Disconnected

There's a great op-ed in today's Christian Science Monitor, Why Governing Americans Is So Hard, by Howard Gleckman. Here's a long snippet:

The conventional wisdom is that Americans are fed up with their government. But our demands on policymakers are so inconsistent and irrational that we make governing nearly impossible. We hate big deficits, but oppose the actual tax increases or spending cuts that we need to dam the flood of the red ink. We are furious that government passed an $800 billion stimulus last year, but feel lawmakers are not doing enough to get the economy going. We want government to “do something” about the gulf oil spill but reject government interference in private business.

And that’s just the beginning. Conservatives cry “states rights” when it comes to the new federal law requiring individuals to have health insurance, but are silent about the parallel federal requirement that insurance companies must sell to all comers. Liberals want to make Social Security benefits more generous, but only as long as they are paid for with higher taxes on the wealthy. Seniors oppose the “government take-over” of health care for those under 65, but will fight to the death to preserve their (government-run) Medicare.

We oppose new spending, but happily support targeted tax subsidies that are economically no different. And governors of both parties demand more federal money to pay their teachers and fund their Medicaid programs, but would rather complain about the accompanying red tape rather than repair their budgets by rationalizing their own hopelessly outdated tax systems.

We are, collectively, four. We want what we want, and we want it now. And we want somebody else to pay for it.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll provides new evidence of our schizophrenia. Fifty-seven percent of respondents oppose the federal government spending more money to boost the economy. But 62 percent want Congress to extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. Go figure...

Not only is this disconnection apparent in terms of governance of the collective, but we each suffer from it in terms of governing ourselves! We claim to want lives of happiness and balance, yet we engage in thoughts and actions that lead us away from the thing we desire most. We say that we want to get away from stress and tension, but the process of consciously trying to accomplish this causes even more stress and tension.

We seem to be in sad shape all around!!