Raising Cain, Herman that is!

No I don’t believe Cain’s protestations of innocence. Nor much of the other statements he makes, either. Why is that?

Because in the specifics of the sexual harassment cases, there are four women claiming complaints with settlements and a paper trail. He cannot simply deny these events. How severe they were or not is still in question. But respecting women as people not sex objects is at the heart of this issue. Cain has evidently created a history of sexual objectification. It doesn’t matter if sex acts were involved or not; it’s the disrespect of women that is the central issue.

And lying about embarrassing topics!

I have watched the Herman Cain campaign with interest, wondering why he is seeking the presidency. He has no foreign affairs experience or trail of written opinion on such issues. He clearly doesn’t understand Economics 101 and 102, let alone International Economics. His pronouncements on economics have been political punditry, not fact or science.

Cain appears to be stirring up trouble among his fellow Republicans and occasionally tosses a barb in President Obama’s direction. Clearly he is juggling for a place among Republican candidates and I have begun to wonder if his job is to be a distraction within his political party for some other purpose? Is it to sideline several of the other candidates so Mitt Romney arrives at the finish line ahead of everyone else while Cain’s distractions rob the party of focus and clarity? I wonder.

Cain accuses the media of undermining him. Please the American media industry is fighting for ratings to survive competition; that and kissing up to conservatives in a bid to polish their, the media’s, credibility. In my view the leftist media has not existed for a long time. It has morphed into a conservative leaning media. Just listen to Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News; his delivery and body English is most definitely not supportive of White House initiatives or leftist causes. It seems to be about raising questions about the effectiveness and survivability of the Obama administration. Does anyone else catch this nuance?

Public air waves are considerably conservative. Those are the voices heard most frequently: Rush Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, Fox News, etc. Sure there are liberal media outlets but they appear to be much in the minority. What are left are the hinterlands of the silent majority, whoever they are!

Games. Political games. They continue to be played in order to accomplish what? Here are some ideas:

• Democrats have played their brand of politics to include a broad segment of the population
• Dems have focused on problems to be solved through state legislatures and the US Congress
• Republicans feel out of power on the national stage; their objective is to remove Obama from the White House and they don’t care who gets hurt in the process
• Obstacle after obstacle has been thrown in the way of White House programs
• These are our programs, the ones which will ease economic distress, and rebuild the economy to health
• The Repubs say no. They can’t let people see or think that Obama’s had a success; he must fail at all costs; even if it means our economy sinks into oblivion
• It’s a war of sound bites not substance.
• The economy has been managed in the past for excellent results; it is being mismanaged currently for political gain. Repubs can do that. It is not in the interest for Dems that this impasse continue. But they are not in power of the legislative process. The Repubs are and they know it. They are whirling the cat by its tail and enjoying every moment of it.

When will voters demand an end to this nonsense? Your guess is as good as mine but I believe we have reached the point that there is only one thing we can do: elect the right people into office over the next several consecutive elections. Drop people who don’t demonstrate a clear grasp of the issues. Drop people who will not set clear priorities to pursue. Drop people who argue and don’t collaborate. Drop people whose sole political purpose is to maintain their own power without adding to the common good.

It is time for us to learn about the issues in detail. It is time to improve our understanding of how the economy works and how it can serve public policy goals we can all believe in.

It is time we became discerning voters, not party supporters.

Never say never; never say always. Think of the alternatives. The parties spout opposites. The ideologues scream conservative and liberal. Perhaps we should think in between?

November 11, 2011