It used to be boring, obscure stuff, but in a few months it was over. Aside from politicians, media types, political scientists, economists and a few political junkies, few paid much attention to elections until the day of.
But now, thanks to the Supreme Court ruling that money is speech and billions that enrich the corporate media, consultants, pollsters, and assorted hangers-on, nearly half the four year presidential election cycle is more consumed with the next election than governing.
Celebrity pundits on television, who profit from this insanity profess to be astounded, baffled with the bazaar nature of this presidential campaign.
Thankfully, some candidates have faded. Ms. Fiorina's solution to terrorism was to strengthen the Navy's 6th Fleet, and refuse conversation with Russia's President Putin. How a stronger 6th Fleet would inhibit determined practitioners with suicide vests and box cutters is unclear. Putin didn't get to where he is by being a good sport. But when we need to talk to Russia, Putin is the man, whether likable or not.
Speaking of Russia, Gov. Christie calmly informed us of his willingness to shoot down Russian airplanes. Opening the door to mutual nuclear annihilation did not even raise an eyebrow of the chattering nitwits of the mainstream media.
We got through a half century of Cold War without Americans and Soviets shooting at each other. American pilots did shoot down some Soviet MIG fighters, but it was during the Korean War. The MIGs were piloted by North Koreans, not Russians, a big difference.
Prior to his exit, the New Jersey governor performed useful service by verbally slapping around the junior Florida Sen. Rubio who promises to tie the hands of the Fed. The Fed's available tools for stimulating the economy are already limited.
Rubio, along with the other GOP candidates, promises to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. Oh yes, they promise to "replace it," by allowing cross-border competition for insurance companies and creating "health savings accounts." You can depend on the moderators to never ask candidates how low-income individuals struggling to pay bills can possibly save enough to cover a multi-thousand dollar operation or hospital stay - or how cross-border "competition" will impel insurance companies to cover those with pre-existing conditions. Since the big time media stars and the candidates are all covered by gold-plated health insurance policies, such details never occur to them.
Speaking of free passes, Sen. Cruz promised to abolish five government agencies, naming four and one of them twice. Moderators failed to request the missing information. A brief mental lapse is arguably forgivable except that an earlier Texan was not given the same latitude. Recall during an earlier iteration of this exercise in 2012 when Texas Gov. Rick Perry promised to eliminate three cabinet positions. During debate, he could only remember two.
The pundits never let Perry off the hook for his memory lapse - perhaps OK except that they never raised a peep when Cruz suffered similar lapse. Maybe the moderators weren't counting. Or maybe they considered four out of five, or 80 percent, a passing grade while Perry flunked with two out of three, a mere 66 2/3 percent.
Poor Perry, not only getting mistreated by the press, but the inimitable Mr. Trump opined that the Texan started wearing glasses in a fruitless attempt to appear more intelligent.
Speaking of glasses, during a South Carolina debate Mr. Bush, in contrast to his previous debates, was not wearing glasses. A gorgeous female "analyst" for CNN - on TV, they're all glamorous, a requisite of the job - observed that it made Bush "look stronger." This observation prompted Anderson Cooper to promptly remove his own horn-rimmed spectacles. He should have left them on.
Cruz promises to eliminate the IRS. Who will collect the taxes and do the paper - er, computer work? A couple of part-time clerks at government surplus desks in a remote corner of the Treasury Department?
Then there is The Donald and his transparent "war" with the media. While ostensibly insulting the media nitwits, the powers that run the media, being enriched by Trump's media savvy, love it. An entertaining, controversial candidate equals viewers, equals ratings, equals jacked-up profits. In return for the jacked-up advertising revenue, the media give The Donald limitless free television coverage that other candidates would kill for. It's a win/win for Trump and the media, and a loser for American democracy and serious debate. But then, this is capitalism and a for-profit media.
Like Democrat Bernie Sanders, Trump is tapping into widespread discontent, actually, anger, with performance of the system. And there is plenty of obvious reason for discontent, including the hollowing out of the middle class, and all new income going to the very top.
Give Trump credit for saying a few things that make sense - like the invasion of Iraq was the worst American foreign policy disaster in decades, creating the power vacuum in the Middle East. Our international trade agreements have resulted in devastating loss of American middle-class jobs. He acknowledges that Planned Parenthood does some good things. He is the only GOP candidate that promises to leave Social Security and Medicare intact. All this contrasts starkly with standard Republican orthodoxy. No wonder the Republican "establishment" is in panic mode over Trump's ascendancy.
But from there, Trump becomes unhinged, urging torture as official American policy - never mind that we executed Japanese war criminals for that transgression. He promises to make good deals but wants to tear up the deal with Iran, made in cooperation with other nations. One would think that a businessman of Trump's caliber would recognize the incentive the deal provides Iranian business interests to join the broader commercial world, and work against their own strident religious leaders who oppose the deal.
