hardworking Americans who aren’t exactly rolling in the lap of luxury. It’s a penny-ante, symbolic debt reduction measure that totally ignores areas where huge cuts could be made, such as two needless and seemingly never-ending wars.

President Obama is in a lose-lose situation. He’s allowing his foes to frame the debate by inaccurately manipulating the public’s perception of him and his party. Plus, he’s appearing weak and spineless to his political base.