Bucking Bronco

This week passed like a week-long final exam for which I didn't study. My grandmother went into the hospital with pulmonary fibrosis slightly more than a month before her 95th birthday. By any measure, a life not cheated by time. But, as would be expected, sadness permeates these occasions, and then tries to make sense of itself.

Let me start by saying my grandmother is one of the few people on the planet that showed me unconditional love, and that I also deeply admired. Dignity, grace, integrity and simple, clean living were the concepts she defined for me. She passed these on to my mother in healthy doses, but Grandma remains the standard by which we will all fail to measure.

So my sadness humbles me by making me reflect on my life and, more shamefully, on my self-absorbed sorrow. Grandma tapped her brakes with glee as my brother and I bounced up and down on her backseat driving through Tampa. She chased us around her house with a stick, playfully threatening us with her weapon as we shrieked in mock fear. She attended the nightclub where my band was playing for her 75th birthday, and stood through the entire Springsteen song after I announced that to the crowd, beaming from ear to ear. She was there through my failed marriages with the forthright example of simply going on the best one can with one's life without the self-pity and drama I pathetically needed. There are too many warm, soft, sweet memories for these pages. And those are just a very few of mine.

And that's my shame. I am a very selfish person, apparently, and am unhappy losing that part of my life. I want her to always be there as the emotional rock and caring safety net. That was part of my life, and I'm crankier than a 3 year-old who has stubbed his toe, sat down crying, and expects to be picked up and rocked through the pain. She would never act this way. She was better.

True, my family was exceedingly fortunate to have someone in our lives of that quality. I fear the fading of my now middle-aged memory, if only for its waning ability to carry the stories and countenance of her for my granddaughter. Yet, I can often see the kindness, faith and resolve of my Grandma in my daughter. That's really good. It may just be a self-serving projection, but I like to think not. The world deserves and, indeed, needs that. I love you, Grandma.

Broken Wind

If I hear one more whine about socialism or how our government is "turning us into Europe", I'm going to beat myself in the head with a hammer until I reach the IQ of those whining. There are several chickens that have come home to roost here, folks, and the sooner we reconcile with that, the better.

First: while it is exceedingly politically expedient to propose more services / military expenditures while lowering taxes, it doesn't exactly take an Keynesian scholar to figure out the tenuousness of that program. So what? Your taxes (and those on the company you work for) will have to go up eventually, or we will sink into a economically untenable position in the world. When we drain the coffers to the point that we can no longer expect to borrow from other countries (or service the debt we already have), we will lose foreign investment and the ability to sustain our lifestyle as we know it. Canada and Mexico will become our largest trade partners, and - last time I checked - their appetite for Levis, Fords and corn isn't quite that of the EEU. So, we have to pony up.

Second: there was little alternative to bailing out the financial system in 2009. It cost a lot of money. Almost as much as the Iraq war (but not Afghanistan, and that's only counting up until 2008). So we are spending in a deficit. Our decidedly free-market financial sector policies allowed the market to implode upon itself, and we're all eating a big poop sandwich. To paraphrase Barney Frank: Deficit spending (like the jobs crisis, the wars, and the health care system) was not initiated on January 21, 2009, but it's a reality of our world. So the current administration can either try to lay a path for tomorrow and accept the politically suicidal method of actually PAYING for programs and projects, or stand by and watch Rome burn.

Third: our health care, education and infrastructure systems are dragging this once world-class country to an economic quagmire. We can't afford 50 million people getting there antibiotics at the emergency room, slapping another plastic patch on a suspension bridge, or the trend of dropping 2 places downward per year in level of education among industrialized nations. And fixing that (get ready for it) costs money.

Again, the problem is our churn-and-burn media cycle. Politicians, while ostensibly charged with and technically employed to forward the greater good of our country, enjoy their jobs (and the rewards thereof) as much as anyone. It is easier to grab poll points by calling someone a socialist (or a Washington insider) than explaining the rationale for an omnibus spending bill amendment for grain quotas. Since pundits and polls (as opposed to news) are the new staple of political "journalism", in order to keep one's job, one must massage the polls. In order to move them effectively, one must throw out inflammatory, simple messages that are strictly adversarial, and ignore the ramifications on the aforementioned job description. Hence: all spending (by Democrats) is socialism.

You can define redistribution of wealth as socialism, or you could call it a tax to support vital programs. It's semantically correct either way, but definitively less divisive with the latter nomenclature. I'm not assuming everything happening in Washington is being done correctly or to the most perfect outcome, but whining about the cost of bandages (and calling the doctor applying them a butcher) while you bleed to death just doesn't seem wise. And the choral chanting of Fox News' flatulent demagoguery is, well, just boring. Let's try to be adults, shall we? Wait, I mean...If you don't agree with me, you're a terrorist.

Meat of the Meeting

John Stewart's ironic take on the recent healthcare summit hosted by President Obama was (as usual) insightful and amusing. He had his Senior Summitologist query the feasibility of a body of legislators gathering to decide how to run the government, with bilateral branches designed to represent both populist and state interests. What it left me with, however, is the nagging question: Why did this summit happen?

