TALK NOW, THINK LATER

“How can any reasonably intelligent person, you might ask yourself, accept the big lie that many conservative Republicans have long touted: that the simple formula of lower taxes and limited government will somehow solve all of the complex economic and social problems in an globally integrated world? And yet that is the pabulum that a whole host of Republican presidential hopefuls offer again and again to their base, and, through media coverage, to the rest of us. If you repeat the big lie often enough, some people -- many people, in fact -- begin to believe it.” I’m quoting from an article in the Huffington Post by Paul Stoller, a Professor of Anthropology at West Chester State, and to me he’s right on the money.

Today seems to be a new era of simple answers, The Age of Simplicity, historians might call it. I realize the average joe likes to have his ideas chewed, swallowed and digested so these ideas are in a nice easy cud and he can just reach out and grab a convenient one and take it for his or her own. Stoller is right: it’s pabulum.

That’s why in Congress sound bites have become the order of the day. They sound sonorous and ringing as they trip off the congressmen’s tongues. But, I ask you, are they thought out, thoroughly considered?

I simply wish they would form committees, bipartisan, of course, sit down and think things out, argue, find points of agreement, compromise and submit rational plans. That’s the way democracy is supposed to work. I do believe that is what the founding fathers had in mind when they signed the Constitution. I don’t mind fiery debates, that’s part of the process. Deal with the essentials honestly and realistically. But start the process, for God’s sake---and for our economic and social health. And some of these Presidential hopefuls might like to join the process, too. It would be refreshing to hear them say something thoughtful and meaningful.

Maybe that’s too simple in this Age of Simplicity