A lot has happened lately in the realm of policy and politics. I have yielded to the easy temptation of "Share" when reading the news - mea culpa. I've been busy: STAAR prep, working on a second Masters, life. I am trying to respect those who don't like politics, which was the intent of my blog, but old habits die hard. I don't know that it is so much I use Facebook differently, but rather that I hold my personal life much more closely. So I am less likely to share personal items and more likely to share ideas. I am kind of nerdy after all.
Now that the disclaimer is issued, here are some questions after 3+ weeks of reading the news:
1. Where is our government policy going?
Clearly, anti-government people are running the show. I have theories about how this came to be but nothing terribly original and none of it answers the questions about what will replace it. This is the 21st century, and it is built upon internationalism and globalization. The genie doesn't go back in the bottle. If you gut the infrastructure (not just roads and bridges infrastructure), we risk not have resources and responses in place to face challenges and changes. People have a love/hate relationship with government - they love it when it works for them, and hate it when it doesn't. Nothing will change that. Just remember that the intent of the Constitution in 1787 was to create something that operated off of a big picture not a local one. Politics begins locally, but national politics needs vision and that has been consistently gutted since about 1981.
2. Where is our foreign policy going?
I don't know if Trump's foreign policy is the Art of the Deal writ large, or the spontaneous eruptions of a spoiled brat. In some ways, I admire it because for years the U.S. has played by rules other countries did not. How do you like us now? However, what is the end game? Is there one?
3. Where is Congress?
They are MIA. I dislike President Trump and voted against him. (Not that I was a Hillary fan - more of a reluctant Bernie fan.) But Trump alone can be checked if there is will from Congress. Congress needs to respond to real problems with the stagnation of the middle class and with healthcare. If they don't, all the tax policy and government destruction in the world won't fix things. And they need to have a heart and soul, which clearly the Republican party prayed away in their pursuit of fundamentalist legislative purity. (True religion is widows and orphans, healing the sick, and caring for the poor - but too often those people have the wrong religion, ethnicity, or made bad choices so they don't count. The unborn matter, but once you are born you are on your own - it is called individualism.) Democrats are equally bereft of a compass, taking money from corporations and kissing the same rear end that poops on the middle class, the working class, the sick, and the environment. Dems especially deserve blame for ushering in the age obstruction with the nuclear option and executive orders rather than actually governing. After all Congress is only about the people in DC - sarcasm off. Now, the Repubs seem to hope they can tame the wind to their own purposes while the Dems are busy staring at their hands like they did nothing wrong.
4. Where is the oversight of the people?
Corruption in government has been bad for some time, but the Trump era is taking it to a new level. The movie Idiocracy or Wall-E will become prophecy if we don't wake up soon. Talk to people with different views. Think about your biases and opinions. You can hold a bias as long as you recognize when it causes you to dismiss an idea that might be productive or when it causes you to believe a lie. That knife cuts both ways, right and left. (See Berkely or Middlebury, or Ted Cruz, or every ridiculous meme that circulates.)
In the meantime, life goes on. As my father-in-law said, there will be a before Trump and an after Trump. I am indeed living history, yet history doesn't go on hold for STAAR, or course work, or a household. So forgive me if I "Share" too many political stories.
