You have to wonder. President Biden just signed an executive order protecting the rights of women. The crucial mid-terms are lumbering into view. SCOTUS can now make “laws by ruling” without bothering with that pesky Congress or “They the alleged People.” Costs of living are literally on the rampage. Interest rates are getting way too interesting.
The original title of this op-ed was going to be “When do progressives ever get back on topic?” You’ll notice the word “back” didn’t make the cut.
There’s a reason for that.
If you check out The New York Times front page, you’ll notice an interesting cultural detail: Everything is usually all about what conservatives are doing. Every disaster is covered and in NYT’s case, usually covered well. There’s also usually barely a word about progressive initiatives. “Being seen to do nothing” hardly helps.
For example, The Far-Right Christian Quest for Power: ‘We Are Seeing Them Emboldened’ thunders out in a large bit of coverage. This is admittedly necessary commentary. Whether or not NYT readers have noticed the issue is a bit more debatable.
My guess would be that they probably have noticed. It may have just detonated in their faces in the form of one of those nice SCOTUS orgasms recently, for all anyone knows.
Then there’s another timely piece, Disinformation Has Become Another Untouchable Problem in Washington. Ya think? Homeland Security wants to set up a board to monitor national security threats caused by the spread of disinformation. Would have been nice in 2015, but meh; this is American politics. It’s not a topic until it’s at plague level, right? …And if any money is in it, it’s not a topic, ever.
Two examples are quite enough. In both cases, we’re talking about big money right-wing rackets. The hate industry has gone mainstream and is doing very nicely, thanks for asking.
This is the usual course of events. Whether it’s gerrymander, municipal bonds, or billions paid for nothing, it’s absolutely standard practice in America (and elsewhere, to be fair) to make sure these aren’t topics. Even mass shootings have taken decades of massacres to get any political traction.
You will never hear a word from anyone in US politics about:
- Super PACs as limitless money laundering operations.
- Hordes of criminals attached to all aspects of political life. Plenty of convictions, just no interest.
- Actual treason conducted in collusion with a reasonably well-known mass-murdering country that likes to invade other countries.
- The massive degradation of essential resources like water over the last decade. Another big money sector that isn’t producing its primary resource. (All that truly huge money may have found another, pocket-shaped, drain to go down, perhaps?)
- Infrastructure rackets of any kind.
- Whatever’s about to cause the next financial crash like 2008.
- The fact that a country of 300+ million people generated 6.47 billion filled prescriptions in 2021. That’s nearly 2000 prescriptions per person. Every man, woman, and child in America has bought 2000 prescriptions, right? That’s 5 prescriptions per day, per person. Aren’t you observant?
Nah, things are great.
You’re still alive and able to be broke for a few more generations at least; what are you whining about?
These aren’t political issues and are therefore barely newsworthy. They’re part of the fabulous tapestry of American life. Who needs Bayeux, when you have DC, anyway?
The mere fact that America is merrily and psychotically rotting away under a hot sun in the process isn’t news. These are established facts. Perish the thought that anyone, especially a progressive, should dare to mention them.
The progressive perspective – Who, us? Hit back? Ever? Gosh.
Hang on – There’s a progressive perspective? When did that happen? How did it happen? Aren’t we all busy studying esoteric issues in academic stupors? You’d think so.
As a writer, I read a lot of this stuff, and seriously, I could bite fast-moving trains in half when I do. As communication, progressive coverage of any given topic tends to be nice to the point of utterly inexcusable imbecility.
Barely an idea, let alone a solution, gets mentioned by progressives. If it does, it’s usually in legalese or filtered through arcane terminology so verbose you could get a hernia.
As any form of addressing the American public or even some of the less ambitious of America’s house bricks, it’s horrendous. Even the idea of progressivism has become some sort of ivy-covered mausoleum which never addresses anything productive in plain terms.
How the hell are you ever going to get anything done, when you barely mention what needs doing? Or can’t even be bothered making it comprehensible?
Let’s look at the situation:
- You’ve already got a civil war, much worse and more far-reaching than the previous.
- You are opposed by fundamentally corrupt, totally out-of-touch, people. Well, some of them might have been people.
- These people are perfectly capable of turning America into 50 versions of red-state disaster areas. In fact, that’s all they seem to know how to do.
- Article III of the Constitution is being used by them to effectively negate democracy through SCOTUS. Forget the First Amendment if you don’t do something about it.
- That nice little Donny Trump kid is still running around polarizing the country. The “most investigated, least prosecuted” schtick is still up and running.
- The country is physically falling to bits.
- The environment is a true monster of deliberately sponsored toxicity, drought, and systemic obsolescence.
- Health, education, poverty, and housing are absolute atrocities, decades behind the rest of the Western world.
Do you think the above bullet points, a whole massive 145 words, could be turned into electoral issues? Or even law, ponderous logic, and vocabularies permitting?
One basic point –
There’s nothing wrong with plain speaking.
It’s efficient.
People understand it.
Can we try not burying every single damn thing in these excruciatingly indirect, verbose treatises?
Can you also try not “evading” people like Sanders and others who are prepared to take on America’s many thankless horrors?
None of those bullet points are un-fixable. Could you at least mention you want to try and fix them and say so, in so many words?
…Because otherwise, nobody, certainly not American voters, will ever know.
So in plain language – Make sense, you fools.
_________________________________________________________
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
