Midterms

What a great day to be free Americans. People say it all the time (because it is absolutely 100% true)...we take our freedom for granted. Shame on you if you did not vote today. It's one of the greatest privileges we can have, and something a great number of people are not able to do.

I can't say I'm particularly pleased with the results of the elections today, but I also can't say that I'm at all surprised. This really should have surprised no one. As of now, the Republicans are projected to take back a majority in the House, but still hold a 51-49 disadvantage in the Senate. Gubernatorial (that's for governors) races across the country are almost all colored red--most pertinent to me and many of my readers is Terry Branstad's defeat of Chet Culver here in Iowa (why wasn't I able to vote against Terry's haircut on the back of the ballot today?). My problem is this: gridlock. The next two years are going to be full of a lot of talk and arguing and very little being accomplished, not unlike the final years of Clinton's administration (Democratic president vs. Republican Congress). To me, this gridlock is the most frustrating thing. I tend to, though not always (I'm looking at you, Chuck Grassley) vote Democrat--and I would much rather see an all-Republican Congress than a gridlocked one. At least we'll be moving somewhere in an orderly fashion.

A lot of people who are frustrated with the polarization of the political world, especially since 2003, would say that Washington is broken...attributing our problems to some sort of structural deficiency within our government. I would caution against this. In theory, our government works. In theory, it's foolproof. It's been intact and stable for over 200 years. The concept of our government...the Constitution, organization, all that...is solid. Please don't confuse me with a Tea Partier--don't even get me started on that. Anyways, the practice is where we have problems. Basically, suffice it to say that I think we are in a transition period where our government is struggling to adapt to the fast-paced, uncensored information era. Perhaps I'll save that discussion for another time.

One of the major challenges associated with this is the role of the media in government. What you need to understand when you are thinking about anything dealing with politics is that everything is essentially driven by motives. Decisions aren't made for the hell of it, and the sad apparent truth is that most people involved in policy are self-interested. Always ask what they want. What do politicians want? They, like most reasonable working people, want to keep their job so that they can live comfortably. How do they keep their job? Win elections. How do they win elections? The vast majority of the time the candidate who raises more funds wins. So it comes down to money, and making popular decisions. Remember that old saying "what's right is not always popular and what's popular is not always right?" Well...I think the problem in politics is evident.

The other side of that is the media. What do media companies want to do? Make money. How do you make money? Create a product that sells. People don't like to be fed facts, they like to be entertained. People don't want to have to think too hard, they want to have all the facts and details chewed up and analyzed by some talking head, who then spits it back out with whatever flavor they want to put on it. Almost all of the information we receive is second hand, and second hand information is almost always biased. Even if people are trying to be neutral, they will include subconscious biases, often in what they don't say. It's unavoidable.

What else entertains? Controversy and nut jobs. You never see moderate people on cable news, because they are too boring. The media loves the Tea Party, because they are entertaining. Almost no one in Washington takes them or their views seriously, but that's not the point. They get all kinds of news coverage, to the point where they have become sort of this self-fulfilling artificial political force to be reckoned with. It's like Jersey Shore...they are so ridiculous that no one should take them seriously, and the establishment actively resists taking them seriously, but at the same time, they present a challenge in that they have undue influence on the way people think and behave, so they must be given fair consideration.

I never, ever, ever treat television news as a credible source for information. That shit's below Wikipedia in my book. If you want real, fair news, you have to go abroad. BBC is fantastic. RT out of Russia does a very good job. Al-Jazeera is a great source too. If you absolutely must go American, it's NPR and POLITICO. The other way I get information is from actual first-hand documents. Most people don't realize just how much information is publicly available from the government, and frankly, people are too lazy to dig it up themselves.

The truth about the American voting base is that we get all of our information as these half-truths from television news. As a result, we are either terribly misinformed or under-informed. We are also very fickle, with short attention spans and even shorter memories.

This is why the Republicans are taking back control. I talked about it in an earlier post...the Democrats failed to answer the most pressing need--unemployment--and are going to pay a heavy price for it. People don't seem to remember just how discontented the political climate was during the Bush era--and, as an offhanded comment, Bush was a pretty terrible president. Thankfully, Bush isn't waltzing back into Washington, but all of his best friends are.

Let's continue on this line...I don't usually like to get too political in my political posts...but this could be fun. The biggest issues on the ballot for me today were on the back: justice retention and the constitutional convention. It looks like all three of the Iowa Supreme Court Justices who were up for retention aren't going to keep their seats. This is quite a blow to Iowa's gay marriage ruling, as it looks like their replacements will be appointed by Terry Branstad, who opposes gay marriage. Another thing is if the constitutional convention is passed, that is the most viable way for an amendment regarding the banning of gay marriage to pass. A convention will be held, where an amendment will be brought up for a popular vote regarding the issue. Hot button, single-issues like this are the Republican party's bread and butter. They are able to play on people's disdain for "morally unjust" issues to recruit votes for their more substantial political agenda. Frankly, I don't think anyone in Washington gives two shits about abortion or gay marriage, but it energizes their base, who unwittingly vote for all the other (more important) items on their agenda. There are no viable excuses for continuing to deny homosexuals equal rights, and our resistance to fairness is disturbing. For further reading, this article is one relevant reason (among many) why Bob VanderPlaats is near the top of my political shit list. Also, I intend to dedicate a post to this topic soon.

I think I'm going to wrap this up quick. I apologize for any incoherence...I'm exhausted and haven't given this as careful of a review as I'd like. Feel free to fire back at my uncharacteristic political jabs. I like to think that I am still being objective in my commentary, mostly because these high-emotion issues don't faze me. I am (as far as I know) the closest thing to an unemotional machine, while still having a pulse...but we can save my personal peculiarities for another discussion as well.

In sum, I'm disappointed by the elections, but not surprised. It should be an interesting next two years, and a very pivotal point in Obama's career. I envision much more polarization, arguing, and gridlock, which will be frustrating. People would do well to remember that in the grand scheme of things, we are all playing for the same team. It's pretty sad that it takes some sort of national crisis or tragedy to ever realize that. I can only hope that our generation is the one to figure it out...but I don't think my significant doubts are unreasonable. Go America!

So then...upcoming discussions:
Tea Party
Media and Politics
Gay Marriage
Perhaps a little Old Testament knowledge?
My peculiarities
Me hanging out with Bo Burnham

Should be fun!