Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Kodos.
Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.
“The politics of failure have failed; we need to make them work again.”
- Kang
This being a music blog, I don’t normally talk politics (At least not American politics).
I’m going to make an exception here.
This is because for the first time in my now-middle-aged life, I’m terrified of what could result. Even during the much-loathed Bush II years, with his neo-con posturing and fundamentalist approach to social issues, and, well, Cheney.I still had some hope, because there were people like Russ Feingold in the Senate, a dwindling few principled civil servants dedicated to doing what they thought was right for their constituents. Maybe not necessarily what their constituents wanted, exactly, but what was right.
In my reasonably-short working life, I’ve seen bubbles, bursts, some boom times, some bust times. I’ve watched my own industry rise to soaring peaks of prosperity and then gouge a deep crater into the economic landscape. I always figured we’d bounce back. Now, I’m not so sure.
I’m not entirely certain what’s changed - maybe it’s the fact that opinions that 10 years ago I would’ve called “moderate” are now hysterically being branded “far-left socialist.” Maybe it’s the fact that the current crop of anti-incumbent zeal has produced a number of leading candidates whose sole qualifications are their lack of qualifications. Maybe it’s that the current political force dominating the news cycle is one that glorifies ignorance and wraps it in a flag. Maybe it’s the growing xenophobia.
I’ll admit - we live in complicated and occasionally scary times. The government isn’t working for the people the way it should, the class divide is widening, social relationships are changing at ridiculous speeds, and we exist in a geopolitical landscape in which fear is a more potent weapon than any bomb. Therein lies a big problem - most of the current crop of incumbents or their opposition simply do not seem to understand that the world is different, that the solutions that worked for their predecessors may simply not work ever again.
In Wisconsin I hear candidates pledging to bring manufacturing jobs back to the state. I boggle at this, because it seems to me to be naïve. These jobs are gone and are unlikely to ever come back, as long as it’s orders of magnitude cheaper to have goods manufactured in Asia. No amount of local tax incentives or import tariffs are going to coerce any company to work differently, at least not without raising prices so far that the incentive to produce the goods entirely leaves. It’s a reality that I don’t think most politicians understand, or if they do, they’d rather cynically pander and say otherwise.
Speaking as a guy in the tech industry, based on what I’ve seen, few in the congress or the new candidates for major high office really understands the current state of technology. I lack any confidence that a group of people who clearly don’t understand how technology is used every day by your average person will be able to properly legislate on important technological issues that affect the way we communicate and do business. The late Sen. Stevens’ “Series of Tubes” rant was both an hilarious internet meme, but it also underscored an important problem - this guy had the power to change the laws governing internet infrastructure, and yet he barely could even grasp what it was.
In a lot of ways, this mid-term election is more important than the presidential was two years ago, because of what it represents. Sure, a bit of the schaudenfreude-lover in me says “yeah, okay, let’s elect these know-nothings, let’s give them a chance to make spectacular fools of themselves in front of the world.” But I also fear terribly what will happen if they do. They have the capacity to make such a mess of things that we may never be able to crawl out of the hole. Additionally, once we’ve given in to the forces of ignorance, pettiness, and greed, there’s little way to put that genie back in the bottle.
I’m rarely an alarmist. I was not one of those guys standing on the corner downtown yelling “police state! Fascism!” After the Bush swept into office - I’m more fond of rational discourse. Nor was I weeping with joy at Obama’s election - while I think he’s a great guy with strong principles, he’s neither magic nor were his policies especially radically progressive. I tend to believe that the ship of state, for better or for worse, tends to stay afloat pretty much regardless of who’s on board. However, I’m starting to think that the rise of the “idiot candidate”, these outsiders who glorify the fact that they’re not experts in anything, not “elite” in any way, could eventually sink it.
I’m urging people to get out and vote Tuesday, and I’m urging them to vote for smart, principled people. There are some on both sides of the aisle, and I respect them despite their being “career politicians.” Don’t be fooled by the faux-populism of the Tea Party favorites - they’ll abandon us for corporate interests in a heartbeat, and lack the knowledge or experience to handle the monumental tasks ahead. Things need to change, certainly - the government is in gridlock and the economy is sinking into a mire - but a change to ignorance is not a change in the right direction.
[Note: these are my (Eric O's) opinions and mine alone. While other band members and associated fans, friends and hangers-on may agree with them - or not - I wouldn't deign to speak for them]