Scotch & Politics

Now that we’ve all had a good laugh at everyone’s favorite moron, it’s time to move on because this guy is meaningless. The episode, however, may be a harbinger (one of a few so far) of a shift in American political discourse – I know, I’m being idealistic, but let me have my moment.

This episode was a hyperbole. It was an exaggeration of something that has been brewing, and I had not taken notice of it until my wife pointed it out the night of the North Carolina and Indiana primaries. The gap between the rich and everyone else has not only widened, but the rich population is shrinking… the population of everyone else is growing, fast. The rich also happen to hold most of the power.

We’ve all heard the argument of how “the rich people control everything!!” In many senses, this is true. This control hinged on directives shouted to the masses. Political spin was tossed out like red meat to the hordes, who gleefully ate it up and spewed it back out.

Starting with John Edwards and his cheery populist campaign in 2004 and the fiery populist campaign he waged in 2008, something switched. The masses no longer wanted simple spin to dictate their political thought. They wanted articulate solutions to their problems, not quick fixes and a pat on the head… a la the Republican party platform and their minions of spinmeisters. It did not end with Edwards. Barack Obama, along with his soaring rhetoric, long held a theory that people are smart enough to understand policy nuance (its a central point of Audacity of Hope). In the midst of this primary, the votes started to confirm this.

Going back to North Carolina and Indiana, a theme of that primary was high gas prices and how to fix them. Hillary Clinton grasped onto the ridiculous “gas tax holiday,” the 3 month refuge from a couple cents per gallon tax that funds such worthless things as roads and bridges. It would have been worth roughly $30 per person for the whole summer. Stupid.

She campaigned hard on this, using it as a weapon to show Obama’s elitism because, since he opposed this idea, he must not care about the “hard working people and their problems.” Wrong. Obama’s opposition was based on logic and reason. He went to the voters and explained these reasons for why this idea does not fix anything, long term or short term. Amazingly, they listened.

This was eerily similar to the summer of 2006, when high gas prices (ooooh, $2.70 a gallon!!) gave the Republican majority some pause and they offered up a $100 check – literally – as a solution. The American public threw it back in their face… and in November tossed their asses out of power. The bi-annual dog treat to pacify the people turned bitter. The votes started to resemble this sentiment in 2006, but it did not start fully resonate nationally until this primary.

This is why morons like James (and empty suits like Mitt Romney) are having a hard time staying relevant. The voting masses are filled with empty calories of gas-tax holidays, and tired of their merciless radio show host marketeers. Kevin James’s job is to sell the public fatty hamburgers filled with appeasing Muslim Senators. Sad for him, but it seems the American public has grown weary of this unhealthy diet. Thank you Chris Matthews for putting a spotlight not just on this guy’s lack of preparation/intelligence, but on the worthlessness of his arguments.