Biden can't get a break from the media

I read a column this morning that argues convincingly that President Biden has been a very effective chief executive, combining support for economic progress with international leadership, all while avoiding dominating the news cycle and embarrassing the world.

Yes, he's old... seven years older than me, so that gives me some credibility in terms of making this obvious point. Yes, he moves a bit stiffly, reportedly due to some arthritis. Yes, he sometimes struggles to speak as clearly and forcefully as we like in our professional actors.

But he somehow has managed to make trips to two war zones this year -- Ukraine and Israel -- and delivered a strong speech to America regarding the importance of supporting those two allies against the forces of authoritarianism. The economy is objectively doing quite well after the pandemic, better than any other major nation in the world. 

Our fractured media is so ineffective, however, that most Americans believe the economy is tanking (and this despite their own circumstances). Many of our fellow citizens seem fine with abandoning Ukraine to the Russian invasion. And some of our more wacko left-wingers are outraged that Biden urges us to side with those darn Jews.

The news media is obsessed with competition and comparisons and consistently errs in its reporting by adopting "false equivalencies" that obscure the fact that we have a major political party that has not clear ideas other than to recreate some mythical Golden Age, mostly dominated by Angry White People. 

I can understand how Fox News and even more right wing platforms are fine with the false equivalencies since without them they would have no arguments at all. But what about all the supposedly mainstream media that continue to focus on wins and losses and (always, always) on death and destruction and general bad news?

The mainstream media is now trusted by less than 25 percent of Americans, and it was closer to 50 percent just a few years ago. We can blame Elon Musk -- God knows he's an idiot who we mistakenly hail as a genius -- and we can blame social media. Yes, it's horrible.

But when the latest massacre (this time in Maine) doesn't even warrant a response from our legislators beyond "we need more mental health," well, isn't it time to call the dysfunctional Republican Party out as lacking ideas and even empathy? 

Sure, the most radical Democrats have many blind spots and certainly have no interest in finding solutions that the majority of Americans can agree with, but President Biden has continued to hold the party together and not allow those loud, somewhat crazed voices to dominate. 

I'd say we have a functional and progressive government in this country right now. 

A nation held hostage by the incompetent and criminal

It is tough to argue with a straight face that our fellow Americans should trust our leaders, our institutions, and our legal traditions when we are confronted with so many examples of ineptitude, moral cowardice, and outright malicious intent connected with those leaders and institutions.

It would be entirely understandable that a foreign rival/adversary would sense weakness on the part of the U.S. at this time. Nations do rise and fall and it is entirely possible that we are in some early stage of the fall of the American experiment. Why not push a little harder, if you are Russia or China or India or Hamas or... You get the idea.

It's difficult to wrap our heads around the idea that a handful of wackos in the House of Representatives can stifle a nation of 330 million from taking new actions, responding to threats, and supporting solutions to problems.

It's hard to fathom the arcane idea that one radical Senator can stall almost all progress on routine military leadership appointments, even in the midst of multiple foreign crises.

It's difficult to imagine why an entire political party has decided to abandon any pretense of actually governing. A few rabid partisans are OK with blowing the whole operation up, perhaps assuming that cooler heads will handle the fallout and that they can still get rich and famous on cable TV.

It's nearly impossible to imagine a disgraced narcissist having a decent chance to win re-election to the presidency, despite being under multiple indictments, despite having encouraged violence at the Capital, and despite a barrage of personal attacks on people that would shame a first-grader. 

But there we are. 

Occasionally I try to imagine what my grandchildren are thinking during all this insanity. Amazingly, the girls seem able to shrug it off and keep their "eyes on the prize." They work hard. They pay attention. They find joy in all sorts of things. The boys are likely too young to even pay much attention to the machinations of nutty adults. Good for them.

There really is only one solution to it all. Reasonable Americans need to vote to throw the obstructionists, the deluded, and the guilty out of office. Over and over. 

But the 2024 election seems so far away.

Violence and hate run rampant... just 'situation normal'

The sheer scale of human suffering today is overwhelming. Ukrainians continue to be bombed indiscriminately. Israelis were butchered last weekend and today the revenge bombing is killing and maiming Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Venezuelans endure unimaginable danger and hardship just for a chance to live in America, leading to moving scenes at the border.

Not much in the news about women and girls in Afghanistan -- I guess there is only so much bandwidth available for media coverage of all the pain -- but I assume it is ongoing. I dimly recall some mention this week about a civil war of some sort in Africa... but what else is new?

I don't mean to be flippant or unfeeling, but perhaps this unrelenting torrent of suffering among our fellow humans isn't really news at all, or at least is not unusual. Yes, massacres of innocent dancing young people in Israel by crazed fanatics grabs our attention due to the inhuman, unfocused killing.

