Our presidential candidates and their speakers are being decimated by fact checkers as their trustworthiness is put into question again and again. Why the bold-faced lying on topics from healthcare to values? It’s an old-style form of campaign that may not be suited to new technologies that provide fairly easy access to those looking into claims.
It’s asserted here that this election highlights the selective memory of the past and the possibilities of the future that both sides deem necessary to persuade the American public that something can be regained that has been lost, and something better can be achieved within our current system.
There is no way to make a persuasive truthful representation that supports the ability to duplicate the past through the selective attempts to reinstate old laws such as the glory days when abortion was illegal and marital rape was not.
There is no way to assure Americans that proposed or even enacted legislation such as the Affordable Care Act will achieve any positive results when it’s only effective, measurable result to date is that more young people are insured because more middle class parents are paying for their children’s insurance through the age of 26.
Even proponents of the Act have addressed the number of “ifs” that must occur in a certain way for any of the numbers presented at any point in time to reflect reality. (As pointed out in this blog in reference to the uncertain “ifs” described by Chief Actuary Robert Foster in his April 2010 memo which you can by searching Richard Foster memo April 22, 2010, “Estimated Financial Effects of the ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,’ as amended.)
The candidates and their staffs know this. So, what can we learn from the parties and spending and advertising? We can better understand what our real values are as a nation.
We can learn that in spite of our unhappiness, most people don’t want change to the things they view positively in their own lives. That’s why we’ve heard both candidates assure us that those over 55 won’t have their Medicare affected. Both candidates recognize that people value stability over change if they’re comfortable enough.
We value those who keep their promises as promised. The Democrats really ruined this one with the Affordable Care Act.
While the President touts The Affordable Care Act as answer to our most crushing healthcare challenges, it is not. Nor is the Act either as revolutionary nor as anti-American or “socialist” as the Republicans would have us believe.
The greatest examples of the Affordable Care Act’s “socialist” promises, creating a public option to better compete with the stacked deck of powerful business is not in the Act. The expansion of Medicaid is one of the “ifs” of the Act, it depends on the states. Nor are the Republicans being honest in supporting a return to the former system and allowing the “free market” solution because in fact there is not a free market in the healthcare industry, as illustrated by the billions of dollars free market supporters and their organizations spend on lobbying to create laws that benefit them. In other words, the use of government laws and policies to increase their wealth, hardly free market.
We like bumper stickers. Shortcuts, meaningful phrases representing limited truths or vague ideas such as “Job Creators” or “Forward,” both of which are subject to challenge by thoughtful and reasonable people.
Repetition works in overcoming truth which is why we’ll hear the question of where the President was born or the issue about Mitt Romney’s taxes played, played and replayed again until everyone wonders a little bit about where the President was born, and everyone wonders a little bit about what exactly is in Mitt Romney’s tax returns.
We don’t like thinking of ourselves as mean, prejudiced, or stupid. This one’s a lot more strongly represented on the side of the Democrats. “If you’re a good person you’ll support giving immunity to illegal aliens,” hardly logical but it does pull on your heartstrings. The Republicans focus on right to life because who in their right mind would support killing babies? The Republicans advocate allowing our smart citizens to make decisions for themselves rather than “needing” government to make rules about various subjects in spite of all the “rules” that bear the Republican stamp of approval.
We are likely not going to get a President who supports the middle class in spite of the promises, proposals, plans, and bumper stickers proclaiming the importance of the middle class. Mitt Romney does support the rich, and President Obama does tend to the poor, the illegal immigrants, the elderly, in a skewed view that truly indicates that he believes the private sector middle class is “fine.”
What we hate to hear but know is that the middle class is the go-to pocket for both Republicans and democrats to finance their priorities because for politicians it’s about votes and it’s easier to divide and conquer through special legislation and attention to specific blocs of voters than to create jobs and support policies that benefit the middle class.
Where we go from here…Regardless of who’s elected, as a middle class we should better prioritize and communicate as group regarding policies that will generally benefit the middle class instead of being used as tools by politicians, easily sliced and diced according to a hundred separate priorities that factionalize us along lines that ultimately further erode the middle class.
En masse we should define and prioritize what being private sector middle class is for us whether it’s job security, affordable health care or preserving the opportunity to end our work-lives and reaping the benefits of what we’ve paid into for decades. It’s not that all the other distractions aren’t worthy causes, it’s that they don’t represent the private sector middle class as a whole, and without a strong middle class, this country’s economic future will continue to be the story of the rich and poor, each supported and financed by the middle class.
All our politicians from local to state to Federal should hear the same message from the middle class based on priorities that reflect the belief that the entire private sector middle class must be protected and nurtured for the future of this country.
