Age of Dudgeon
A proposed balm for your angst
We are about to enter the long season of horse race politics. A priori presumption, anything can happen before November, other favorite clichés here. The screaming of talking points will turn all of us into political zombies.
The most probable outcome in my judgment is Obama will win. It may be close, but more likely an easy electoral victory. When you look at the electoral map Obama should be a clear favorite. A clear favorite makes for poor cable ratings, lower voter enthusiasm, and fewer donations (how could any more money be floating around?). No one in the media, no party spokesman, or any political strategist will admit it. It is not in their interest. Every outlet has 4400 hours to fill and sell. Operatives have talking points to spin, pundits have punditry to huff out, no strategist can appear conceited or hopeless, no one can commit the political gaffe of telling the obvious truth. MSNBC has a few less hours to fill with the prison programming to fall back on.
The time will be spent trying to win the news cycle. Each side ready to express horror at the words or actions of the other side, sometimes horror at someone not even on the other side just sort of once waved at the other side. All these hours yet, still no time for analyzing the Ryan Budget, Romney’s Afghanistan plan, discussing corporate welfare, or any other issue with seriousness and honesty. We are captives in the Age of Dudgeon. (Dudgeon a word used by Jason Linkins in his Huffington Post column on Sunday, credit where it is due.) As with all politics, from the earliest civilizations to ours, false faces contest in a carnival of outrage. We do not care what Hilary Rosen said, who she is, or why she said it. The Romney campaign could act offended. The news cycle became the unfair sling cast at Ann Romney, who never balanced a job and a family, no matter what she worked at during the day.
Is there a solution to our Age of Dudgeon? Possibly shooting the TV. I don’t own a gun; which the NRA types in comment flames always say is a sign of cowardice. (Odd I live and travel without a gun, so they think I am a coward.) If I destroyed the TV, I couldn’t finish the Game of Thrones series or watch the Packers when football returns. So I have no solution, but I do have a remedy. We could steal Congress back from the clutches of the wealthy.
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