But wait. Perhaps "inhuman" is not a very good word here. After all, one of the things that humans have been doing to one another for time immemorial is killing and maiming one another. We are quite good at it, despite the incessant killing being bad for our species.

I assume we will light the Compassion Candle this Sunday at St. Luke's for everyone suffering in Israel and Gaza, for all the good THAT will do. Our lead minister just urges everyone in the flock to "let love in, and let God in," and all will be well. 

It won't be well in any meaningful sense for the over 1 million Palestinians under age 18 currently being terrified by Israeli bombs and the warning to move immediately to the southern half of an already very small area. 

It won't be well for butchered Israeli children and grandmothers and so many other innocents, killed merely for being present in an area of the planet. I saw that many Arabs living in Israel were among the massacred. 

It turns out that most everyone looks like an enemy when we have lost our minds.

We are responding as a world leader should (oops), with a nonfunctional legislative branch unable to even pass a resolution in favor of, well, opposing hate. It's up to President Biden and the executive and military branches to actually do something tangible, though no one knows what would actually be helpful.

Our first act was to ship more weapons to the Middle East. Yes, of course. Let's contribute more kindling to the raging inferno. 

But how can we not want revenge? How can we not ache for butchered children?

Well, not for children stuck at our borders or children cowering in shelters in Gaza. 

Sunday we will hear messages of hope and peace and piously nod and sing and pray... which will do what, exactly? It turns out that religion is where we turn when we have been forced to give up on believing in humanity and kindness and rational behavior. 

Child poverty in our own wealthy country more than doubled this year, almost entirely due to our dysfunctional Congress deciding they wanted to make some political statement or other. Who knows? It's all about scoring points.

Humans COULD treat each other as that Jesus guy suggested: Love your neighbor as yourself.

But we don't really believe that, do we?

Too big to be governed?

I want to blame someone or something for the continued disconnect between reality and perception among Americans, but I'm beginning to wonder whether society has become too complex, too broad, and too, well, busy to get us all back to sharing a basic set of facts.

It may be that any nation that boasts 340 million residents spread across 50 states that each claim different approaches and mandates, all while interacting with a world of nearly 8 BILLION fellow humans, is simply impossible. 

Last night Kathleen and I drove over to Cherry Creek HS, which is the state's largest at 3,800 students, and marveled at the sprawling campus and byzantine parking and various gyms. The volleyball wasn't kind to Arapahoe, with was swept 3-0 and looked out of it. Anna did fine until she rolled her ankle or something in the final game. Fingers crossed that the injury is minor.

But it occurred to me that no one at CCHS could possibly know even a small percentage of fellow students or even faculty very well. The school is larger than some colleges.

There are studies that claim that the optimum size for a comprehensive high school is about 1,000. That provides a large enough student body to offer a wide range of activities and courses while also maintaining a community that can support and complement all involved.

Of course, smaller schools necessitate more principals (but maybe fewer assistants?), more coaches, more teachers (unless a system could be very carefully calculated to move personnel around). Each school needs a cafeteria and various specialized classrooms and performing areas.

So, the American drive for efficiency pushes many urban areas to opt for larger, centralized schools, along with larger bureaucracies to hold everything together. 

The American experiment was born in a relatively small geographic area with a much smaller population. In 1800, the U.S. had about 5.3 million residents in 16 states. Communication was difficult then (as opposed to now, where it is all too easy) and a relative handful of white males wielded all the political power. A majority of our current Supreme Court might term that period as "the good old days." 

In report after report in mainstream media, we find Americans feeling pretty good about their own economic outlook while bemoaning the wider economics of the country. We agonize over President Biden's age while appearing to accept the fact that his likely opponent is increasingly deranged (not to mention just three years younger). 

When was the last time you read a well-reported story that clearly laid out just how unhinged Trump's constant deluge of rhetoric is? 

Unemployment is at record lows, inflation is moderating, and we just saw 380,000 jobs added to the economy, double what was expected. But only 40 percent of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing leading the nation. An incredible amount of money is being pumped into states and counties that can only be described as "red," but most of the folks living in those areas either can't see it or won't see it.

A large study has concluded that Republican-led states are now shaving 3-5 years of life from their citizens due to policies on everything from tobacco to public health to Covid responses. But, of course, Joe Sixpack from Ohio is still alive and it is human nature to believe that the bad stuff happens to "them," not to him.

Like I say, it's a giant country and it may be pointless to try to pull together. 

As Seinfeld reminds us: "People. They're the worst."