I haven't written politics for a while... indeed, a lot of my writing struggles have been to find something, anything, else to write about instead. Bring on the movie reviews!
Sure, some things have happened... but it's striking to me how little robust political discourse there is, just now, and few issues to really debate. My barometer in these things is dinner conversation with my Mom: if we can find have a lively back and forth to wind up basically agreeing, things are okay. If we actually find a contentious point of serious disagreement, things are really good.
Lately, we're lucky if there's even one topic to discuss from an op-ed in the Times. And that's pretending that there's something even worth debating.
When I started thinking about this the other night, and trying to explain my political thinking just now, I realized... I said my peace about six months ago; and almost nothing has changed since then... except that things have gotten worse.
Back in April I said:
I think we may miss the biggest accomplishment the Obama Administration's first three months have wrought: that we now live in an exciting time... the future.
Yes, the biggest change, I'm starting to notice, is that we no longer live or speak politics in the present tense, but in a fascinating, conditional future tense - "If healthcare reform happens" or "when this economic crisis is over...."
If a picture paints a thousand words... we can't seem to paint one about how things actually are; or actually admit that... well, not much has actually happened. And herein lies a critique of The Obama Administration that hasn't quite taken hold yet: for all the talk about bold plans and brave ideas... we have very little to show in the way of actual change, actual reform, or any real action on all those multiple "key issues" that we're told are so crucial.
And mostly, I find the observation still holds: whether we continue to debate a healthcare reform plan - best described, at this late date, still, as "sketchy" - or the illusory elements of an economic recovery that is really not happening, our way of talking about politics continues to be in the conditional tense... how we will live if various developments take place... and much less consideration for things as they actually are.
What's gotten worse is twofold: the first is that we continually put off until tomorrow - or further off - anything we don't like to talk about today... and the other part is that we're running out of ways to pretend that with nothing happening... we have some serious problems that are failing to be addressed.
This week's jobs report - which made clear that unemployment of 10% is a question of when, and that possibly double that percentage is the real measure of adverse employment - cut through a number of the illusions; in terms of economic developments, I suspect that third quarter corporate reports won't be as good as some want to believe, and that continued problems with home foreclosures and the mortgage market will undercut illusions that the housing problem we have is solved.
And yes, we may get "health reform" - now properly billed as "insurance reform" - but if we do (and I still think one has to wonder how the five different bills can become one with enough support to pass), the question of whether what we get is worth anything will probably not be answered well. And no, I don't mean the "public option" fetish of the left as much as I mean basic questions of whether we will have the kind of reforms to Medicaid and Medicare that amount to long term solutions. Put simply... I doubt it.
I've gotten used to the fact that much of what passes for political commentary will be beyond useless on the things I care about... but I've been left speechless - literally - at how little political writing right now is worth reading, never mind raising any need for response. Too much sarcasm and cynicism has poisoned much of the discourse - a side effect, one might observe, of a world where political commentary often ranges from Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow to Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter - and what's left is devoid, painfully, of serious depth.
Into this void, I think, it's natural to see rising disaffection for the President and Congress. The inability to take action on substantive issues - certainly not to act in a timely manner - the lure of showy distractions, the public dithering and constant opinion seeking... is beyond tiring. The sense that something within the Democratic Party establishment is seriously out of whack is hard to ignore... or deny. But still, I find myself equally put off by excessively dark interpretations of Obama as beholden to corporate and/or donor interests as a be-all/end-all sense of what this Presidency is. I think the deeper frustration with this Administration is the failure - one that could, and should have been expected - to translate soaring rhetoric into practical action, and that failure is not about moneyed interests; it's a structural problem within liberal circles - how to recognize that the "well meaning liberal intellectual" and the "people who benefit from liberal approaches to government" are two separate groups. How to reconcile that reality is, I think, where the current problems of the left lie - and we can't make progress on that until we stop living for the future, and live, instead, in the now. Where we are... and where the real problems we have can't wait.
This all came back to me hearing the oft quoted passage of his Olympics speech where he said something to the effect of "if you pick Chicago, we'll be partners with you in making the Olympic dream come true," or like that... and it had all the usual hallmarks: soaring words, a nice image of some gauzy future in which we all hug and share in our best moments; but that's not really what the Olympics are about (money) or why Rio won. And then we get to spend another week parsing the political fallout of an event... that will never occur - the Olympics in Chicago.
Dinner with my sister and her husband last night was as politically dull as I expected; we generally agree, not much has happened, and I was reminded, again, how little about healthcare is, still, generally out there in the public. My mom, when I brought up the idea of this post, pointed out that some of the dullness was a relief - a "thank god he's not the last guy", though I think therein lies our problem: if our standard in evaluating Obama is whether or not he's George W. Bush... seems to me we're using the wrong standard.
But standards are only part of the problem, as is the sense, even now, that mainstream liberals and Democrats can't yet navigate the admittedly complex waters of both feeling good about the ability we have to exert some real power, and yet facing the fact that among our own are problems and failings that should be admitted... and addressed. Pretend that nothing's wrong - pretend that, some day, in the near future, this will all be much better - and you get what we've got: growing frustration, deadly silences, and airy discussions over nothing at all. And given a choice to talk about some pretend notions of the future or ignoring politics... I think I'll go catch the opening of Where the Wild Things Are. Wouldn't you? I mean, in the future?
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