economy – Page 3 – Hopeful Romantics

The New Boomer Commune, a Television Pitch That Became a Harsh Reality

A couple of years ago, I wrote on this blog about the need for the new commune. The original article was entitled, Boomers New Commune for Retirement Post-Recession. My first posting came on the heels of the economic meltdown. I could see where the economic downturn, in fact the major disaster cost Boomers, their houses, their savings, their jobs, and dignity. People who had saved short money who depending on their pensions, found their savings wiped out, their pensions in ruins. Things did not look good then, and now, several years, later, the largest segment of the unemployed are those who are fifty-years-old and up. Boomers.

As a generation, most Boomers lack enough financial security to retire as it is. Few have put even a scant $100 Thousand away for the golden years. And now, a few years later, public service programs and entitlement programs are under attack. While governments, federal and state kick back to the wealthy by allowing major tax breaks for the “job creators,” not jobs are really being created. Not on the scale that is necessary. It’s like the country is being sold off one piece at a time, and those who worked for thirty, forty, fifty years, find themselves confused, caught in a device of their own making…in big trouble.

Back in the beginning of the twenty-first century, all right, seven years ago, Marcia and I pitched to the television networks a dramatic series about Boomers finding themselves confronting the realities of not a brave but dumb new world. As Marcia had developed such hits as Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, and oversaw Dynasty, we figured pitching a night time soap opera wasn’t that big of a stretch. At the pitch meetings, we pointed out that what services that were taken for granted would be diminished or rescinded entirely. The proverbial carpet was pulled out from under, and now it was time for innovation.

We detailed how social services would fade into history and the aged and the middle income people would have less access to adequate medical care, food, and shelter. You know, the basics. I pointed out how instead of needing midwives, there would be a demand for hospice workers, nurses, and medical technicians who could administer to the commune at large. While there would still be a need to grow crops and work the land, there would also be the need for advanced technology. In the old communes technology was feared and rejected. In the commune of the aging Boomer, technology is necessary for communication, access to information, and in some cases a means for some to continue to make a living well into their senior years.

The new commune would be very different from the communes of the sixties, even though the point of common ground is that on both occasions they were established by the same generation.Young Boomers back then, people in their twenties, rebelling against the system, living sex, drugs, rock and roll. Now it would be older Boomers, just living, trying to survive. Back to the garden. The commune. The commune with computers. The commune with more companionship than sexual experimentation, where the commune dwellers had matured enough so they didn’t have to take a vote on who would wash the dishes and who would walk the chickens. The drugs were of the prescription variety and the minding expanding process was relegated to things like scanning in photos of the grandchildren or organizing reading and education programs for the local schools and nearby communities.

You know, useful stuff. Of course there would be comedy and drama, an audience keyed in to character interaction in this ensemble cast for a television series. We pitched this idea to every network and some of the cable companies. We told them that Boomers and such were a major audience and as their tastes and buying patterns were way different than the old elderly. Boomers, unlike their parents, weren’t stuck on brands and were open to new products and services. They were technologically oriented. They had money. some of them, anyway.
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We described in marketing terms how sponsors would flock to but air time. Here was a culturally rich platform to sell their, designer jeans, pharmaceuticals, magical yogurts, nutritional health bars, and luxury cars…the Valhalla of marketing platforms for the Lexus, Mercedes, BMW…and let’s not forget Viagra.

However, the networks were not run by Boomers. The networks were run by people barely out of their fetal stage. Little embryos and often with brains to match. Network executives were largely people of privilege who had been largely insulated from the harsh realities of the world. These are people who are largely not overly imbued with a sense of social empathy and as a group their historical understanding ranges all the way from Happy Days to Happy Hour. This was a new marketing segment, an emerging marketing segment that had yet to be tested. As someone who has worked in marketing, as yet to be tested, means that fifty people above and below have nary a clue of the issue and its potential before you. As iconic screenwriter William Goldman has said about Hollywood, “No one knows nothing.” And his sage-like statement is no truer than when essentially spoiled, self-absorbed and insecure people are confronted with a new idea. Even it the idea sounds plausible, it can’t be because no one has proposed it before. The system shuts down. To the shock of no one, we were told no.

Okay, so now here we are. We have politicians wanting to do away with social security and deny a fair amount of social services. On one hand you have Wall Street, like Sirens of the Cosmic Peep Show promising that if you just give them your money, lush retirement awaits you…you aging fool. You can have a new career, another business, a chance to do all the things and have all the experiences you should have had the first place instead of saddling yourself with a thankless job where you worked for trinkets and baubles until they finally fired your sorry ass during the latest Recession.

Out of work, unemployed, not a lot of bread in the bread box, you have according to the actuaries another twenty to forty years of life on this planet, and the question is how the hell are you going to make it?

How indeed? Well, there are all these blighted towns out there they could be restored and turned back into communities. Abandoned urban areas that could be reclaimed. Communities where there is close proximity to the shops and services. Where as a commune or compound you can actually function and live your life. The modern commune. Maybe there are jobs and maybe the jobs are created from within the commune. Internet commerce or whatever. In any event, most commune members would have some Social Security income, some kind of pension. Maybe it’s not necessarily stuck out in the middle of some boondocks paradise where you are a million miles from the hospital, should your heart act up or your hemorrhoids start to bother you.

Places that are reclaimed. Where you can be cared for by people just like yourself. Everything from retired healthcare workers to IT folk, chefs, and crafts workers. Other Boomers pitching in, long evolved from the concerns or post-adolescence and focused on the ardors of survival in a world that may yet reject them. It ain’t the Garden, but then it aint’ the Grave Yard either. And it sure beats the hell out of Leisure World.