After some days of research and reflection, my answer is rather disturbing. It had to happen. Left to their usual playgrounds, the parties simply spout their usual taglines and send them out to their usual media outlets for their usual responses. This dreary ritual is based in a Rovian, if not Machiavellian, design for reelection. Those that put you there want to see you as spitting out the same pablum with which you garnered their vote. Progress, common sense, and the betterment of the nation be damned (reference Prime Minister Scott Brown's support of MassCare and rejection of a Federal program because "we already HAVE healthcare reform in Massachusetts, why should we pay for everyone else's?"), they posture in front of the C SPAN cameras and cash the usual checks from their usual sources without any usual balances or accountability to their actual constitutional function. Got mine, screw yours.

President Obama masterfully recognized this runaway bully pulpit as an opportunity to hold a summit that could expose the trap Mitch McConnell, John Boehner (hehe), and the Contrarians had set for themselves. The Party of No was never excluded from the crafting of this legislation. They were prevented from circumcising it. This made them unhappy, but left enough Republican-influenced meat on the bone to allow Obama and the (incredibly lame public figures representing the) Democrats to point to the legislation and say "Wait, this is what you are asking for, and now you're saying we need to start from scratch? Clearly a partisan approach."

Obama called out the talking points time after time with virtually no resistance. It was as if just saying "government takeover of healthcare" was the only value to the P.O.N. Their only retort was to reference an averaging of public polls implying citizen disapproval of the legislation. The greatest opportunity missed by the Democratic contingent there was to correct the interpretation to its reality: Americans polled opposed the Republican characterization of the legislation. Period. (The unfortunate truth behind that statement is the underlying ineptitude of the White House media folks at conveying the actual content of this bill, juxtaposed with the well-oiled fear machinery brought to us daily by Fox Beck "News".)

The President went further to establish his moral high-ground by acknowledging McCain's exposure of the bizarre sweetheart deals (negotiated by defenders of the insurance industry as represented by such nudniks as Bill Nelson, a democratic senator from Florida) after berating the defeated former GOP candidate's party spew.

Bottom line: nobody in congress has the guts, the intelligence, the cache, or the street credentials to call out a talking point in front of his colleagues because he would then have the same inconvenience thrust upon himself. The congress is full of cowards, the parties support crusty old-boy networks, and the voters should pay attention. Again. More often. Then vote these buffoons out so that the President doesn't have to stop the silly name-calling in the schoolyard. Be ashamed, congress. Be very ashamed.

The Good Old Days

Here we go, back to the good old days. The days of constipated congress providing rhetoric in the guise of leadership. The days of electing representatives because they can chant simple NASCAR slogans and know who the right baseball teams are, regardless of their record or competence. The days of hopelessness for tens of millions of Americans that are, now, far less likely to afford healthcare for their families. That reduced likelihood brought to them, in large part, by the same folks that will cheer the day they reduced it and killed the last spark of hope for the Obama administration. An administration that started with a mandate to quell the politics of fear, change the jaded narcissism of Washington, and bring a light to the end of the tunnel.

Why are we here? For the same reason we were in Washington a year ago watching a slight feather of hope step into a wind-tunnel of political quagmire. Because Barak Obama has dignity and vision, without the snarky jingoism of the Cheney gang. Our President has refused to sing the song his predecessors sang with impunity: "Blame It On The Boss Passed Over". By allowing the dire scope of the disaster to be downplayed in the name of optimism and the thin chance of generating economic confidence, Obama lost his window of opportunity. Have you heard him crow about finally bringing an end-game plan to the two wars started by W's "Stop pointing that gun at my dad!" homage to Tarrantino. Thousands of lives and trillions of dollars will be spared, yet not one "Mission Accomplished".

So when our fragile, gasping, underperforming healthcare system requires fixing, we don't hear "This guy just took us out of harm's way and saved us a mint." we hear "Typical big-government tax and spend." Who steps up? Did Biden get out there and paint his boss' back with Bush-fixing teflon? Did Pelosi point out the implications of NOT fixing healthcare, so her boss could do the big-picture, greater-good speech? Did Obama himself ever make enough sense out of his proposals? Enough jingoistic, small-word, proven-effective-by-Rove sense to rally the citizens that put him in office (and they WEREN'T all Democrats)?

Irony is common in our world, and, if you look for it, easy to find. The irony that a Republican sitting in what was Ted Kennedy's seat, who voted for universal healthcare in Massachusetts, and ran against a Libertarian named Joe Kennedy will help defeat meaningful healthcare reform is a little much. You can't blame him for winning. Indeed, you can clearly lay blame at the feet of the Democrats for falling asleep at the wheel, wallowing in the hubris of 2008, and failing to snap the neck of their opponents as the Republicans have done for the last 10 years.

It's just a damn shame. Hope - crushed. Optimism - put on hold for the very rich, or those foolish enough to believe big business has their best interest at heart. Insurance companies - protected from having to increase the roles of insured into those nasty, high-cost, poor folks. America - welcome back to 2004. I had so much hope we had grown the fuck up...