We’re doomed. I wish it weren’t so, but I’m afraid that it’s no longer possible to pretend otherwise. I have always operated under the cynical premise "People are stupd." Today I learned just how stupid they are.
Mona and I were watching some TV after we put The Peanut to bed when the phone rang. It was a new kind of political phone call. I was conferenced in to a “Town Hall” call with a local congressman and a bunch of my fellow citizens in the district.
Normally I don’t go for such things, but it seemed like a neat idea so I decided to give it a listen. I was told at the beginning of the call that I’d be given the opportunity to ask the congressman a question if I chose.
Now I’ll tell you, this is a guy I’d voted against. Repeatedly. I figured I’d listen for an opening and pounce on him like a starving Cheetah on a ham sandwhich.
Then I started listening to the questions that were coming in. Holy crap. The best of the bunch was clueless and the worst was barely coherent. I heard one guy who was unemployed ask about the cost of his medical care. The congressman suggested he look into COBRA. The question was worthless and the answer showed just how disconnected the congressman was. He’s obviously never seen what COBRA costs.
The next guy, another auto worker, this time retired, rambled about foreign companies coming over here and buying our infrastructure and golf courses with the money they make by not paying their labor what we do. He wanted to know why all foreign imports weren’t considered luxuries and subject to luxury tax. Seriously? The answer is apparently socialized medicine. That will make us more competitive. Riiiiight.
The next guy, also unemployed, was concerned that the second extension of his unemployment was about to run out and was there any way they could come up with another extension in the next week or two instead of waiting for the next session of congress.
And this is when I finally understood that we’re doomed. I hung up because in a flash of clarity I knew that no matter how clever or well constructed my argument was it was highly unlikely that my fellow citizens would understand it. Cast not pearls before swine. I might not have had pearls, but heck even if I was casting nickels it would have been the same thing.
Clearly if these guys are voters we have no hope. The level of ignorance was just staggering. I started thinking about the Lincoln Douglas debates. I fear that were those two men to arrive from Heaven speaking the vernacular of the 21st century to debate the issues of the day the general public would by and large be completely incapable of understanding their arguments.
I am not talented enough to fully describe what I heard. But if what I heard was really a representative sample then we are truly doomed. Lord help us, we're doomed.
Where can I go to find a population of free thinking, independent, and self reliant people who are interested only in making their own way in the world without the need for or expectation of the warm, fluffy and ultimately suffocating blanket of parental government?
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5 comments:
Eh... I am not sure that I entirely agree with you. I agree that there are a lot of people out there who would rather have someone, anyone, do it "for them" and those people make me just as angry as they make you, but there should be a safety net for people who are having a genuine bad go of it. Is the government a good answer? Unlikely. But can the private sector do it better? I am in serious doubt of that as well. I think we have just witnessed what the "private sector" really cares about (as most of our retirements are now circling the drain), and that ain't you or me.
I don't pretend to have the answer. I just think that in some circumstances there should be greater support for individuals. Take me, for example, when my husband hurt his back right when he started a new job (pre-insurance) no one would help us. I made too much money (ha!) as a graduate assistant for him to get medicaid, but he was in too much pain to work. Eventually, after 3 looonnngg years, he rehabbed himself to the point where he could work again, sometimes walking around a track in tears from the pain, and now we have insurance and he is getting treated. But now he has nerve damage and some functions will never be the same. In the meantime, I worked as many as 4 jobs at once to keep us afloat, and accumulated a massive student loan debt that I will be paying off until I retire.
I think there are lots of people out there like us who need temporary help. Did we make it through it? Yes. But I think I am smarter and more strong-willed than most people. I am not saying that to be elitist, it is just that some people do not have the capacity and/or luck to get it done like how we did. And I am not enough of a social Darwinist to say "screw them!" Attach limits to unemployment/medicaid/welfare? Sure. But you have to have been there to really know what it is like. Maybe you have, Jorge, but many people who want to cut all these programs have not. Sometimes even the smartest, most hard-working, and best-intentioned people take a hard fall.
And who knows? If state budgets get cut enough, I could be there again. I would like to think that I would still be able to go to the doctor and that my kids can eat though even if the worst should happen.
I don't have a problem with asking questions in one's self interest. In fact I tend not to trust altruism.
The part that I just can't convey is how these questions were asked. They were rambling, often incoherent and showed a general lack of understanding.
The guy who wants a luxury tax assesed on all foreign goods? Because labor is cheaper there? There was a guy who didn't get. If he wanted to ask about pretectionist trade policies and how to prevent foreign dumping I say fine (even though the weakening dollar does that all by itself). But when you start rambling about how the foreigners are buying up our infrastucture and golf courses? Sorry, that;s where you loose me.
I was rasised by Joe sixpack and for the most part feel like I have generally blue collar sensibilities. Joe sixpack is generally a pretty good guy.
It was the inability to form a thought and articulate it that got me. The other voters on the call were clearly not people who spend a great deal of time thinking.
And on the congressmans end it was the apparent disconnect between life as a career congressman (1955-present) and a guy who worked on the line all that time.
The whole thing was just sad.
I hope that makes more sense.
And I have no problem with providing some support to someone like you or Tim.
Both of you showed a clear determination to persevere. The only time I have a problem with helping out is when someone decides to abdicate all personal responsibilites and then gets upset because I decline to let him profit from my labor.
Obviously the case of injury or ilness or to a lesser extent a poor economy then yes, I'll help out.
As far as helping out goes, I thought I recently heard that in the early to middle 20th century something like 80% of men in america belonged to some kind of mutual aid society. They were basically local home-grown versions of unemployment or social security. One of these days I'm going to research that a little more.
Interesting that you bring up the "mutual aid societies" - many cultures still operate like that. I was researching how the Tejanos still have them in some communities a while back.
And? Come on, you can't leave me hanging like this. :)
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