When the Big Speech is Over: The Post Mid-Term Elections and a Brand New Round of Truth Speak

I have long been suspicious about the adamancy of true believers. It’s not nice at times, and it definitely reveals my own impatience and in fact even snobbery, but nevertheless, when I hear people utter parroted news speak I realize sooner or later they will issue a new incantation explaining away either the limitations of their previous thoughts, or why they collectively or individually failed at their objectives. To me, those who believe something so piously have elected to wear on their psyche Kevlar blinders to block out the occasional sliver of critical thinking. Few realize the more obvious limitations and vulnerabilities of any dogma. Which often dooms them from the get-go.

The irony of most true believers is that they believe themselves to be open thinkers. They are open to any new thoughts as long as they can perceive them as far inferior to the their own. Should those posing alternate perspectives not acknowledge their insufficiencies, the true believer launches into a flurry of clichéd diatribes. Or, if faced with the plausibility of alternate reality they may withdraw entirely from the confrontation, pulling in their heads like turtles in a shell. So much for quality discourse.

In the world of the true believer, his ideology is never suspect and no matter what results are achieved, there exists no such thing as failure. Failure, the true believer contends, should be deemed as relative. It is not failure that his party or group has acquired, it is in his eyes a limited victory. Those who set out to run the twenty six mile marathon and struggle to make it past ten city blocks might deem it a victory of sorts. But for the rest of the world, this is failure, not achievement. Which leaves the true believer to issue his fall back position, they “tried, and did the best they could.”

What is then confusing to the true believer is that not everyone is buying it. Not everyone is a lifetime subscriber to the nauseatingly pervasive “everyone gets a trophy” mentality. I know I am far too results oriented for that. My own fault, maybe. My own impatience. But like a fair amount of the world, I believe this very attitude severely limits innovation and performance. I believe it dresses the stage for reduced expectation. Rather than set new standards of performance, our reflexive readiness to resort to the “we did the best we could syndrome” let’s us beg off and otherwise rationalize our collective sloth and personal limitations. We do this nationally, and we do this as individuals. We have forgotten that success doesn’t really need to be explained. Failure requires a million excuses.

A perfect example is the recent mid-term election. I cite this not just to pick on the Democrats, but to also take note of the cycle of apology and explanation that ensues after such an event, all as a substitute for relative lack of action. As we all know, the Democrats were soundly beaten. For mid-term elections, the incumbent party losing twenty to thirty seats in the House is considered acceptable. The Democrats lost more than sixty three seats in the House and six seats in the Senate. Let’s face it, nobody likes to get his ass kicked. Or let’s say, unless you are a masochist, you don’t like getting beaten to a pulp. However, that’s what happened in the recent mid-term elections.

While it was clear to some, in my opinion the more astute, the Democrats were failing at their message, Democratic pundits went on TV and instead of reaching out and communicating gave some rambling examples of their accomplishments. These virtues were garnished with laments that the average American just didn’t understand all the good that was done for them. In essence, the party of the people was claiming before the cameras that the party of the people no longer knew how to communicate with the people. Which is true. It seems that every rambling utterance that emanates from the Democratic Party elicits more confusion than resonance. The messages are obscure, tangential, and without any emotional focus.

Coming from an age when Democrats were roll up your sleeves and bang it out in the gutter types, we now see a Party that is either so diverse its objectives are diluted, and with all its education and high minded ideas out of touch with much of the American middle class. Why? Because if you are alleged intellectuals, academics, media people, or other members of the Democratic Leadership who are driving its train, chances are you don’t come into contact with the average American Joe. Democratic leaders and supports really don’t talk to the guy running the tire shop, the small business manufacturer, the owner of a modest IT company. Middle management and even the majority of senior executives. You may believe they do, but they don’t. Okay, maybe during election time. There is no personal contact, and there is no political contact. Once upon a time when diverse types actually lived in the same communities this was the backbone of the Democratic Party. This and labor.

Well, labor has been diminished and the true middle class, the small business owners and technocrats, the truckers and healthcare workers, are largely being ignored. Big news here, organizations like the Teachers’ Union are not the middle class. The underclass worker is just that, underclass. The poor are the poor. None of them, despite all rhetoric to the contrary are middle class. If you are out to save the middle class, then it would be helpful to know who and what the middle class actually is.

The person running a business or holding onto a job at some local business with a house, two cars, two kids, and the bills to pay for all of it, this is the middle class. This is not the poor or the underclass. This is the middle class. This is the pissed off segment that doesn’t really want to hear some weak rhetoric about “sacrifice” and that it takes a village. What they need to know if if they can get credit for their business or if their jobs won’t be shipped off to Timbuktu. Before they want to hear about contributing to the well being of others, they want to know how they will pay for their mortgage or put shoes on their kids’ feet. They want to know how they can care for their own family members, whether it means putting their kids through college or caring for an aging or dying parent. They want to know now and not with some promissory rhetoric posed by a bevy of politicians and academics who have never run a business in their lives. They don’t want to hear how the government will take care of them but rather how they can take care of themselves.

The middle class is complex. In the modern age, it is difficult to pinpoint. It may be dissected economically but as never before social and cultural tastes will differ. There may be the same salary levels, but this is a segmented market with its different tastes and different priorities. The advertising industry knows this. Politicians do not. The person making fifty grand in Topeka is probably more drawn to lawn care and less drawn to Broadway Theater then the person making fifty grand in an emerging neighborhood in Brooklyn. Each to his own. The middle class covers a broad spectrum and to attract that spectrum to your way of thinking you have to find some common ground. You have to be direct and not ramble in the abstract. In short, you have to know who they are and what they are.

