BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Perhaps, a more correct question would be “what are the issues?”  It is shame on all of us that if you watch television or read the news, the headlines for the past week have focused more on who screwed whom and if his or her spouse knew.  The other headline is black vs. white and how crazy are the fringe elements of each campaign.  Is it Jeremiah Wright or John Hagee? 

The Federal Reserve took an action to bail out a bank over the weekend.  One day of headline news… a half day… and we are back to religious fanatics and if we can change the primary rules mid-stream.

A neighbor, former neighbor, moved out of his house on Monday due to foreclosure action.  My favorite shops are either closed or having a fire sale trying to get a $2.00 price for something that cost $10.00 wholesale when it was purchased.  Milk is over $5.00 a gallon at some markets.  And, I am fatigued.

We, along with the media, have successfully placed Eliot Spitzer, David Paterson, and Bill Clinton on the same entertainment page as Britney Spears and Cameron Diaz.  Okay, so the basest nature in all of us get a flash of enjoyment… yes, enjoyment…. when we see an authority figure fall from grace.  We all become indignant when Jeremiah Wright damns the nation in a fiery speech.  We all wonder what rock John Hagee crawled out from under when we hear his talk about his view of the abbreviated history of the world. 

We are human.  Whatever your politics or mine, we all enjoy feeling that brief moment of feelings of superiority that comes when we feel more “moral” or more “intelligent” than those we elected to office.  We love to sit around the table and discuss “how could he?” or “what the hell was he thinking?”  For an instant, as brief as it may be, the culprit is on the same level as the rest of us, just a human trying to get through another day, doing some things that are commendable and as often as not doing something that we would wish would never surface to see the light of day.

Given the choice of watching “Entertainment Tonight” or the evening news, many of us pick “Entertainment Tonight”.  Why?  Because the entertainment program will have better crotch shots of Britney getting out of a car than the evening news will show.  The saddest commentary on our society is that the evening news would even mention Britney Spears. 

We as a nation will survive the economic crisis.  We will survive the War in Iraq.  Our children may be able to find a minimum wage job when they graduate from high school… the 60% that graduate. 

We as a nation are at the crossroads.  We are in a situation that will determine the futures of our children and grandchildren.  And, the majority of the news coverage is afraid to report the issues for fear of losing viewers.  They know we would whether indulge in the tawdry habits of straying men and women or get a glimpse of that pixeled out picture of Britney Spears’ unclad bottom. 

With a Democratic primary debate looming on the horizon, I would hope that the moderator would not ask the candidates about their campaign strategy, but about the issues.  We need to hear the specifics of how the candidate would handle the economic crisis, exactly who will advise them on the exit from Iraq, how they plan to improve education in America, how he or she is going to fund the health care plan.  These are the issues that we need to face as a nation. 

We know these will not be the issues discussed in any upcoming debates.  It would force the moderator to research something more than personal scandal.  It would also cause a major lack of general interest in watching the debates. 

It’s time we all get out heads out of the sand.  There are issues that need to be discussed, not in generalities, but in specific terms.  We don’t need to hear another litany of wish list items.  We need to ask the hard questions and expect some hard answers.

The Barack Obama speech this week took guts.  Oh, sure, it was eloquent, but as one reporter said, “Obama could read the phone book and it would captivate us.”  However, to bring a raw issue to the forefront took courage.  Obama didn’t cut and run.  He stood before a nation and told his story.  Whether we agree with him or not is not as important to me as the fact that he tackled an issue that is usually whispered in shadowy corners or within the confines of one’s home.

We need more of this type of dialogue.  We need to hear the candidates, all of them, discuss the issues, not read the headlines to us.  We all know the issues, even though they are now “Page 6″ news in most papers.  Now, we need to hear the solutions.  We are a nation hungry to do something, willing to participate in overcoming the obstacles before us and waiting to hear what we can do for the nation and for ourselves.  We have lost interest because we are not a part of the solution.  We have not been asked to sacrifice on the home front.  We have not been invited to participate.  The few who have voiced our concerns have been made to feel that we are not a part of the nation’s situation, merely the beneficiaries of the decisions of a few.