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The Villages
Friday, March 29, 2024

We have met the enemy

Marsha Shearer
Marsha Shearer

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a bumper sticker that said, “Critical Thinking: The Other National Deficit” and thought those six words did as good a job as any in defining where we are as a nation today. We seem to have delegated logical thought to the loudest voices, to the most repetitive voices, to those voices promulgating fear and distrust, to the voices who find scapegoats in the defenseless and different.  We’ve become tribal – each moving to our own corner, talking only to each other, refusing to acknowledge and separate fact from fiction, harangue from civil discourse. There is little effort to hear or consider the other side of an issue. Compromise is a dirty word; politicians are punished for engaging in it. We accept that which we agree with and reject any information to the contrary, even and maybe especially, if there’s no doubt as to its truth. Logic, facts and rational thought be damned!

This isn’t a recent problem; it’s been growing for long time. It’s fed by religious fundamentalism and bigotry (what I believe is more valid than what you believe because God speaks only to me and mine), a distrust bordering on hatred of government (it’s the enemy and too big), a passion for unfettered capitalism (regulations prevent economic growth), privatization of everything thereby thwarting transparency and accountability (private funding is always better than public funding because taxes can be reduced), and money in politics (pay to play, do what I say or you will be primaried in the next election, politicians must be accountable to big funders and lobbyists instead of those uninformed voters).

But it has reached the stage where the lack of compromise and tribalism is impacting the very fiber of this country.  Just look at us.  Because compromise is out of the question, nothing gets done. Problems fester and grow.  The impact is destroying this country from within more quickly and just as surely as any outside enemy.

The outside enemy now is ISIL. It must be destroyed. Everyone agrees. That’s a beginning but also, it seems, an end.  Here’s an example of what intransigence has reaped: One way to curtail ISIL, everyone agrees, is to significantly impede or stop their sources of funding.  There’s a position in the Treasury Department designed to do just that. This is the one person in the entire government, next to the Commander in Chief – who is, or would be, in the position to fight terrorism and financial crimes ISIL depends on to fund its operations. That person is Adam Szubin.  Check out his credentials.  After a successful hearing, Senator McConnell said he is imminently qualified for the position yet he has refused to bring this permanent appointment to a vote for over 200 days and counting.  Why?  Because some members of the banking committee said Mr. Szubin supported the Iran deal.  In other words, he supported the President.  It is more important not to give the President a ‘win’ than to provide the mechanism to help defeat ISIL.  What are we doing?  Where are we going?

Setting up circumstances that result in short term self-fulfilling prophesies has taken the place of the critical thinking (and common sense) that could result in long term problem solving.  Using the previous example, some politicians say that the President isn’t doing enough to stand up to ISIL but then deny him the tools he needs to do so. If something happens, we know whom to blame. Similarly, state legislatures have made massive cuts to education funding and instituted frequent testing – not to determine what the students need to learn next, but how well the system and teachers are performing.  Resources are cut to conform to reduced budgets. Scores decline. We know whom to blame.

We are past the point of dysfunction and heading to the downright dangerous.  Politicians, aided and abetted by media, deliberately inflame, scare, stoke fear, create lies and repeat them – all for political or financial gain.  This country is being destroyed from within.  We have become a nation of sheep…if we don’t wake up, we are doomed to be led like them…and that did not end well for the sheep.

It was Pogo who said, “We have met the enemy and it is us.”

Marsha Shearer is a Villager.

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