Other than the buzzword, the Democrats have little idea about the broader spectrum of the middle class. They sort of have a vague notion of the urban middle class and they certainly devote their focus on the poor. Not to besmirch the poor, but let’s face it in a global economy in a time of economic crisis, it would be a damn sight smarter to focus on those who can pull you out of the crisis and set you back on a path of global competition. When it comes to restoring jobs and global competition, all hand wringing and obligatory rhetoric aside, for sure as hell the poor ain’t driving that bus. I don’t want to sound cruel here, but it’s is relatively easy to figure out what the poor need and want. Simply put, the socially marginalized want to be included. Not an easy task, but that directive is a lot simpler to figure out than the needs and wants of a very segmented and therefore complex middle class.
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The Republicans figured it out. The have done a far better job at communication than the Democrats. Strategically speaking, they have out messaged and for the most part outsmarted the Democrats in strategic terms. Mind you, this is a case of style over substance, and by no means do I believe the Republicans have the right idea. The previous eight years offer bitter testimony that they, too, don’t have a clue. But they do have a better line of bullshit. They are better organized and there is no mistaking their message, no matter how spurious that message is. They are masters at taking Democratic niceties and twisting them to the Republican advantage. They show the Democrats to be weak and tentative and they run through those whole like like a Mack Truck through Paper Mache.

As for truth speak and the party line, prior to the elections I watched one Democratic pundit after another cite Democratic accomplishments, mostly followed by the deep chagrin that much of the nation wasn’t embracing these accomplishments. President Obama, they contended, had done so much and was so under appreciated for all he has wrought under much resistance and great duress. Some alluded to his weaknesses, but most held the party truth speak talking about his character and great strength. How much he cared and what a fighter he was. In all, before the election, the Democratic position was we have done so much for so many; it is their fault that they are such idiots that they don’t understand our political largess. Reality didn’t seem to be a factor, even in the face of overwhelming samples that the Democrats were heading for disaster. Democratic supporters, rather than confront the situation head on and examine why they were not reaching the public with their message, preferred instead to cling to their rhetoric and take up residence in that turtle’s shell of denial. This may offer temporary comfort, but it is not very strategic. Nor is it particularly intelligent as more often than not it will only exacerbate the negatives.

What was missing of course, was the reality. Case in point, and I know some have argued vehemently otherwise, that the president blew opportunity big time with the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf. The resulting catastrophe severely damaged what amounts to the 29th strongest economy in the world, the Gulf Region. Forgetting the fact that Energy Secretary Salazar, an oil guy, was warned that the necessary drilling protections were not in place, this was President Obama’s version of “you are doing a Heck of a Job, Brownie.” I know all the lamentations that the President was doing the best he could and that he had no magic wand to wave and the other horse shit that was offered up as lockstep and lame excuses. But the fact is, in seeing British Petroleum as a partner, rather than demanding they seal the well, billions of dollars were lost to that economy. Tens of Thousands of people lost their livelihoods. A culture that had existed for centuries was devastated.

Of course once the President did lean on BP, the leak was sealed. After a hundred and something days, miracle of miracles, they found a way to seal it in less than a weak. According to the news media and most Democratic pundits, mistakenly believe the crisis was all over. All’s well that ends well Everything was fine. No, it was not fine. People were outraged. Maybe those who lived elsewhere and perhaps didn’t really care about what they deemed a bunch of Cajuns and Southern Crackers, thought that after a brief time out everything was back to normal. But the Democratic politicians and their supporters knew damn well, in a literal sense the Party was over. The Democrats had just lost what little they had initially retained of the Gulf Region. With the exception of Democrats like Mary Landrieu and her brother Mitch, icons and real supporters of their native state, you can kiss it goodbye for many other Democrats.

Of course, I can’t think of any Democratic pundits who diverted from truth speak and pointed out on the cable shows that you can forget about gleaning votes form the Gulf Region. Not a mention as it would not fit into the lockstep dogma that the public just doesn’t understand us. No one pointed this dreadful inaction in time of crisis as Presidential failure to step up to the plate. No one pointed it out that this may be endemic of a behavior pattern few could discern amid the impassioned speeches from an inexperienced politician who was never forced to confront adversity of this magnitude. No, not a peep about indecision or possible behavior flaws. Nobody was saying, despite all the time constraints and opposition, the President wanted the job, and this is the job. Again for the cheap seats…this was the job he signed on for.

Instead just prior to the election, we heard the party line about the encroachment of the Tea Party. Oh the Tea Party, a bunch of racists who were determined to undermine the Democratic efforts in spite of their own self interests. And, sure, it’s true. Big news there are racists living in the United States. And being bigoted assholes, there is no doubt racists will be emboldened under times of economic weakness and national indecision. The worst part of this country will emerge for sure. All this seething and underlying bigotry, be it racism, sexism, or Antisemitism that seethes beneath the surface will pop up like so many oil blisters in the La Brea Tar Pits.

But did that throw the mid-terms to the Republicans? Doubtful. First off, what of the 53% of the voters who voted in Presidential Election? It would seem there were not enough voting racists then to really move 63 Democrats out of office. That would mean the majority of the country is not just biased but vehemently racist. Some would say so. I wouldn’t.

