THE POLITICS OF TIME

Nothing is as far away as a minute ago. ~ Jim Bishop

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. ~ Douglas Adams

If only things were simpler, "like they used to be." Many of us share the preference that it's better to be straightforward and uncomplicated. Unfortunately such preferences often fly in the face of the complexities of our modern lives. This has not stopped politicians from claiming that they can solve our problems with simple remedies. If you believe the MSM's (mainstream media's) sound bites, things will get better simply by lowering taxes, or making government smaller, say by privatizing Social Security/Medicare (on the Republican side of politics), and/or by increasing job training and again lengthening the duration of unemployment benefits (by the Democrats). If only.

I think the current zealous debates seen and heard during this final stage of the election season are at their heart founded on a self-imposed, unrealistic sense of time. [As an aside, I seriously doubt there has ever been a non-zealous discussion between politicians a week before an election.] If only we could recapture the good times before 2007-08, it would be so much more straightforward. If only; and how soon we forget.

Nostalgia is reigning supreme instead of forcing folks running for office to state how they'd improve our lot by using contemporaneous, non sound-bite solutions to advance and move forward. It's far easier to remember imperfectly the good old days, and remedy today's modern issues with yesterday talk. This nostalgia is possible only when politicians think they can ignore large parts of the historical record and shout rhetoric without reality. They assume perhaps all too correctly that citizens can't (or won't) remember relevant facts about the not too distant past – for example, that the sustained macroeconomic growth the US enjoyed during the Clinton period was, until Bush II cut them, financed in large part by high income-tax rates (up to a 91% marginal rate at the top) and growth. Republicans became the biggest deficit spenders ever, and yet still label Democrats as such, and surprisingly seem to get away with it. How come?

Because as we continue to suffer from recessionary forces, we remember "way back when" things were better and quite naturally we want to be back then not now. We selectively remember the good times; if it was good then all we have to do is recreate it again. If only. It doesn't matter that many economic, social and cultural forces were working to create those "good times" that are no longer applicable or even relevant.

When times are tough perhaps every politician wants us to consider time very selectively. In this time of 140 character Tweets, politicians seem comfortable mouthing only unsubstantiated one-sentence remedies for all that ails us rather than realistic, well-thought out solutions. How come we (and the MSM) refuse to require politicians tell us exactly what government programs they want to cut severely to make it smaller; exactly how forcing China to revalue its Renminbi by some means will lead to more jobs in the US; how privatizing health care (as if it's not already) will reduce long-term increasing cost trends; or why extending jobless worker benefits (now at 99 weeks, substantially beyond the "traditional" 26 weeks) can remedy structural unemployment.

The more extreme candidates running for political office (and there have always been some of those in every election) want to impose simplistic notions that radically change the present and go way back in time – like removing the Internal Revenue Service. Does that mean the Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller wants to repeal the 16^th Amendment to our Constitution? Or merely pretend it's 1912 – the year before this amendment was ratified?) And eradicate the Dept. of Education from the roster of Federal agencies to make things better for us? Nonsense. Ultra-conservatives like Miller, Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell are premodern candidates who want to turn the clocks way back and pretend everything will then be fine. It's baffling why folks seem to listen to these crazy people.

With less than a week left before this election, I hope the voters compel candidates to stay focused on the present time and near future, and leave the past for historians.