Government by the Gullible

I just saw an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. He became caustic about Obama and how he doesn’t blame the republicans enough. I had issues with what he said. The solution is not to hurl blame, even though much might be deserved. I share Maher’s fear that Obama will give in too much, but I don’t fear a situation in which we don’t get all of our way and the conservatives don’t meet total destruction. After all a good deal of the country goes along with the conservatives so a realistic compromise is to be expected and is the best way to preserve democracy. I just don’t want them to win in getting healthcare eviscerated. I also wish that Obama would define the issues rather than let the conservatives do it. Krugman is right in saying that conservatives oppose any safety net and are trying to unravel it. Obama should make that clear and see if the public is on the side of no safety net at all. I think the conservatives would lose that one. Of course, it is a gamble. But if the conservatives could be shown to stand for just what they do stand for, then the meanness of their position would be clear to them and others.

Of course if Obama pulled it off and painted the conservatives as opposed to any safety net, they would say it is not true they just want a smaller one. In other words they would say what is acceptable to the general populace. That is a game all sides play. Liberals would like a government run health care system (Medicare for all) and a drastic reduction in the availability of guns. But that goes further than the general populace will accept, so we say that we just want a little more regulation of guns (assault rifles and big clips for pistols) and we say that we just want government to set the rules in the marketplace so that everyone gets decent healthcare. And conservatives say they do want a safety net when they really want no government involvement in the economic sphere at all. And, for both parties, the public believes the version that is designed for public consumption.

So that is how our current system of government works. The activists are very split and the middle ground, the less active and less informed voters shift from first supporting one, then the other bunch of partisans just to keep them both guessing. The irony for many of us is that the country is governed by our less informed, less interested and less biased citizens. I don’t think that’s a good thing, but, as Churchill said, we haven’t come up with a better system yet.