Focus on Clarity

By Grant Davies

With the dominant media currently having great success in redirecting the attention of the American sheeple away from matters of great importance and towards matters of absolutely no importance, I thought it was time to get back to writing more opinion pieces than I have recently.

The truth is, I have been very lax in writing for this blog lately due to events (of the happy variety) in my personal life. The other sites which carry my articles probably are wondering whether I'm still on the topside of the grass. And I have been carving up my allocation of available writing time very much in favor of our other blog, Cheeky History.  

Writing tongue in cheek historical narratives for that site is a labor of love for me. As a bonus, Cheeky History is steadily gaining readership, which translates into happiness for an old storyteller like me. I hope you'll visit the site. If you enjoy it, please tell a friend or two who might like a lighthearted and irreverent account of the events and people that have shaped us into who we are as human beings. I think of it as a kind of "mind floss" against the backdrop of the more serious topics we usually cover at WhatWeThinkandWhy. But enough of the shameless plugs for my own hobbies.

An election day of historical importance is almost upon us and the media has been able to turn the distractions into the issues. At least for many people, the outrage over what happened to us since our government turned a poor situation into a calamity has morphed into a general feeling of helplessness and resignation.

The bailouts of the rich and connected (not to mention the financially incompetent and morally ill-equipped "victims" of their greed) seem to be a distant memory. The voter anger over them apparently left with the departure of the last guest at the tea party. Where are those well behaved, but furious, middle Americans who showed up at mass demonstrations now-a-days anyway?

The worst piece of legislation in the history of the country, Obamacare, has been relegated to the back burner while the electorate fusses over the campaign blunders burning on the front. Getting rid of that despicable tool for stealing our freedoms used to be job one. No more, it seems.

While we are kept focused on what polls are most accurate, what candidate said the politically dumbest thing this week, or how many rounds of golf are being played by the President, the country continues to slide into an ocean of new debt and freshly printed fiat money. Rampant inflation awaits only an uptick in the economy and the velocity of money movement it brings.

Presidents can now legally order the execution of people all over the world without bothering with an arrest, an indictment, or a trial. And unlike Obamacare, that law was passed with an overwhelming majority of support from both parties. It is only the suspicions the President might have about someones potential involvement in terrorism that qualifies them for this special treatment. American citizens are not exempt from that death list either. (It's true and it has already happened. You can look it up.)

Democrats who were outraged that GWB led a government that "water-boarded" captured Al-Qaeda operatives after 9-11 seem to have no problem whatsoever with summary death sentences carried out by computer operated drones. I guess if you think you are morally superior to Republicans, killing a guy is more humane than making him think he's drowning. They might ask Khalid Sheikh Mohammed which one he prefers.

Only a few years ago one might have entertained the notion that the US Constitution, having been rendered  irrelevant recently, would be a major campaign issue this time out. As Josie Wales might have said, "I reckon not."

Normally, the very soon to be bankrupt Social Security and Medicare systems might have been foremost on the minds of Americans. But it seems that it's more important lately whether a candidate uses a teleprompter too often or the other guy makes too much money to fit the sensibilities of class warriors.

Perhaps the fact that several large states and tons of municipalities are either bankrupt, or nearly so, isn't as important as whether one Vice Presidential candidate poorly articulated the timeline for a plant closing or the other one said yet another embarrassingly stupid thing during a photo-op.

Maybe there's more important things than the largest tax increase in history becoming effective on January 1st in the middle of an economic cataclysm. (And it will happen without a single Congressmen or Senator voting to pass it. Thanks, GWB.) But to watch the news one might conclude that perhaps it's Mitt's tax returns or Barack's birth certificate.

So here's the thing folks, it's time to ignore the polls and the med-idiots. It's time to focus on real things. The bridge on the road ahead is out and we have to figure out quickly which of these guys should be driving the bus.

In terms of our future, one of these guys is a bad dream. And the other is a nightmare. I've made it no secret that I find Romney to be the former and Obama to be the latter. So you decide. But try to remember what's important. And for future reference, try to remember that whichever "team" you are on, our wonderful two party system stuck us with these crummy choices, again. (If you actually think either one is a good choice, you should stop reading and Google up a shrink.)

I'm not blaming the media. They are bad actors to be sure, but it's our fault. We keep watching them and reading their newspapers. When others are making things purposely blurry, it's time to take personal responsibility for improving the clarity.

We need to focus on the future, it's the only thing we can change.