Did a commanding majority suddenly transform itself into racists and vote out Democrats on order to get back at their President? Maybe. Makes sense if you stick to the party line. One of them, anyway. But the thing is as it the final results have established, with the exception of the Latino vote, just about every demographic group moved some of its voters from the Democratic to the Republican column Even African American voters pulled the Republican lever more than they had a couple of years ago. In the 2008 Presidential election, Bush and company garnered a meager 4% of the African American Vote. But in the 2010 midterm elections, of the African Americans who voted, nine percent voted Republican. More than double. So then with every demographic but the Latino voters switching in varying degrees in favor of the Republicans, either every hidden racist decided to expose himself or many truly believe the not only the President but the Democratic Party had not fulfilled his promises. I don’t know the answer here. I really don’t. Nor do I fully understand how many voters in need of Democratic policy bought into the Republican rhetoric. Maybe they sold it better. But the results are what they are. So before I assign the explanation of the Democratic debacle to the Tea Party, Racism or to other simplistic rhetroic, I would review more thoroughly the bigger picture. But then that’s me.

Look, while I write this for a broader audience, a mixed bag of conservatives and progressives, and whatever else who read my blog, I realize much of this would fall on deaf ears. And like I said, I don’t by any means have all the answers. I realize, too, that recalcitrance and vilification is an essential part of rhetorical lockstep and the blind faith in the party line, so I don’t harbor much expectation. Although, now that the ass kicking is over and we see a few pundits coming to their senses. Increasingly, there is growing concern by various columnists and politicians that our President may not indeed be all that he can be. There is increased frustration with him within his own base and among the media folk who drive it. We are not talking about the Republican flacks here, but writers and personalities who tend to lean toward the Democratic view of things. They have been watching now for a couple of years, and now, all apologies and excuses notwithstanding, they don’t like what they see. They realize that exhortations about what do you expect the President to do, and he has had so little time, is falling on increasingly deaf ears. And as a party, the Democratic Party, if you are getting your ass kicked, lame excuses for indecision just won’t cut it anymore.

Perhaps it becomes apparent when you put in an inexperienced politician to handle one of our worst national crises, despite his great speech making, he is just not up to the job. Perhaps when President Obama consistently negotiates prematurely against his own best interests, he fails to understand the principles of negotiation. Perhaps, despite what all have said to the contrary, his team of advisors and cabinet, with some exception, are second stringers who have no real political leverage, except they are great political campaigners or that they got really good grades in school. Perhaps the excuse that he hasn’t had time is insufficient, as the country was promised one thing and got another. Perhaps the few band aids that helped shore the dikes against the economic flood placated the true believers but not the rest. Perhaps claiming that the mean ol’ nasty Republicans beat up on the heartfelt, well intended but ultimately incompetent Democrats has any real currency to the family trying to pay its mortgage.

Perhaps it is time to stop with the convenient but ultiamtely unproductive rhetoric and lame excuses. Perhaps it is time to do the smart thing, the adult thing, and try to understand in often painful but realistic terms why the Democrats screwed it up so badly. Our adversaries and global competitors could care less for our lame excuses. Our global competitors and our professional sports teams are well aware that not everyone gets a trophy. Our global competitors and our sports franchises are well aware that those who do get the trophy are the ones who are able to pull it off in spite of the adversity, the obstacles, and the biases against them. Perhaps it is time to cool all the jargon and like the sports teams, review the playing films. Analyze things carefully and without prejudice. See what you did wrong and where you messed up. Make the rewarding distinction between catering to the the middle class and having your head up your ass. And then, cut out the crap and try to get it right.

When the Democrats Failed to Attend the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

Be it right or left, we are living in a delusional society. Both groups harbor a near religious belief in the possibility of quick fixes to long term problems. This delusional act of piety may be a result of mass media and fifty years of programming where our celluloid heroes solve even in the greatest problems of the world in one hour and forty-three minutes. We believe in this, as our video games and pundits explain there are simple solutions to complex problems.

The quick fix epidemic stands in direct conflict to all things scientific or logical. In the modern and allegedly developed age, there is a definite leaning toward holistic medicine. Holistic belief is that no single ailment stands alone but is the consequence of various causes and effects, a chain reaction of one part of our physical system malfunctioning or being deprived of nutrients or chemicals and then causing other parts of our body to shut down, resulting in subsequent disease. Many people buy into this, as they should. It is logical. It is a sound approach.

But when it comes to things like economics or foreign and domestic policies, the holistic approach goes out the window. To put it mildly, things just ain’t that simple. As a nation, we screwed up big time. Nevertheless, in keeping with our post-modern traditions, we are honor bound to simplify complexity so that we can find solace in blaming someone else for the little things in life, like the general breakdown of society. Rather than seek opportunity, we would rather explain our mistakes. Sadly, this is the case with the Democratic Party.

The hard right, the Tea Party, certain clusters of Independents, and all those associated partners has been viewed by the Democratic left largely as a bunch of ignorant racists. According to the pundits and critics who grace our air waves with their sage-like wisdom, this rising tide of voter unrest was for them confusing and obnoxious, an aberration on the national landscape. Rather than perceive the development of the Tea Party and other militant groups through the context of historical precedent, they took refuge in labeling them hate mongers acting out in their own worst interests, declaring their stupidity in loud and simple terms. By and large there was nary the remotest attempt to perceive the militant right as possessing any bona fide roots in American History. First, that would require actually knowing history. A tough call, these days. A quick glance and to some extent you can associate the Tea Party as at least a partial descendant of the Jackson administration. No, not Michael. Andrew Jackson. That guy, on the twenty dollar bill who introduced to a bunch of rowdy Americans the kind of populist ethic that for a century has been forever lauded as “Jacksonian Democracy.” There are other historical examples of such uncomfortable populist outbursts, but we will leave it go for the moment with Jackson.

