Volume 10, Issue 1
Prior to the Covid pandemic, a major reset in society was underway. Because of technological innovation, workforce realignment reflective of a global economy, and the changing imperative of commercial real estate, everything from banking to corporate structure was in transition.
Covid added the pressures of healthcare management and the general protocol challenges of event cancellation and in-store shopping. The net result was a natural transition that normally would have taken 10 to 20 years that collapsed into 18 months.
The subsequent Covid financial relief packages, implemented as a necessary strategy to bind over the economy and then restart it, has further exacerbated the situation with the disruption of currency equilibrium. Inflation is now a concern for the first time since the early 2000s.
The world now finds itself in year three of the pandemic. The coronavirus has mutated at least twice indicating that it may be with the world forever like the common flu. The Biden administration is faced with the distasteful proposition of designing policy for a new normal wherein the virus has an established ongoing presence. This policy analysis will require the sober determination of coming to the conclusion of what are the acceptable rates of illness.
These material ingredients are the elements of reality.
Political partisans tend to attempt to bend the light of reality towards their perspective through a political prism of their own control. Rather than debate their point of view as compared to reality, they distort the light in an attempt to project their perspective as reality.
Conservatives often default to relying upon self-determination and personal accountability in support of their mantra of less government. They are at times steadfast on this premise without consideration for the circumstances of reality cast upon certain members of society by the natural forces of transformation.
Progressives often default to the premise that all individuals are either victims of the system or abusers of power in support of their mantra of more government. To many on the left, there is no natural order without total government control. Either a person needs services due to no fault of their own, or they must be regulated not to take more than their fair share.
This bending the light to the perspective is amplified in the current impasse in Congress today. Conservatives believe that the price tag for the President’s “Build Back Better” initiative is too expensive, too expansive, and without controllable mechanisms. Progressives believe that cost isn’t even a consideration. In their viewpoint, there is no such thing as too much government.
The situation intensifies when it comes to voting rights. Today, the President delivered a speech in Atlanta, Georgia calling for federalization of voting rights for federal elections (HR1). Bending the light to the perspective now moves into a new strategic stage. HR1 has very little to do with voting rights. Every American has the right to vote, unrestricted. What HR1 imposes is new procedures advantageous for political movements. The objective now is to establish new election rules that allow certain political parties greater ease of election success. More members of Congress elected who are beholden to a political perspective helps, in reverse, the bending of the light.
The Covid pandemic created an environment of once in a lifetime criterion to aid all Americans in voting. This included universal mailout ballots, no requirement for registration, no signature verification for access to a ballot, harvesting of ballots at a post office box, and no requirements of proof of US citizenship to vote. The conditions that required such leniency in voting procedure was a one-time proposition. Requiring registration and US citizenship are critical elements to maintain the integrity of the electoral system.
The real issues of workforce transition, general society protocol for commerce, and currency management for the control of inflation, are the real issues facing the American public.
In the late 1980s, I consulted on a Congressional campaign outside of San Francisco, California. The district was 60% gay. Both the Democratic and Republican nominees were gay. It was one of the most fulfilling academic exercises in which I ever had the privilege to be involved. Both candidates believed that there were limits to what the government could do to provide happiness in your life. Both candidates believed in government accountability and personal responsibility. The difference in the two candidates’ ideologies was basically priorities measured against the reality of the situation. In other words, they agreed on the cause and effect of the circumstances and then debated the priorities of distributing limited government resources. Reality was the basis of comparison of ideological perspectives. I enjoyed that campaign and I looked forward to each of the debates.
Now we find ourselves in a world wherein the reality of the natural forces of transition are skewed. Media participates in this ruse of bending the light to perspective. It’s as if political partisans and national news media are afraid to present reality to the public for fear that they may see through the distortion of their own prism.
The average citizen can detect, handle, and act on truth when presented. It is the lack of confidence of partisans in their own perspective that causes them to bend the light. Truth cannot be changed, altered or destroyed. It must be used as foundational in defining reality.
Only then can policy be debated in structure and priority.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?