The Coming Political Storm

I have had to slow down a bit as a result of some droopy eyelids that are beginning to interfere with my sight. Oh well just another one of these body parts running down from, “wear and tear.” That meant a number of wood-shop projects have been on hold. Yet a few days ago I went to my favorite giant lumberyard and guess what? They were roaring. My question was answered, “Yupp we are back where we were 5 years ago,” Now that was a surprise until I began to look at the data. Consumer spending,the dynamo of our economy is up. People are buying stuff again. I remember a time when manufacturing was the barometer of how the economy is doing. We can check our manufacture by checking how China is doing. You know the answer to that one. Doing just fine, thank you.

All of this is little or no help for the unemployed whose major concern is whether or not Congress will extend Unemployment insurance. The job market will be slow on the uptake. Traditionally, during economic downturns companies figure out how to operate with less people. That’s why rehiring is a very slow process if at all. I do remember how jobs were consolidated or eliminated and increase productivity from a smaller work force was the way employers dealt with the slowdowns. Yes, it was scene as an opportunity to cut costs and increase profitability.

There is another weird factor at work here. My recollections about past depressions and recessions was that once there were signs of a turnaround everyone, no matter the majority or minority party would join the cheering squad. After all this was “one for all and all for capitalism.” Back then it was the left that held out saying, “it’s the same old capitalism that is solving its problems on the backs of the working class.” Presently an old media impact has been reinvented with a brand new vengeance. The old one was the Hearst Press. William Randolph Hearst hated FDR and everything connected to the New Deal. All Hearst had was chain of newspapers. There was no TV back then. As a propaganda tool television is far more effective media than any newspaper network. Though our present day Hearst, Mr.Ruppert Murdoch owns both newspapers and a television network called Fox.

The Fox News Network carries on a relentless drumbeat against anything that in anyway might reflect something positive for the Obama administration. I have experienced some really tough propaganda machines in my long lifetime but I must admit I have never seen one as effective as the Fox Network. For 24 hours a day it just keeps repeating lie after lie after lie about that awful man in the White House and his compatriots in the Congress especially Nancy Pelosi the Speaker of the House. The first women to hold that position. Black man in the White House, a women in the House Speakers Chair. For the crazies on the Fox network this is the Armageddon.

Fox News is the juice behind the Tea Party folks whose major slogan “Give Us Our Country Back.” I have always understood the real meaning behind that slogan. It is a clear expression that the man overwhelmingly elected by the people does not represent their country. So, lets get rid of him elect some good GOP white man win control of the House. Get rid of that women and we will have our country back.

All of this is to say that no matter what the present administration does, good, bad, indifferent they will get no credit from the folks on Fox as they operate solely on hate. That hate is what is infecting the country. Yes we can make fun of Pailin and Beck but I will never underestimate what that drumbeat of hate can do to the country. It robs us of any civility in trying to deal with serious social and economic problems facing us. It has created the gridlock in Congress that prevents what is suppose to be the greatest deliberative body in the world from conducting its business. Even in the days of the most heated political disagreements there was always room for honest argument.
I am reminded when back in the 40ies Senator Taft invited me to have lunch with him in the Senate dining room as he wanted to “correct things I had written in a pamphlet.” It was called, “This Is Aimed at You” An analysis of the Taft Hartley Law and how it plans to destroy the unions. I came away from that lunch having not changed my mind about the Taft Hartley Law but with a new respect for Senator.

look what theTea Partyfolksare doing with the recently passed Health Care legislation. Still repeating the same old crap about a committee of the “big bad government in Washington” deciding who lives and who dies. The Democrats deserve some real criticisms for not simplifying what is in this legislation. I recently asked some medical friends to “please reduce the key issues in the health care bill to Bumper Stickers then we will have begun to fight back.”

As we go into the crazy time of the midterm election get ready for the hate propaganda to reach new heights of absurdity. Do not underestimate, for a minute their ability to influence people confused by what is going on. Lets get ready to act and fasten your seat belts for what’s coming.