In Paul Simon’s song, “The Boxer,” we are told, “…a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest…” Looking back to November, quite a few folks are adamant the election meant nothing they did not wish it to mean.
The political right struggles to interpret their losses among key demographic groups, while the left mumbles mush-mouthedly over their poor performance in contests for the House of Representatives.
In Paul Simon’s song, “The Boxer,” we are told, “…a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest…” Looking back to November, quite a few folks are adamant the election meant nothing they did not wish it to mean.
The political right struggles to interpret their losses among key demographic groups, while the left mumbles mush-mouthedly over their poor performance in contests for the House of Representatives.
As neither side of the aisle can interpret the electoral tea leaves (and, thus, know which side their next election bread is buttered on), we find ourselves in gridlock, politically speaking. It is almost certain that by the time you read this, our country will have driven over the fiscal speed bump (it’s not a cliff), jostling the items in our national back seat and spilling coffee in our collective laps.
The problem is that too few of our representatives want to be adults. No one wants to find common ground to arrive at a compromise, which is much harder work than declaring one’s immovability from principle. Finding common ground, then, yields far less juvenile joy than trying to make the other side look bad.
No matter who is talking, the discourse out of D.C. sounds the same: it is not our fault, the other side is wholly to blame and not willing to meet half way, and what a grave disservice the other side does to the good people of America, land of the free.
It is all so reminiscent of squeals from the back seat of the family station wagon, “Billy won’t share! Susie took my toy! His leg is touching me! She’s making faces!”
The chatter over popular dissatisfaction with Congress’s performance is laughable. We tell pollsters they’re bums, but vote for the same myopic ruffians to office. The sad fact is, those folks in Congress are doing only what we’ve chosen. We, the people, are foolish, having embraced the polarizing spiel of cable commentators; little wonder our elected officials are immature in their “my way of the highway” jockeying for political position.
As an electorate, we are childish. Rather than demand thoughtful, nuanced solutions to America’s challenges, we want easy answers. As long as our immediate needs are met – and we needn’t do much to meet them – we’re happy, no matter how goofed up the future becomes.
The state of statesmanship in Washington is a direct result of our national childishness. We, the immature, barely-informed electorate put poorly prepared, decidedly un-thoughtful people in positions of power – what did we think was going to happen?
As we’ve sown, so we are reaping, with shortsighted ideologues representing improvident non-thinkers. So don’t go blaming Washington for the spot our country is in. As Walt Kelly’s Pogo noted, “…we have met the enemy and he is us.”