Instead of embracing this group in some symbiotic fashion, the Democrats chose to ignore it or subject it to ridicule. This was the Democrats’ great mistake. For in their ignorance, the Democratic Party systematically failed to acknowledge at least part of the anger out there as legitimate and with cause. Instead of paying lip service to the general rage and offering tepid assurances to people had suffered grievous humiliation, the Democrats had the rare chance to galvanize that anger and direct it with purpose. Instead, the nascent Tea Party types were abandoned and left to their own devices. That anger that could have been directed effectively toward the perpetrators of economic debacle, those culpable of costing these people their houses, jobs, and dignity, the Democrats dropped the ball. They stood by with muddled doctrine while the this angry mob was co-opted by the very perpetrators of the economic debacle. There is some irony for you. And some absolute tactical and strategical stupidity. It is akin to letting the guy who mugged you talk you into lynching the sheriff.

Many critics will point to the racism and the narrow thought, claiming they couldn’t embrace the tea baggers or whatever because there just weren’t our kind. No doubt the racism was there. No doubt there are disconnects and a consuming defiance of logic, where Tea Party leaders can pronounce any variety of insane and inane statements and swear that they are true. They are indeed a hostile mob, messy and funky, and a long way from politically correct. They are volatile and rough, not the first people who you would expect to recycle. They are a crude group who often say what they want and think in ways that is far from keeping what we call polite society. They are blunt and many of them have spelling issue.. And sometimes they are bat shit crazy.

But these are the people. These are the people the Democrats claim to represent. The people. The motley bunch of Wal-Martians who suck down on the double big gulp and revel in bad taste. These are people who are often overweight and undereducated. They know little of fashion, fine dining, and have at best read only Cliff’s Notes on the Kama Sutra. They can be funny and caring, and they can damn annoying. They are white, mostly, and what Quixotic powers they possess in ruling the world is administered from a LA-Z-Boy.

Nevertheless, these are the people. These are the people the Party of the People claims to represent. They are not just the poor but the working people. The working class or middle class who seldom gripe and whose anger goes unseen until it reaches the boiling point. These are the people where the Party of the People failed to get its message across. All that mumbling and hemming and hawing, terms about public option and rebooting the country didn’t go over too well. Better to them that some idiot stood up and made some absurd statements in a clear voice that were embedded in neither fact or logic. At least they said it clearly. At least they were there, pissed off and unafraid to couch that sentiment.
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The Democrats failed to see this group as a valuable resource. They failed to sweep them up and redirect that anger. The Democrats failed to make examples of those who betrayed the public trust and committed financial malfeasance, which in this case meant those who stole hope and dreams, along with life savings, jobs, and retirement portfolios. The Democrats could have imposed draconian penalties on those who outsourced jobs, who could have threatened companies, as Roosevelt did in the Great Depression, with criminal and civil ass to threat investigation, if they did not financially step up to the plate.

Instead of handing out food stamps and welfare, the Democrats could have retooled the factories. Yes the investment may result in losses , but then working people would be returning at least some of the financial investment that was wasted in government give aways by renovating the infrastructure and retooling the factories. In short, they could have showed these people they were doing something for them. Something tangible. . They could have made believers out of them, as the old Democratic Party did back in the time when it didn’t deem itself too principled to slug it out with the opposition on the public stage or back alley. When twisting arms demonstrated that the Democratic Party was indeed the Party of the People. Hell, if I can think of this, why couldn’t they?

Instead, the Democratic Party makes its excuses. They try to explain this coming debacle at the polls by claiming they didn’t have enough time, and what was their President to do, wave a magic wand? What were they to do when the nasty old Republicans were so recalcitrant, obstructing them at every turn? After all, they were well intentioned and really thought they tried, and doesn’t that count for something?

No. We are a results oriented society. The excuses and the policy may resonate with a receding base, and some of the arguments may even be true and reasonable. But they don’t hold water. The Democratic Party came into power knowing they had a short window of opportunity with a population with a limited attention span and the sophistication that struggles with the exigencies of economics and foreign policy. They came into power on promises of big change and a new way of doing things. They promised a fresh new start. They delivered day old bread.

Two years later, the argument that they saved the country from complete disaster may have credibility. With some. The believers. Others wonder why unemployment is still the same, and why small businesses play hell with getting loans. Why banks are failing and factories are closing with the remaining nine jobs in this country going offshore. Why Wall Street operates as it always had and awards itself bonuses for economic failure

That motley group out there, be it the Tea Party or just the people trying to make a buck; they were the Democrats for the asking. Would they have won them all over to their side? Probably not. But they could have diluted Republican co-option and retained more of the more erratic independent voters then they have at present. The Democrats had to reach out and in plain language make clear the game plan. In fact, they had to have a game plan, clear, concise and most importantly put in motion. Here, this is how we are going to help yourself. Whether they ate with their hand and soiled the furniture, they were…an opportunity. As so many of the pop pundits are fond of saying…in any crisis there was opportunity. Well, here was opportunity for you, legions of it, chomping down on a bologna sandwich and showing the crack of its ass.

Instead, the Republicans picked them up and cleaned them off, gave them purpose and legitimacy. The purpose was to wreak havoc with the Democrats and the legitimacy was in a few candidates to call their own. The Republicans gave them the message, and the Democrats gave them the double talk. The Republicans will take they House if not the Senate, and the Democrats will have to satisfy themselves with excuses and explanations.

