No, I’m not talking about that sitcom with Betty White. The reference is to the 1980 debate between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. By all counts, the Great Deflector won the night at the Music Hall with his famous rhetorical question, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” That was after dodging a bullet from Carter about cutting Medicare with, “There you go again.”
What a dismissive, insulting attitude. I always wonder at the GOP’s continual deification of Reagan. Some questions are just not fair, and that one was akin to “Have you stopped beating your wife?” If you answer in the affirmative, it means that you were indeed beating your wife; and if you take the negative route, well that presumes you still are…then you get stuck trying to prove that you didn’t beat her…or even think about it once or twice.
On 60 Minutes last night, for those not watching football, President Obama seemed to skirt the issue of the persistent drumbeat from the Right to make him a one term President. “…reversing a culture here in Washington dominated by special interests would take more than a year, more than two years, more than one term, probably take more than one president.”
It’s enough to make you squirm, these debates. Reform in Washington? It’s a systemic nightmare. The patient, democracy, is morbidly ill. But I like this Rolling Stone reporter’s take on money and government: http://smirkingchimp.com/author/matt_taibbi
And I like Little Stevie’s latest pledge drive; “I, The Undersigned, pledge to overturn Buckley v. Valeo and eliminate all private finance from the electoral process, thusly restoring America to it’s democratic principles.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-van-zandt/democracy-in-america_b_1139463.html
The Rockers do have a point! Are we better off? Let’s think of a better question.
MountainMornings 