Weak Tea, Weak Knees, Weak Grip, Weak Willed: Just Weak

The nation’s political forces remain aligned along the same old fronts: Republicans / Democrats, left-wing / right-wing, progressive / moderate / conservative, and low / middle / upper / uber-rich income groups. Every issue is cast in terms of which forces support it and which opposes it. And these forces are confronting each other aggressively, and never more so than with America’s fiscal fiasco. The most strident entrenchments seem to be entangled with every issue and effort that Congress and the Administration attempt to address. Add to this the media’s exploitation of the political harangues as nothing more than grist for their ratings opportunities. As a result, we get a positive feed-back process that achieves only the distortion and confusion of meaning and substance on the issue.

In this turmoil of leadership, the positions and policies espoused by all parties, all allegiances, all constituencies are enfeebled, anemic, and inane attempts to deal with the issue that they purport to resolve. Do the American people really think that the way to solve complex problems is to limit the tools and methods that can be used to attack it? This is not the approach that successful and market leading businesses employ in handling the problems that confront them. They seek a thorough and knowledgeable understanding the problem, and explore all possible solutions and options that will enable them to successfully overcome the problem and emerge a stronger competitor in the market place. Is looking for simple and easy answers the goal of the education system that you would want for yourself or your children? Do you want your doctor choosing the simple diagnosis because it’s quick and easy; who cares whether it provides a course of treatment that cures the ailment! So if it doesn’t make sense to pre-judge and pre-determine what our acceptable options are for most other areas of life, what in the world would lead us to think that the best solutions for our nation’s political and economic problems can be dictated by the philosophy of “this is the way I want it to be”?

What is the logic that to believe that the chant “Stop Government Spending” or “Cut the Budget” is the answer? These may be reasonable and sound goals, but they are not being presented as goals, but rather as solutions. And as in any other endeavor, applying a rule or strategy without understanding what you are doing, why you are doing it, and what will happen when you do it; you will almost assuredly get a result that is vastly different than what you expected, desired and are willing to accept. Of course as in real life, you are forced to accept the consequences of you past actions. If you don’t believe that, then just ask how we got to where we are right now and why are you so desperate to change things to ‘fix’ the problem.

Is the absolute public position that we can’t touch Social Security, or we have to guarantee that the elderly continue to be covered by Medicare (and its ilk), or Defense spending must be increased, or pick your own personal insane no-compromise, no-retreat, no-sacrifice, no-change issue.

It’s this inept mind-set that prevents politicians from even comprehending that they are not qualified to solve these problems. They are responsible to get them addressed for sure; but that doesn’t equip them with the skills, information or capacity to solve the problems.

A worthy politician, if one exists in our system today, would look for solutions that can be explained to the public in terms of what the consequences are: who benefits and who sacrifices, why it is reasonable and just, why it is better than other proposals, and why it requires whatever action it requires. If you limit your choices, then you are just limited. America was not build by people who limited themselves.