Then there was his flap with the Pope - forget it, you just can't make this stuff up.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
But now, thanks to the Supreme Court ruling that money is speech and billions that enrich the corporate media, consultants, pollsters, and assorted hangers-on, nearly half the four year presidential election cycle is more consumed with the next election than governing.
Celebrity pundits on television, who profit from this insanity profess to be astounded, baffled with the bazaar nature of this presidential campaign.
Thankfully, some candidates have faded. Ms. Fiorina's solution to terrorism was to strengthen the Navy's 6th Fleet, and refuse conversation with Russia's President Putin. How a stronger 6th Fleet would inhibit determined practitioners with suicide vests and box cutters is unclear. Putin didn't get to where he is by being a good sport. But when we need to talk to Russia, Putin is the man, whether likable or not.
Speaking of Russia, Gov. Christie calmly informed us of his willingness to shoot down Russian airplanes. Opening the door to mutual nuclear annihilation did not even raise an eyebrow of the chattering nitwits of the mainstream media.
We got through a half century of Cold War without Americans and Soviets shooting at each other. American pilots did shoot down some Soviet MIG fighters, but it was during the Korean War. The MIGs were piloted by North Koreans, not Russians, a big difference.
Prior to his exit, the New Jersey governor performed useful service by verbally slapping around the junior Florida Sen. Rubio who promises to tie the hands of the Fed. The Fed's available tools for stimulating the economy are already limited.
Rubio, along with the other GOP candidates, promises to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. Oh yes, they promise to "replace it," by allowing cross-border competition for insurance companies and creating "health savings accounts." You can depend on the moderators to never ask candidates how low-income individuals struggling to pay bills can possibly save enough to cover a multi-thousand dollar operation or hospital stay - or how cross-border "competition" will impel insurance companies to cover those with pre-existing conditions. Since the big time media stars and the candidates are all covered by gold-plated health insurance policies, such details never occur to them.
Speaking of free passes, Sen. Cruz promised to abolish five government agencies, naming four and one of them twice. Moderators failed to request the missing information. A brief mental lapse is arguably forgivable except that an earlier Texan was not given the same latitude. Recall during an earlier iteration of this exercise in 2012 when Texas Gov. Rick Perry promised to eliminate three cabinet positions. During debate, he could only remember two.
The pundits never let Perry off the hook for his memory lapse - perhaps OK except that they never raised a peep when Cruz suffered similar lapse. Maybe the moderators weren't counting. Or maybe they considered four out of five, or 80 percent, a passing grade while Perry flunked with two out of three, a mere 66 2/3 percent.
Poor Perry, not only getting mistreated by the press, but the inimitable Mr. Trump opined that the Texan started wearing glasses in a fruitless attempt to appear more intelligent.
Speaking of glasses, during a South Carolina debate Mr. Bush, in contrast to his previous debates, was not wearing glasses. A gorgeous female "analyst" for CNN - on TV, they're all glamorous, a requisite of the job - observed that it made Bush "look stronger." This observation prompted Anderson Cooper to promptly remove his own horn-rimmed spectacles. He should have left them on.
Cruz promises to eliminate the IRS. Who will collect the taxes and do the paper - er, computer work? A couple of part-time clerks at government surplus desks in a remote corner of the Treasury Department?
Then there is The Donald and his transparent "war" with the media. While ostensibly insulting the media nitwits, the powers that run the media, being enriched by Trump's media savvy, love it. An entertaining, controversial candidate equals viewers, equals ratings, equals jacked-up profits. In return for the jacked-up advertising revenue, the media give The Donald limitless free television coverage that other candidates would kill for. It's a win/win for Trump and the media, and a loser for American democracy and serious debate. But then, this is capitalism and a for-profit media.
Like Democrat Bernie Sanders, Trump is tapping into widespread discontent, actually, anger, with performance of the system. And there is plenty of obvious reason for discontent, including the hollowing out of the middle class, and all new income going to the very top.
Give Trump credit for saying a few things that make sense - like the invasion of Iraq was the worst American foreign policy disaster in decades, creating the power vacuum in the Middle East. Our international trade agreements have resulted in devastating loss of American middle-class jobs. He acknowledges that Planned Parenthood does some good things. He is the only GOP candidate that promises to leave Social Security and Medicare intact. All this contrasts starkly with standard Republican orthodoxy. No wonder the Republican "establishment" is in panic mode over Trump's ascendancy.
But from there, Trump becomes unhinged, urging torture as official American policy - never mind that we executed Japanese war criminals for that transgression. He promises to make good deals but wants to tear up the deal with Iran, made in cooperation with other nations. One would think that a businessman of Trump's caliber would recognize the incentive the deal provides Iranian business interests to join the broader commercial world, and work against their own strident religious leaders who oppose the deal.
Then there was his flap with the Pope - forget it, you just can't make this stuff up.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
