Exhibit One: The Republican Party has done nothing for the past two years but attempt to obstruct progress for President Barack Obama. Yet, the Republicans just won an unprecedented number of US House seats in the mid-term elections, regaining a majority. Now, sure, opponents of Obama might be happy, but should voters on the left or the right ever reward pure obstruction?
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, immediately after the election, had the gall to say that his party's top priority will be to work toward the removal of President Obama from the White House in 2012. Again, McConnell is openly indicating that Republicans won't be focused on compromising or trying to get things done (for a change) for the country.
Does anyone care about what McConnell or other top Republicans say? Is anyone listening?
I think it matters a lot that the Republicans have tried to "do nothing" for two years, don't you? Are you out there, American people? I don't know what people are thinking anymore. I swear.
A majority just voted for Republicans with an apparent message against "too much government," but the most thoughtful of those voters should have paid attention to what Democrats were at least trying to do vs. Republicans' intent - which was solely to hurt Obama.
Of course, many voters - perhaps a majority - have grown so disenchanted with Washington that they're fed up with all incumbents. There are good reasons for much disgust. In a time of crisis, politicians have been as cowardly and self-protective as ever. Yet, that's still shouldn't mean that the worst actors - the Republicans - who acknowledged their purely obstructionist motives - should be rewarded in the midterm elections!!! That's nutty. That's discouraging. That suggests our system does not work.
As we've all learned, Obama makes himself too easy - and, too long - a target, at times and that's contributed to his problems, but he DID inherit more crises than any President in my lifetime. People should take that into account. It's a hard time for anyone to be President.
The cowardly behavior in the US House and Senate has not made things easier for Obama. He's had far too few vocal, supportive allies in the Congress. Plus, generally, virtually no one in the US House or US Senate is showing any leadership these days. Almost all public policy discussion is framed by glaring partisan differences. When was the last time a politician stepped forward to take a difficult, unpopular stand? Or a Congressman or senator got rewarded for trying to compromise to get something done?
It takes Jon Stewart to organize a rally in Washington calling for a return to "sanity." Sounds like a one-time joke, but, the truth is that often one can hear more "straight talk" from stand-up comics or hosts like Stewart than from our elected officials.
It seems the whole system has gone bankrupt. The television media is preoccupied with covering the "entertainment" angle to serious topics. So, whenever conflict or hype can be used to frame a story, the news producers write the story that way. The actual content has not only become less important, but, often, it's openly disregarded or downplayed.
Look at former President George W. Bush's television appearances this past week to promote his new book. The network shows played up a few sound bites, but, I would have preferred more emphasis on the fact that Bush spoke a bit more about previously-overlooked truths about the lack of any rationale by his administration to invade Iraq. It's interesting: The news media often tells us what someone like Bush said or didn't say, but, rarely includes raw facts, background and context to major stories. Bush said, in a relatively casual way, he had approved of water-boarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 actions, without prompting much followup, for example. In the end, the coverage presented Bush's sound bites without putting his admissions, omissions and inaccurate remarks together. Bush tried to claim that while he was disappointed when weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq, he never was pushed, aggressively, on how the hell he could justify going to war against Iraq without evidence of WMD.
The television media doesn't even try to identify or emphasize the truth. If they get their "entertainment" from a segment, that's all they care about. And, they never want to have an interviewer get too tough or edgy with a guest - even if they're discussing whether a war had to happen!
I go on this tangent about coverage because it has impacted everything about Obama's first two years. The media has done little or nothing to put the extraordinary spending by the federal government into perspective. And, while the Obama team did a very poor job explaining its health care reform proposals during the long, ugly debate on that, the news media was even worse. The media failed to explain how " watered-down" the bill was. They failed to explain all the money and lobbying that went on behind the scenes and how that altered the context of what unfolded.
What's sad is that Obama inspired people during his 2008 campaign and spoke a lot about rising above partisan politics. He spoke about how he could bring people together. He appeared to care a bit more about principle and "doing the right thing" regardless of partisan details. Now, the Republicans have, at least temporarily, succeeded in re-labeling Obama as a "big-spending liberal" who favors government involvement all the time, no matter what the costs. Obama should have more aggressively warded off his opponents' attempts to tarnish him, but, at the same time, the media failed to separate, label and assess Obama's various decisions.
One would think that President Obama and those around him would have learned by now that they have to speak up and be clear about their goals, their day-to-day responses to developments, defending themselves against unfair attacks and continuing to clarify their positions - all the time - so that the American people and the news media understand.
It's interesting that the Obama team, for all their savvy in the 2008 campaign, has shown poor judgement in how they use the President's appearances on trips and on television. I believe one main mistake has been overexposing Obama. He's been so visible so often in his first two years that I think people tune him out now. To become more effective, in my view, he should limit his media appearances and trips more.
In addition, it'd help if Obama took more risks and offered content that reflected his true convictions a bit more often -- even if it alienates a few more politicians or interest groups.
You see, if the Obama people don't figure this out, the Republicans will keep getting attention by using more "shallow" content and superficial presentation. Sarah Palin is about to launch a new "reality" TV show on Alaska - a move that, to me, will just remind people of how unqualified and ill-fitting she'd be as a potential President. But.....the television networks and cable stations are all over the Palin show. Palin and some of her Republican peers understand how superficial and entertainment-oriented television is. They take advantage of it and no one calls them on their lack of substance.
It's be so easy for reporters, producers and editors help the American people see how unqualified Palin is. They just have to do their old jobs -- to seek and report the truth.
The problem is that the companies that own news organizations today - and the news executives who work for them - don't care as much about truth-seeking today. Content doesn't matter as much. It's an unhealthy climate - and that helps explain why individuals like Palin and Glenn Beck can attract attention rather than scrutiny.
Let's hope we can transition into a better era, when the truth matters a lot more.
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