They could have once again been the Party of the People. But they blew it.

Close Encounters With the Tea Party of Beverly Hills

You don’t often think of the City of Beverly Hills and the Tea Party in one sentence. But, nevertheless, there they were in some odd form of cosmic convergence, demonstrating to the more ardent supporters and the merely curious that populist outrage can emanate from one of the more expensive zip codes in the United States. Here, just a mere block or so north of the famed Rodeo Drive where upper end manufacturers, excluding maybe Ralph Lauren, import and showcase their designer wares from Italy, France, and just about every other place but here, the Beverly Hills Tea Party is banding together to take its country back. Will that be cash or charge?

I am not one to cast the usual knee jerk aspersions on the Tea Party. Must of those have been repeated ad nauseam and the disparaging remarks have done little to either understand it or suppress this often erratic and ragged movement that, despite all, is moving forward as an influence to be reckoned with. I may agree with very little of what it stands for and may find Tea Party theories and practices both erroneous and convoluted, but the anger most feel to a large extent is to some extent justifiable outrage. The fact that this country has been sold down the drain by certain corporate interests and the toadies that pimp and whore for them is truly the American crime of the century.

People who once had respectable jobs have been put out of work and their once gainful employment has been outsourced at a cheaper rate to countries where the cheaper labor can best save the corporate bottom line. Stock prices increase, but people continually not only lose their jobs but find fewer in the downsized marketplace. Where there were once decent manufacturing jobs, there are meager and humiliating service center jobs. Certain industries, like Elvis, have left the building. Unless there is a serious reevaluation of the true and long term cost of their loss, they aren’t coming back in the foreseeable future.

Consequently, people have not only lost their jobs, but have depleted their life savings. Many no longer have retirement portfolios and the once relied upon pensions have either been seriously diminished or vaporized in the series of bankruptcies and the assorted mergers and acquisitions. All that crap about the late life second career rings hollow and obnoxious when your money is gone and you can’t find a job. Many Americans have lost their houses, their cars, their dignity, and are facing the prospect that they have just raised the first generation of children who will probably not fare as well economically as their parents had. In a country where the ongoing belief was that economically speaking the kids would always do better than their parents, the grim reality is that this may not be the case.

The Tea Party and its incumbent protest aspect is in its essence really nothing new to America. Its name of course is derived from the first visible protest against British taxation of its colonies with the much vaunted Boston Tea Party that every third grader learns about in lore and legend. “No taxation without representation, ” and then none of your damn tea. There are elements of the Tea Party in the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania, in the 1790’s and the Shay’s Rebellion in Massachusetts in the late 1780’s. Roots of the Tea Party can be attributed to President Andrew Jackson and his much heralded “Jacksonian Democracy” that brought a more populist element to government. Even Thomas Jefferson, it could be argued, was an early perpetrator of this vague ideal, as he opted for the agrarian and state’s rights sensibility over Hamilton’s Federalist theory.

In the twentieth century there are threads of the Tea Party in various campaigns. There are roots of it with Ayn Rand and her “Objectivism” philosophy. You can find the Tea Party or populist philosophy, using the term loosely here, in the 1960’s with Alabama Governor George Wallace’s Presidential candidacy. Wallace’s Presidential campaign was feared by Democrats and especially Republicans. Come election time, he ended up with 13.5 percent of the popular vote. Not bad. But Ross Perot, another you could attribute to the early Tea Party movement, topped Wallace by garnering almost 19% of the popular vote. Had Perot in the end not seemed so off the wall by insisting there were doctored photos of him and threats against his daughter, and had he not selected retired Admiral Jim Stockdale as his running mate, a man who in his later years was not what one would call the world’s most coherent man, Perot would have garnered an even higher vote count.

As for my encounter with the Tea Party, it was purely happenstance. We were driving down Santa Monica Boulevard a few Sundays back when we noticed this gathering in the park. At first, we had no idea what it was and though it was yet one more arts and craft show where in cloth wrapped booths vendors displayed typically bland art in between the makeshift yogurt and frozen banana stands. But we didn’t see the booths, really, and the park contained too few people for the typical art show. We saw printed and hand painted signs proclaiming that this was indeed the gathering of the Beverly Hills Tea Party. There in the park, before the big wrought iron and brass sign that proudly proclaimed this park was in Beverly Hills there stood a bevy of America flags and sound speakers blaring out in limited fidelity with a whole lot of static patriotic songs that were were familiar with and some with which are best considered arcane.

It was over 100 degrees outside. But what the hell, it’s not everyday you get to see the Tea Party in the relative convenience of your own back yard. So there they were, holding signs up against big government, Obamacare, wanton spending, and all the other stuff they are known for. A few “take our country back” signs that some believe are filled with racist innuendo. Among the predominantly white faces there were one or two Hispanic people, one or two African Americans, and more than a couple of Persians. Beverly Hills for those who don’t know may have the largest Iranian/Persian population outside of Iran. Of course the trio marching around with fife and drum in woolen frock coats and three cornered hats, in the hundred degree heat, fit demographically into either the category of total commitment or theatrical lunacy. Take your pick.

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Not all were as determined and single minded as the media would allow. While the organizers did their best to gather the flock, and while the few vendors behind the makeshift tables peddled Beverly Hills Tea Party emblazoned tee shirts and baseball caps, there were those who appeared a little uncertain about their being there. Under my obvious scrutiny there were a few people who were shy and a bit sheepish about protesting the socialist government takeover of Beverly Hills. Others clustered in groups under the shade of the old growth Oak Trees and fanned themselves with the paperboard brochures. In all, it was a peaceful gathering that carried the kind of tentative vibe when you find yourself sitting a little too close to someone else’s picnic table.

