Mitt Romney May Have A Pulse After All

Last night, in what most consider the official end of the Republican primary season, Mitt Romney swept the 5 state primaries being held in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. As all his competition has faded away, the wins were merely confirmation of his status as the presumtive Republican nominee. However, something happened last night that we have not seen before. In New Hampshire, when he gave his victory speech to a room full of enthusiastic supporters, a chill ran down my back. Behind the podium, Mitt Romney gave the speech nobody (including me) thought he was capable of giving. I'm not sure if he got a new team of writers, but the speech was rhetorically brilliant.

It was called "A Better America Begins Tonight"  and here is a taste, "Four years ago, Barack Obama dazzled us in front of Greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change. But after we came down to earth, after the celebration and parades, what do we have to show for three and a half years of President Obama?" Romney continued. "Is it easier to make ends meet? Is it easier to sell your home or buy a new one? Have you saved what you needed for retirement? Are you making more in your job? Do you have a better chance to get a better job? Do you pay less at the pump?" He continued, "That kind of campaign may have worked at another place and in a different time. But not here and not now," Romney said. "It's still about the economy … and we're not stupid." He went on to assert President Obama will run a campaign of "diversions, distractions and distortions." Tough words from the league leader in that department, but the message was lucid, genuine, and had the potential to have great appeal to the masses.

Now when you look closely, naturally it doesn't pass the smell test. It was laced with contradictions and inaccuracies, but it sounded great. So why does this present a problem? Because we have an electorate of which 50% maybe more, can't find the United States on a map. These are the people who consistantly vote against their own interests, and eat up this kind of non-reality based nonsense. There are a few tell tale words and phrases you always find in these speeches.

The first one that jumps out is "Freedom". Republicans love to talk about your freedom, the government is taking away your freedom to own a gun, practice your religion, choose your health care, uphold the Constitution, be an individual unencumbered by the ever present hand of government. It's catchy, makes you want to rap yourself in the flag and dream the American dream. However, it's also a lot of crap! The American flag is NOT a Republican symbol, as much as they may want it to be. It plays into their whole us vs. them mentality, take our country back bullshit.

They love to invoke the "Founding Fathers", as if they have some kind of exclusive channeling ability to interpret what they would do 236 years later. The fact is, the founding fathers are probably spinning in their graves knowing how deteriorated our civil discourse has become, and how polorized our government has become.

Another common word from the Republican lexicon is "Choice" it is often used with freedom, and ironically when you look close enough the choice is rather bleak. You have the choice to die or go bankrupt with no health care. The choice to give tax breaks to the rich, while teachers and fire fighters, and research gets cut. The choice to have an agency that protects our air, water, and food. The choice to go back to the policies that got us into this mess in the first place.  Funny thing about choice is, they are very selective as to where it applies. You shouldn't have the choice to have an abortion, or get contraception, you shouldn't have the choice to be manipulated by insurance companies, or whether to be legally lied to, or pay more just because you're a woman, or have unnecessary invasive proceedures. No these choices don't apply.

The bottom line here is Mitt Romney found a message last night, a message that could have legs. However, like all Republican messages they lack one very trivial yet important aspect, the truth.
The message was fantastic, but it's not supported by the facts. The problem then becomes in an age where misinformation is treated just a well as the real thing, Romney could capture a lot of folks who don't know the difference, and even worse don't care.

America's Crisis Of Confidence A Commentary

As more clues about the Secret Service, and GSA scandals dot the headlines, it raises the specter of a much greater problem we currently face as a nation. Since the explosion of social media in the past decade the flood of information we are exposed to on a daily basis has become both empowering, and overwhelming. Both information, and misinformation, is readily paraded out as fact to fill the new need produced by the often insatiable 24 hour news cycle. The result, snap judgements, political gridlock, ideological entrenchment, and more importantly, the ultimate destruction of faith in our government, and our leaders.

There is a reason Congress has an 11% approval rating. There is a reason compromise has become a dirty word in our politics. There is a reason we are suffering from an general crisis of confidence. For all its benefits, the daily flood of what passes for information these days, has exposed us to a perception that we never before knew, and the devil is in the details. We have come to realize, as a people, that knowledge is a very sobering power. The nation is speeding along an information highway that never stops, and has no exit. Today there are papers, magazines, television channels, internet sites, that cater to what we like, what we want, and what we believe. If you don't like what you see you can just listen, read, or watch any number of outlets that will have exactly what you're looking for. Now some may say this is a wonderful thing. The free exchange of ideas just waiting for your input, on an ever expanding range of social media outlets.

If you like food there's a show for that, if you like sports there's a web site for that, if you like games there's a system for that, if your conservative there's a radio program for that, a liberal, a blog site for that. We have become a country that sees what we want, hears what we want, and believes what we want, and if you don't like what you see, what you hear, or what you believe, you can just keep looking until you do. The result, the polarization of our people, our society, our leaders, and our government. Are you in the majority or the minority? The 1% or the 99%? An advocate for Wall Street or Main Street? Liberal or conservative, black, white, gay, straight, man, or woman. Whatever represents who you are, it's easy to find the right combination to fill your needs.

In the end, all this instant information has made scandal and dysfunction the norm. While it simultaneously undermines our politics, our sports, our religion, and anything else that cannot stand up to the daily rigors, and insatiable scrutiny, that drives the 24 hour news cycle. Our politicians are corrupt, our sports hero's are on drugs, are priests are pedophiles. Which brings me back to a government agency that wastes taxpayer money, and a Secret Service that sleeps with prostitutes. Like the soldier who no longer flinches at the horrors of war, we have become numb. Washington is racked by scandal, remains divided, and no longer functions. The American past time baseball, 100 years old and counting, has hall of fame records and players tainted by scandal and controversy. The Catholic church has abused generations of children, as evangelical preachers run mega churches, while doing cocaine with their gay lovers. We have become instinctively skeptical of our political leaders, our spiritual leaders, even our baseball heroes, because scandal has become the norm in every facet of our lives.

This is the world in which we find ourselves. The public trust is at an all time low, and all of our political and social institutions have fallen victim to the need for a story, real or imagined. When the events of life are consistently presented through this lens, trust cannot help but be a casualty. All we can do is try to rise above the scandal, the cynicism, and the hypocrisy, in the continued hope that good will somehow prevail in a bad situation. The first step is knowing how to rise above the daily bombardment, and filter that lens with the very thing it tries to take away, the truth as you know it in your heart. The problem is, sometimes that's not as you want to see it, but how it is.