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The news media are on their collective ear about how they
could miss predicting the winner in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary. The
most reasonable excuse, pardon me, explanation, is that Hillary showed a new
side of her persona after the polling was completed, and that bringing out her
emotions, brought out more voters in her favor.
When the polling industry finally has enough power, I expect
someone to suggest that we cut out expensive elections and the possibility of
voter fraud by allowing pollsters to select our elected leaders. (read more)
But that would not be as unusual a practice as it might
seem. Even now, the hiring practices of many or our largest corporations seek
to influence government as they regularly employ former high officials for
their influence and connections. Recently it has come to light that John
Ashcroft may have been improperly selected from a shortlist of one for a
favorable contract. And Tony Blair is doing well now that he’s left public
life; even US based corporations crave his ‘advice’. Karl Rove is seen
regularly in the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, which reminds some of
us that for better or worse, like nearly every other business in the US, many of our
news media are corporations too.
I have heard and read it noted from several sources that
news coverage in America
is no longer as diverse as it once was. Large newspapers, challenged by the
internet, have consolidated, and many have closed down at least some of their
operations. More and more news organizations are concentrated into fewer and
fewer hands leading up to the question, “how diverse, and how independent, is
news coverage?” At the crux of that question is election polling. Are the
parameters of a poll skewed based on the desired outcome? There’s really no way
to tell. But erroneous predictions in a hotly contested race seem counter
productive, when the only thing that really needs to happen to decide the race
is for voters to cast their ballots.
Coincidence or not, it’s the news media that do a lot of the
polling before elections. Always careful to qualify predictions with a plus or
minus percentage of error, telephone polling seeks to predict what people will
do before they do it. But part of the time it almost seems as though they are
trying to influence people who have not yet taken the critical action of
pulling that voting booth lever, or marking the box beside a certain name, by
making their findings public. Like so many areas of business these days, it
seems right to question the objectives of businesses, no matter what service
they may deliver, even though it may not seem politically correct to our
leaders.
One candidate in particular, I’ve noticed, seems to have a
difficult time even being mentioned in the same breath with the other two
leaders in his party. Over the last few days I also noticed that one particular
TV network seemed to do an extraordinarily poor job of placing him in front of
the camera. The lighting was poor, and the camera lens almost seemed to be
distorted. I’ve met the man many times, and I’m well aware of what he looks
like. The TV camera was not offering a fair reproduction. Was it accidental, or
on purpose? Given the fact that his rhetoric was not flattering to
corporations, I have to wonder.
Even as that candidate has said that not all corporations
are bad, this election almost seems to be the last great hope for those of us
who want to see our nation turned back from the brink. We’re hoping to see some
change of policy on a broad scale that will bring back hope by bringing back
the jobs. In places like Cambodia,
Indonesia, or China, workers
may earn $50 to $75 per month. That’s less than starvation wages here, but in
those nations it represents a sea change, or at least that’s what we’re told
about the 12 hour a day, seven day a week jobs. We’re also told that worker
rights and protections are vigorously guarded by inspectors. But the inspectors
in most places work under instructions to call before checking a factory.
Illegal or underage workers are told not to report that day, and pollution
filters are turned on, only to be turned off as soon as inspectors depart. Can
this really be why America
has conceded its manufacturing greatness, or is it simply so that corporations
can have access to a work force that’s grateful for a penny on the dollar?
Here in my state, Missouri,
our conservative leadership in the Capitol proudly points to a steady tax
burden free of increase for average Missourians, but while corporate taxes have
never been lower, in 2007 Missourians themselves paid 4% more while total
revenue increased. Where I come from, paying more in taxes equals a tax
increase. It seems that even as workers in this country are asked to give up so
much, there is no shame for what our government will continue to take.
The price of most things we buy is going up as the Federal
Reserve continues to talk interest rate cuts to offset a feared recession. But
much of the interest cuts we’ve received go into the pockets of big banks stung
by the sub prime loan implosion. Freeing up more depreciating dollars just so
American consumers can help retailers sell more imported goods will do little
for real Americans. With jobs, and opportunity, Americans will buy whatever
they want with earnings. Credit has become a substitute for productivity…..and
pay. There is no future in that. And no justice.
Candidates who want to speak of the future, of change, and
of hope, need to address the true facts of the declining American lifestyle.
Health care takes much of the blame for high business operating costs. Until we
cure the major fiscal illness of health care costs we will accomplish little
else. But that has become simply a blame game. Government workers by and large
have very good health care and retirement. Many lucky corporate workers do to.
The secret to conquering blue collar work forces has been to divide and conquer
them. Improperly constructed retirement accounts, permitted by regulators to be
disappeared from view by aggressive, corrupt managers was just the start.
Health care is another scapegoat, and taxes. We always fail to fix the real
problems, preferring to fix imagined ones with high management salaries and
little enforcement of white collar crime against workers and shareholders.
Somewhere along the line our government leaders adopted the easy
practice of divide and conquer. A good example is the social security notch
babies. They were a group chosen arbitrarily to receive smaller payments simply
because of when they were born. Too small a group to be a threat to politicians
at the polls, notch babies had to take it or leave it.
Now at the polls themselves we have seen voter’s rights
taken away arbitrarily. Those too old, too poor, or just too tired to fight
unjust voter ID laws must simply give up their right to vote. They have no
choice, and it’s the perfect political ploy. Not only are they too small in
number to harm their offending leaders, but because they’ve lost the right to
vote, there is nothing they can do. Nothing.
Just as many residents of New Orleans have found, corporate workers
that lose their jobs drift on the winds of change, and become divided. They
move to other cities, or states, to find work, to search for hope. The jobs
they find may be poor compared to what they had, but divided as they are there is
no one to investigate or report, no one to know. They are conquered.
And so the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by printing
more money just so that relocated depreciated workers will be sure to have the
cash to buy foreign goods in support of the $75 per month peasants who replaced
them, goods that they themselves once manufactured,. Trade today is less about
buying and selling, and more about trading our own security for the dubious
refuge of third world jobs.
When the wars and the interest rate cuts all stop, when we
are down to the day to day situation of living with the economy that has been
built for us, who in America
will be on top?
That’s what this election is all about.
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