Can’t We Do Better Than This?

The new Republican congressmen showed up in Washington yesterday. Today the lame duck congress will vote on the Keystone Pipeline. What most intelligent voters want to know is “Who owns the pipeline?” and is this payback for the estimated 77 million the Koch brothers pumped into the race, not counting Super Pacs who don’t identify their donors. Early on in the election, Charles and David claimed they would be spending around 300 million, so it was probably more. Even 300 million is a mere drop in the bucket for the two who have been estimated to be worth $85 billion or thereabouts. Gotta run the Cato Institute. Joni Ernst also showed up bragging about carrying a nine millimeter pistol in her purse. Expect some strip searchers, Joni. Every year the number of people who try to sneak loaded guns onto airplanes goes up. Paranoia reigns. Did paranoia influence this last election? No one in America currently has Ebola. 1500 trainers have been sent to Iraq to fight ISIS, and the generals say the Iraqi army is close to taking back ISIS territory.

It seems like after every election cycle the Republican party goes into lock down mode, expecting the next presidential election to be different. In other words, we’ll have gridlock for the next two years. If they don’t give Obama something in return for Keystone, he will veto their sludge bills. So what can we do to alleviate the great divide in America?

1. How about a prime time panel discussion where political science professors (hopefully non-partisan) from such elite colleges as Yale, Berkeley, Stanford or some of the Big Ten universities discuss such issues as small government, the sequester, the stimulus program etc. It might not hurt to include such “civilians” as Jon Stewart and maybe George Will.
I couldn’t believe the George Will I saw on Ken Burns’s “The Roosevelts” was the same one I’ve been reading in his conservative columns. I realize a lot of people would be tuning out on this program in favor of a Gilligan’s Island rerun, but if all of the major broadcasting networks either showed it or promoted it, maybe that would make a difference. And whatever happened to the equal time provision? Republicans were worried Obama would reinstate it. I’ve watched most of the presidential debates for the last several elections and I’m always amazed at who the commentators interview. Spin doctors from each political party. Really? What are they going to say, that their candidate did a poor job?

2. Include Lincoln/Douglas debate in the high school curriculum. Students are required to research and argue both sides of an issue, such as the minimum wage.

3. Clamp down on overt lying in political ads. There could be an adjudicator or judge who would decide whether an ad has gone over the red line who would assign stiff fines. It would also help if an ad would be retired after a week, saving the mute button on my clicker. I realize this probably violates the first amendment, but it's already been violated ad infinitum in my mind. Pornography is protected as free speech? Whatever happened to “You can’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater”? In other words, your freedom ends where mine begins and vice versa. Racist speech tied to lynching would be an example. The first time an assault rifle was used in a mass shooting, they should have been outlawed for sale to private citizens, and they were until George W. Bush forgot to extend the law. When 26 little kids and six of their teachers were killed in Newtown, the NRA barely blinked, then they blamed it on the mentally ill. What about the mother who taught a son with Aspergers how to shoot an assault weapon. Did she belong to the NRA?

4. Overt abuse of majority rule, such as when John Boehner refused to bring the Senate Immigration Law to the floor, when there were enough votes to pass it. Many Republican congressmen were worried they’d lose the next election if they didn’t do something for Hispanics. Who knew Hispanics would blame Obama instead and either not vote or vote for the opposition.

5. The FCC needs to do a better job. There’s no place for obvious propaganda in America, unless you identify yourself as such. When the producer of your news network is a Republican activist and the owner of the station is an avowed conservative, you’re not a news station. In the past we’ve had newspapers that identified themselves politically, but at least we knew what to expect. A large percentage of Americans actually believe Fox News is a “fair and balanced” source of information. Americans ought to remember that one of the first things Hitler did when he became chancellor was take over the media. Rupert Murdock now owns the Wall Street Journal and he tried to buy both the Los Angeles and Chicago Times.

6. Stop the brainwashing. Somehow the Supreme Court did not realize the implications of home schooling. The sticking point was sex education being taught in the public schools. But these parents also objected to teaching evolution in science classes. I once had a parent object to his daughter being taught Greek mythology. We saw the potential of abuse when the Texas School Board tried to rewrite history recently. Luckily the voters turned them out of office. There was an even more dangerous scenario in that Texas is the textbook capital of the United States. During the Scopes III trial (which ruled intelligent design was a religion) the conservative judge asked the evolutionary expert why the public wasn’t aware of his testimony, some of which pointed to the so-called “missing link” opponents often use to question evolution’s credibility. He said it was because the publishing industry was influenced by Scopes I, when John Scopes was found guilty and given a $100 fine, despite the fact that Clarence Darrow destroyed William Jennings Bryant on the stand.

7. Some countries require that their citizens vote. Do we need to go there? Maybe declare election day a holiday. Be sure to close all the bars. When I was in high school, that’s what they did. If you didn’t vote, you were a pariah. Nobody bragged about not voting because their vote didn’t count anyway. How can they say that after George W. Bush won the 2000 election by a few hundred votes and Al Franken beat Norm Coleman in Minnesota after a recount by a mere 300 votes?

8. I sure hope those think tanks aren’t non-profit. Tim LaHaye and his wife run several of them. Remember him? He wrote those LEFT BEHIND novels about the coming Rapture. Millions of people read them, destroying brain cells in the process. You’d think they would have learned when Harold Camping predicted the end of the world, twice, and his followers gave away all of their money and possessions, then expected them back when nothing happened.

We all know education is the answer, but conservatives don’t trust education. They think most college professors are liberals and the major news purveyors are lefties. These people need a good old fashioned scolding. Where is Teddy Roosevelt when we need him? There’s also a book you should read, ONCE UPON A TOWN by Chicago columnist Bob Greene. It’s about how Americans pulled together during WWII. If you’ve been bashing lazy poor people on Facebook, that book will do you good. 

Dave Schwinghammer's Fargo-esque mystery, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available at Amazon.com, new and used. An autographed copy can also be ordered at Authorsden.com.