The main theme of the speeches was fiscal responsibility. We didn’t really stay for the speakers as it was hot and we were bored, and late lunch was beckoning down by the ocean. But anyone who follows anything knows the Tea Party maintains a relentless desire for fiscal responsibility. In fact, it was partly the wanton spending and subsequent economic fiasco has inspired the advent of the Tea Party. It is a political group whose inception has been fueled by the reflexive reaction to the collective bamboozle. Since forming, the Tea Party has gained group and now poses a threat to not only the Democrats but the Republican Party who erroneously assumed these people were securely in their pocket. In walking around the grounds I heard one well intentioned soul offering ill advised and unwarranted suggestions about how best to approach the forthcoming elections. The man he was talking to, tall and not without his share of testosterone promptly admonished, ” we have an agenda of our own. We intend to take over the Republic Party.”

This statement may seem like heady stuff. But historically speaking, it serves as the same political metaphor that inspired myriad radical political elements to move in on the moderates and then once installed in legitimate government, move out the moderates and really let those banners fly. Hence in history the revolution and then the counter or second phase of the revolution. The rhetoric of accommodations followed by the subsequent introduction of the firing squad and the guillotine. In fact one of the few places where the moderates took power through revolution and then retained power without the radical element taking it to its bloody extremes was in that faraway land called the United State of America. But now, if nothing else, the Tea Party can be the first truly viable third party. That may even lead to the formation of political coalition. Doubtful, but possible.

I am not saying this is the big Tea Party plan. But that’s a long way from here. In its incipient political stage, the other key thematic through line is the general mistrust of government. The Tea Party hates the government and sees it as a wasteful abomination that inflicts upon its people intrusive and unworkable policies that only add to the already overwhelming burden of trying to survive. Different Tea Party candidates wish to nullify the 17th Amendment that provides for a progressive income tax, and the 18th Amendment that enables the popular election of the United States Senate. Others want to rid the federal government of everything from the Department of Education and Department of Energy, to the Departments of Internal Revenue, Commerce, and Homeland Security. I am sure there are other departments that would be given the ax, but these are enough to focus on at the moment.

Of course this all seems absurd, but like other absurdities, such disparate individuals as Nazi Propaganda Minster, Joseph Goebbels, Soviet Leader, Vladimir Lenin and pioneer psychologist, William James have stated in common, “if you say something enough, people will eventually believe it.” It’s a paraphrase or composite of the three statements, but that’s the general point. Goebbels, by the way, detailed nineteen points of propaganda that remain remarkably relevant this very day. And the fact is there are millions of people are believing what most of us see as absurd on its best days and totally bat shit in terms of governmental management and oversight. Enough people are believing this to put some of the Tea Party in office. It has been speculated that eight Tea Party candidates have a chance of being elected to office.

In some ways, as bitter a pill as it is to swallow, this stands to reason the Tea Party, in fact, would end up a presence on the American political landscape. Because the fact remains that government in recent years has performed neither effectively or responsibly. It has committed to economic folly and imposed itself where it was often uninvited. Conversely, and with bitter irony, it has eliminated regulations that have allowed bandits with a briefcase to run off with the store.

But then here is the Tea Party. They rant rave and make some outrageous statements. Some but not all are racist, or homophobic, or Bible thumping bigots who see subversion in every environmental issue. Of course there is a lot of tough talk about kicking out the immigrants and eliminating Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement programs whether they make sense or not. The Tea Party sense of fiscal responsibility is kind of like your parents finding out you used your allowance money for candy and not the wretched school lunch, so now they are going to deny any money and starve you to death, just to prove their point. There is also the fearful prospect and collateral damage sustained by their anointing their lunatic candidates so they can govern the asylum. With some the consequences of forty years of failed policy has just made them crazy. Yes, they may appears fools and awkward, subject to derision, but who is the greater fool? The Democrats who didn’t take them seriously? Or the establishment Republicans who believed they could manipulate them and use them for their shock troops, and then file them neatly inside their pocket. And the end of the day who are the fools? The Tea Party or those that let them gain power?

The Lessons of History, as once admonished by the exceptional couple, Will and Ariel Durant, are tough for us to learn.

The Logical Return to Centrist America

Whether we like it or not, we are generally a centrist nation. We may veer to the left or the right for awhile, but ultimately we end up back somewhere in the middle. True, it may be the the vocal extremes who though bombast and loony sound bites get all the news coverage. But at the end of the day, it is the center that generally rules.

Contrary to media sensationalism, most of the country is a lot less concerned with the sexual preferences of others, ethnic origins, dietary lifestyle, or must other things that have become a frenzied fetish for the political action groups. Essentially, it breaks down to those who are doing business and those who are not. With special regard to small businesses, in an economic catastrophe nobody has the time to fret over things that aren’t of direct concern to the main objective, making money and staying afloat. Whether same sex partners live together or whether your vendors or clients are of a different ethnic persuasion than you are, makes little difference to most people. A shocker, I know. But true.

This is not to say that people don’t have their biases. They do. What I am saying is those biases and how they effect actual performance are way overblown. For the most part people keep their biases to themselves and try not to let them get in the way of the more pressing issues of the times. Most people are just too busy working or running a business, in other words, keeping their heads above water, to pay attention to these relatively minor distractions. They may grouse over the government regulations, taxes, and the high price of everything, but for most people things are at they are in it makes far less sense to go parading around in a frenzy than it does to take care of business at hand.

