Please don’t misinterpret – my vote is not yet cast. This fact I know disturbs certain relations of mine on both sides of the political spectrum. I think what disturbs me is that both sides are so disturbed. Who do you heed when people you know and trust, smart, seemingly informed people come to such different conclusions on the same issue? What am I supposed to do – go look it up for myself? Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t have time to digest the principles and mechanisms behind each candidate’s competing policies for the economy or health care, or look at history to try and formulate an accurate prediction concerning how well their ideas will fare in practice. What I do have time for, however, is to repost a funny ecard that uses sarcasm as a political tool to make my opponents look extreme or backwards. It’s just I’m not sure who my opponents are.
I think I don’t know who my opponents are because I’ve been thinking too much about cause and effect. That is, why are things the way they are. Why the economy has not recovered at a quicker pace. Why gas costs what it does. Why July was the hottest month in U.S. history. Why the senate race between Todd Akin and Claire McCaskill is still so close. And why so many people are content to explain the political and social phenomena of American life with one or two-word phrases like “Obamacare” and “gay agenda” and “terrorists.” The thing is, the more I learn about things like the tax code and the health care system and other complex systems that operate in our country (not to mention the political system), I realize that causes are almost never one, but multiple, and effects, if you can call them that, are sometimes effects in name only. Obama made the mistake of declaring an end to the recession while so many people were still receding into financial hardship. “Well, that’s what it says on paper.” Paper is only paper.
When a cause is touted as having brought about a certain effect, what is the right degree of skepticism? Should we even accept the premise of the proposition? I think voters are often expected to function within scenarios that have been framed for them by politicians and other interested parties. We are told that the country’s problems are 1, 2 and 3, their causes are a, b, and c, and we must choose between solutions Obama, Romney, and nobody else because America can never get past these two really terrific parties. What if, just what if, America’s recovery, global warming, Iran, illegal immigrants, health care, oil dependence, and many other problems our acting and prospective leaders claim they can solve with your vote were born of causes and have solutions of which we are largely ignorant? And if this is possible, what then is your duty as an American citizen?
Our duty, I believe, is to stop serving as dumping grounds for every talking head with a catch phrase and start doing a little independent thinking. Start looking at the numbers. Gathering evidence from all sides (as opposed to “both” since there can be more than two). Drawing your own conclusions instead of looking for support for preconceived notions. Starting from scratch.
It’s a grand idea I know. All of us with jobs and families and enough on our calendars to occupy every minute of our free time—starting from scratch sounds like a luxury we can’t afford. But that’s just what politicians are counting on. That we’ll look to them as the politically knowledgeable and give their ideas just enough time to satisfy our one demand that they “sound right.” That’s why Obama runs commercials where he says that Romney wants to give rich folks more tax breaks and Romney says that Obama is stealing from Medicaid to pay for Obamacare. Because they know that a little truth is all we want to hear. But a little truth is not enough.
Demand more.
