Media, Blame Game, Political Partisanship

"Media’s Insistence On Partisanship Rather Than Obstruction As Problematic to American Political Process Does No One Any Justice" by v. johns

As follow up to a previous post on my fantasy of ousting Florida’s Republican party, I’d like to comment briefly on the media’s failure to put the Republican Party leadership of this nation in it’s proper perspective. These days, they are not merely an “opposition party” with differing opinions on how things should be done. They are all hell bent on getting what they want, at any cost, even if that cost may be the delayed economic revival of this nation’s economy.

I’m tired of the national media’s insistence that “political wrangling” or “partisanship” are responsible for important bills not being passed or for the economy’s continued stall, when in truth, what has harmed our nation’s progress, for two straight years, has been the Republican’s refusal to play ball and allow Democratic ideas to proceed forth to trial.

Should Democratic legislation have been allowed to roll out at a faster, more consistent, and unobstructed pace, from the outset of Obama’s inauguration, our economy, as of January of this year, would have began reversing its course, ending what I call “the actual recession.” Instead, we find ourselves in the same old funk, and out of raw anger, fear and impatience, getting ready to give more  power to the same old bunch of folks that harbor the same old ideas that got us into this mess. All this while the media has wrongfully acknowledged the cartoonish candidates and outlandish extremes of the American Right as being somehow on par with the more level-headed ideas of the Democrats and their ever-loyal, but poorly-treated, Left.

As the old saying goes, “You won’t know if you don’t try,” and it pains me that in a nation that is often referred to as the Great American Experiment, Republicans are using fear and hate to keep things from going forth that, even if initially not very good ideas, need to at least be tried to see if they’ll work. What kind of country are we if we’re afraid to execute this thing called “ideas” toward our own best interests. What kind of country are we if we are forever ruled by the constant fear that the Republicans want us to embrace so heartily? 

Even MSCBC, which many would call the liberal antithesis to Republican-owned FOX, seems to jump happily on the “blame it on partisanship” bandwagon, from time to time, so as not to appear biased, I suppose. But the reality is that WE’RE ALL BIASED and the best we can do is to make sure our biases don’t flow so strongly in the direction of what we firmly believe in that we blind ourselves to more worthy and productive ideas than our own.

The cornerstone of American public, private and governmental life, is the notion of “the big idea” and that whomever has that idea and makes it work will be richly rewarded. As long as the Republicans continue to obstruct vital programs and legislation (i.e., ideas) via record filibusters, stalling tactics, etc. and as long as the media continues to give them cover by pretending that Republicans and Democrats are equally corrupt or have equally valid ideas, maybe not now, but soon, very soon, we’re going to find ourselves, as a nation… all out of ideas…