Most of these are centrists or independents. Being true cultural Americans, they adhere to the historic skepticism concerning dogma and demagogues. They can’t get all that worked up about issues over which they have little control. Most are far from believing the great leader, whoever that is, will be laying great solutions at their feet. Being culturally pragmatic, most are aware things are terribly screwed up and no one can render solutions in a sound bite. The empty heads and empty souls that pass before the cameras as our representatives are regarded with scorn. Nobody trusts the system and most of the saner souls are fishing around for new ways to approach business, work, and their overall lifestyle.

But centrists are not without their foibles. Let’s face it, the center is usually boring. It is pragmatic and consistent and not prone to obnoxious drama of the polar elements. You can’t be a centrist and follow the teachings of the Orthodox Hysterical, that mishmash of segments from the far left and right. At one time the polar elements actually brought something to the table. But now for the most part they are useless. Splinter groups right and left, often bore theories and practices that were far ahead of their time. The forty-hour work week, now lamented as it has transited into the sixty hour work week, union bargaining, social security, and other programs would not be in practice had it not been for the more extreme. There were defense policies and seemingly outlandish measures that in their amoral fervor managed to keep this country secure through periods like the Cold War. But that was then and this is now. Industrial breakthroughs and great expansions wouldn’t have happened had not the pathological had their industrial way.

In today’s America, the extremes serve more to justify an agenda and work best with bombastic slogans and denigration that serves only to further polarize the country. At one time extremists would be willing to die for their principles. Today, they are only willing to whine for their principles. Big difference.

The result is a cultural stalemate. The left feels it has been forced to confront an insane, greedy corporate power grab that lurks like the Eye of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings. It is evil and threatening to all of humanity. It is oblivious to the needs of the poor and threatens the dismantling of America’s middle class. It gives heartache and takes jobs. The government, they believe, has all but left them deregulated and impotent, left to their devices of which there are few.

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The left thinks the right is filled with a bunch of bigots and racists, backwoods hooligans who want nothing better than to wear their guns to town hall meetings. The right thinks the left is effete and weak and pays more attention to the fringe elements and less to the average person. There are assorted disputes over social issues and economic issues. The left believes it is best when people all come together for one major purpose. The right generally wants to be left the hell alone.

It is an odd place to be for us Americans. This has been historically a country where people don’t like being told what to do. We have been a violent people and acted out against what we see as draconian oppression from government and civic groups. The Boston Tea Party was in fact a real lawbreaking affair that turned heads and galvanized the public. The Shays Rebellion was but one shining example when the locals lashed out at what they deemed oppressive taxes, heavy debt, and the seizure of property. No letters of protest and misspelled signs on that one. They took up arms and had a brief uprising to demonstrate they simply had enough. It didn’t turn out real well for Shayes and Company, but that is a different part of the story. Prior to the America Revolution, more than a few tax collectors and tone deaf bigwigs were treated to a tar and feathering and a trip on a rail. The Revolution itself was about taxes and not taking any more crap from oppressive authority.

There was the Whiskey Rebellion, again about taxes, and it can be argued, the Civil War. There were the labor strikes of the twenties and thirties, and the anti-war demonstrations of the sixties. There were brief and aborted uprisings against what was perceived as the system. There have been bombings and shootings and riots have gone to the heart of this culture. Hell pops out of the woodwork, and then somehow we return to a margin of sanity.

But today we living on mood elevators and propaganda about how we are supposed to behave. We are not even supposed to be angry, and we look at those who do express their outrage as a bunch of oddballs. We conduct wars around the world and do whatever necessary to protect what we consider our way of life. We don’t seem to mind, as one friend said some years ago, “pulling the lungs out of any country that seeks to prevent us from getting what we want,” but yet when we are raped and robbed by the powers that be on our very own soil we seem pretty passive about it. Europe has had demonstrations and uprising because some of their entitlement perks and benefits are being diminished due to budgetary constraints. Here we lose jobs, factories, houses, and our self-esteem, and we mainly piss and moan and then go have our double mocha latte with a Zoloft chaser.

So the extremists pull at our emotions and try to lead us into some aborted attempt at rebellion or some semi-mystical incantation about hope and change. We know it is bullshit, and we grow fearful when those around us buy into the doctrines that appear the quick fix. We look for the fulcrum where we can find stability. The pundits and demagogues may not make any sense and their points of view may only be based vaguely in factor or historical context. We try to eschew them, knowing they are meager hors devours for the vast multi-media marketing platform that peddle millions of books, punditry, and speaking engagements to the dogmatically pious, vacuous, and culturally bereft.

Eventually, radical dogma dilutes itself through countless repetition so every utterance from any extreme seems like another ho hum experince backed by tepid action. Or, to quote Shakespeare, and you can never go wrong quoting Shakespeare…”It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.” In time we take into account the new socio-economic landscape and return to the roots of culture, which is pragmatism above all else. Find out what works and then employ it. This of course presents a disconnect to the true believers as there is nothing like the pragmatic overview to piss on the parade of any radical dogma.

It is no small wonder that Michael Bloomberg and others are working to unify the centrist candidates. Or for that matter you can sense it when Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert launch a “Return to Sanity” rally. Sanity. What a concept for the country born in the Age of Reason. Perhaps the brand new trend will be eschew dogma, idiocy, and rigid agendas. In short, be sane. Be practical. See what works.