thanks, Colin Powell

Yesterday evening some news show played an excerpt from Face The Nation's interview with Colin Powell (former Secretary of State and a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff).

There was Colin Powell speaking to me from my TV set, saying things that were in my head.

That's weird.

But not really. If I am trying to figure out certain things, so are a lot of other people, I suppose.

This is a big subject, one we will re-visit at blue collar lit.

I observe current political climate, and ask myself,
"What in the hell happened?"

Points:

* OK, it isn't only in politics; it's throughout American culture.

* More rudeness, incivility, negativity, anger, impatience ("road rage," etc.) and other stuff of that nature.

*And -- here's how I'm going to approach thinking about it -- there are two "strands":
a) whole culture
and b) our political discourse

*What are the reasons for it?

Today, just the Political area.
Politics has always been somewhat "contentious."
They argue about issues and ideas.
That's what they are supposed to do.

And I've asked myself, "What went wrong? When did this current Rhetoric Style of vicious sarcasm and personal attacks start? And -- Why? Why? Why?"

what I've come up with, so far:

It started in the early 90s.
Before that, I remember President Reagan and House Speaker Tip O'Neill working together and being civil.
Joking together. Getting together on what they could get together on (as Pres. O. reminds us -- "finding common ground") and getting some bills passed, and making things work.

Governing.

Governing is a different ball game from campaigning.
During the campaign you compete.
Then when it's over, you do a different job. You govern.

Since sometime early in the 90s, it seems to me, it became a situation where the campaigning Never Stops, and the Governing is hard to do because each party looks at the short-term goals of their own best interest for the next campaign.

And it's not even to make themselves look good;
it's to make the other guy look bad.

It's like trying to win the voters by default.

Where did all this negativity come from?

Critics were just relentless and vicious and -- it was just Overkill, on Bill Clinton.
They were battering away at him long before he messed up his own image by having the affair with Monica Lewinsky.

What was it?
Newt Gingrich?
Karl Rove?
Rush Limbaugh?

Remember in Clinton administration when the government shut down because House Republicans simply weren't going to let Clinton govern?
"That just ain't right."
That's being a poor sport.
Whomever wins the presidency, they are Our President, and you work with 'em.

OK, here's a list.
Talk Radio. TV Talk shows. Cable TV. More "News" Channels, on - air 24-7. Internet / e-mail. Internet / YouTube. Internet / blogging. (I plead guilty!)

I think the answer we're getting to is:
Talk.
Too Much Talk.
Too Much Talk Too Fast.

It spirals. It's viral. It spirals virally out of control.

And because it goes too fast and too constantly, it has become harsh and (in my opinion) kind of crazed.
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Colin Powell:

They asked him, Does democracy just not work anymore?
(That scared me a little bit.)

And Colin Powell said (something along the lines of) -- These days, with cable TV and the 24-hour news cycle, there's more back-and-forth and it becomes negative. With the internet and the bloggers, the debate goes too fast, it's repeated and twisted to mean something else; things get blown out of proportion -- "everything becomes heightened."

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I say "crazed"; Colin Powell says "heightened".
Potato -- po-tah-toh....

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