Playing political games
LARRY ANDERSON
Larry Anderson
American politics is a game.
Like all games, politics can be fun, especially if times are good and citizens are feeling expansive about who they are and the success they have had.
When life is good, we tend to reward incumbents with votes.
When economic progress is limited and people feel their work is leading nowhere, the opposite occurs. Voters become impatient and cranky; politicians have to negotiate every vote from a skeptical public.
That is all part of the game.
Another part is during the election season, nervous politicians begin to cover with predictable industry.
It isn’t their fault.
It is the system that is corrupt, not them, even though they are the system.
They wish they didn’t have to take big money, but they did.
It isn’t nice to speak negatively of an opponent, but he said it first.
The voting record becomes sterling.
More government becomes the solution to too much government.
Everyone is equal except during the campaign.
Everyone should make more money and pay less in taxes.
We must all pull together.
You know how it goes. It’s all part of the rhetorical and advertising competition. We’ve come to accept it, are amused by it, but turn away when the lies and political misdemeanors catch up.
Besides, who doesn’t have a skeleton rattling in the closet? Who hasn’t fudged on an expense sheet? Who hasn’t snickered at an off-color joke or patted a fanny when no one’s looking?
Politicians like JFK and Bill Clinton enjoyed the moral risk aspect of the game, but some take extraordinary steps to make certain temptation doesn’t become too much. Which side of the game one is on determines the behavior.
Risk can bring rewards in the game. So can conformity, but there’s little political booty for the lone wolf whose moral fiber is greater than his political connections.
Who one is matters more than what one has done. Channel HRC.
Within the game are tried-and-true tactics.
One that has been around forever, and is currently at work, is the fine art of building oneself up by tearing the opponent down. The idea is to contrast rather than compare on an equal footing.
In the extreme, an opponent may be destroyed. That’s the Alinsky way.
So! How do you know who the good guy is? Well, he’s one the speaking. Always.
Another tactic is to make bad things seem good.
Our border isn’t being overrun by illegal aliens and illicit drugs. No, no, no! We are helping the downtrodden.
See how easy that is?
A tactic perfected by the Left is to first create a problem via socio/political endeavors and then offer themselves as a solution, as if they had no part in the creation of the problem in the first place.
For example, liberal tax and trade policies have had a huge hand in driving businesses and corporations to other countries as part of the Left’s international redistribution obsession. This has created a huge vacuum in production at home.
Manufacturing, more than any other segment of the economy, developed a once thriving middle class. Now the middle class is floundering due to a degrading of job opportunities and pay.
What to do to make what’s so, not so?
(sound of trumpet!)
Well, Obama has proposed a new unemployment insurance plan. This … “would require states to provide wage insurance to workers who lose their jobs and find new employment at lower pay. The insurance would replace half of the lost income, up to $10,000 over two years.” There are employment and income requirements. (Source: Associated Press)
You can see defeat has been defeated. The solution to job degradation is government subsidy in the guise of solving a problem that shouldn’t even exist.
A problem neatly passed to the states by federal mandate.
Government, you see, is presented as a solution to the problem government created.
Loss of manufacturing jobs is why the chasm between the wealthy and the poor is widening and the only segment of the economy not recovering if by inches. Obama, HRC, and Bernie want to raise taxes on high income folks to cover this destruction of the middle class.
They are playing games, folks.
Government aid is no solution to open market competition or jobs themselves. That policy merely shifts the burden of folly to the taxpayer.
It’s a destructive game that is no longer amusing.
When The Donald says we need to bring jobs home, you must understand how right he is on that point.
