[Politics] The Wedgie
As the political season heats up as fast as the weather this summer, the party in power once again is forcing 'wedge' issues as opposed to confronting and dealing with real issues. I speak of this to both parties as really unless some major shake ups happen we are merely chosing the lesser of two evils (I would choose Cthuluhu, but he's not running). The economy, despite what economic analsysts on news programs says, is in the dumps, and we have inflation looming heavy on the edge just out of view. The increase in gas prices are finally starting to have a ripple effect in the economy as the cost of basic and needed goods (such as food) increases. Interest rates have been on a steady rise resulting in increased debt load to most Americans as well as an increasingly rapid deflate in the housing bubble (it will only pop in a few places). Tax breaks to the richest 1/3 of the country is insuring that the poorer 2/3s is footing the bill for everything from our failing infrastructures to a War in Iraq that we (and the Iraqis) are totally screwed. We don't have infinite wealth (hell most Americans don't even have savings) and if China decides to divest its holdings in our monetary infrastructure then we will see a rapid downward spiral of our standard of living. We are and have been for some time living on borrowed time. But I digress and now return to my issues at hand, the 'wedge' issues, or I like to call them the over-emotional issues. Let me recap the three top ones:
1. Gay Marriage (the non-threat)
2. Flag-burning (yes, this has once again been resurected)
3. Reproductive Choice (this is in fact a very important issue as it affects our rights as citizens, but too often I have seen it abused as a wedge issue to distract from other more immediate and more pressing issues such as the loss of funding to public education, or rising poverty rates)
These issues are not as important as the current party in power wants you to believe. They are hot-button, FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) issues used to fire up people and whip them in a frothy frenzy so that they will be distracted from the real issues. I can see why people gravitate to these issues, it is easier to scapegoat and lash out in fear at these issues because most people think they understand them. This is the problem, people no longer understand the issues, nor do they want to try. Why? I think it is because once Americans started thinking about the real issues again we will see an unprecendented rise in depression (luckily we have drugs for this).
All is not lost, if you are in a discussion of politics with people this season and someone (especially a candidate), starts stumping these wedge issues, counter them with their thoughts on a real issue or two. Don't be a dink about it, do it to get them thinking about other things. Here are three good real issues, but from a local to a national level many, many, many, real and very important issues exist:
1. Medicare and the near future of health care in this country as the baby boomers retire, or just health care costs in general.
2. The economy and why most Americans have not seen the recovery, tax breaks in a time of 'war', corporate welfare, rising debt, the effect of rising gas prices, the trade imbalance.
3. The approaching energy crisis and what can be done in the form of truly renewal or bridge technologies to buffer the loss of fossil fuels (I think this will require a unified American effort on a scale larger than the Space Program to achieve).
Resist and counter. But be civil.
1 comment:
They talk about wedge issues because they have little to gain in talking about what is really going on. Can you imagine a politician talking about peak oil? Basically telling their constituency that their suburban lifestyle is over, that the whole way of life is about to go 'off the menu'. Imagine them telling them that the price of gasoline is likely to ratchet up continuously over the coming years and that there isn't currently any viable energy source that will allow them to keep their motoring lifestyle. Imagine them telling their constituency that the American economy is on the edge of collapse, that our unprecedented debt, negative savings rate, foolish multidecade military expenditures, and dispersed and crumbling infrastructure will make things very ugly for a whole lot of Americans in the near future. Imagine them telling Americans that we cannot afford national health care, and even if we could, their corporate masters would never allow it. That our foreign policy has failed miserably, that we have pissed away our goodwill, that the majority of the world doesn't like us, and that terrorism by Islamic extremists is likely to continue for the forseeable future no matter what we do. That America doesn't so much make anything anymore, but instead just moves money around and loans it out at rates people can barely pay back. That our ecosystem is in a state of flux that could radically reshape the places we live.
When things get tough, or complicated, or ugly, people turn to their emotional gut, and in this country, that means a nearly religious mix of nationalistic jingoism and a puritanical fear of sex.
The Republican party has been the major mover in most of these mistakes in the last few years, and the only chance they have in continuing their power is to scare the hell out of people and play to their lunatic base, and that means wedge issues.
To be fair, I doubt most Democrats will be talking about this stuff either because they will be burned electorally if they start telling people inconvenient truths. When Americans realize that the game is up, and that they've been had, they will likely elect, as James Kunstler put it, 'cornpone nazis' who are willing to do anything, including 'give war a chance', to help secure a few more years of cookie cutter McMansion and SUV lifestyle.
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