When in Doubt

Just Do the Right Thing

You've just got to wonder what is the deal with some people. Like a majority of the American people I can't fathom why people aren't motivated to just do the right thing. We've got this redistricting thing going on and I just wonder why our legislators can't just do the right thing and draw some compact districts without all those funny loops and goosenecks. That's right, even if it puts their reelection prospects or party advantages at peril. Why can't they just go back to their day job knowing that the will of the people has been spoken? Curious American minds want to know. If self-preservation is the reason then we need someone else up there.

Exactly how much money does a person need? Or even, how much can a person spend even spending lavishly? And yet we have guys on Wall Street pulling down millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars for doing something that no one really understands except that it is more profitable than larceny. But then, it may be larceny. Just not the illegal kind. So, why isn't a nice salary of, say $500,000 satisfactory? Maybe even a $1,000,000. Isn't that enough to put the kids through college and buy a nice house. Maybe even invest some money and put a nice nest egg back for retirement. Just a few decades ago the CEO made maybe 25 or even 50 times what a line worker made. Now it is hundreds of time the wages of a line worker and I seriously doubt they are quite that valuable. What is wrong with just doing the right thing and allowing the middle class worker to make a little more money instead of making more money than it is possible to spend. Of course, what money really buys is power. Power to do good or evil. Power to free mankind or power to enslave. Their choice.

It's election season and we all know what that means. It is a honey pot for broadcast advertising. This year, thanks to the Supreme Court we are going to see exponentially more money spent on advertising, mostly negative. What on earth motivates or justifies the expenditure of such obscene sums to influence the mind and emotions of the voter. The jobs that are being so earnestly bought with these vast sums of money, mainly acquired using the means previously described, do not pay anything close to these sums. So, is it the desire to better the lives of the masses of people the motivator? Is it the desire to influence legislation in order to accumulate more wealth? Or is it just for the intoxication of power itself? What would happen if people ran for office for the right reasons and then, when they were elected, held fast to that design? Hard to even contemplate, isn't it. Sort of like an idealized “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.”

This is not to say that many of us, maybe most, aren't convinced that our exertions are for the side of might and right and good for all the people whether they know it or not. You know, that is OK. People have different ideas and as long as we can sensibly talk about them, take a vote and then accept the results then we have done the right thing. We don't have to agree with it. Sometimes we may think it stinks but we had or chance and the vote did not favor us. There will be another day. It is when we extract comments out of context and use them to create a false impression of an opponent or an issue or when we try to paint the opposition as evil that we do the wrong thing. Let the person or the issue stand on its own merits and be judged by those who are eligible to do the judging. If the argument is false then how can the judgment be true?

You have heard me howl on the FEC v Citizens United Supreme Court case that stated that money is equal to protected free speech. It has opened the floodgates for secret corporate funding of political advertising and it is projected that over a billion dollars will be spent to influence your vote. The right thing to do would be to explain the issues giving each party time to do so and then choose. The wrong thing is to try to influence you emotionally by demonizing the opposition.

The final regulations are being written to implement the Dodd-Frank legislation to regulate the arcane workings of Wall Street. Those big bankers who drove the economy into the ditch while profiting hugely at the expense of the American taxpayer are spending millions lobbying our elected representatives to gut the bill and render it impotent. The right thing is to say, “hey, we screwed up. We went too far and need some regulation to level the playing field.” But no! They are trying to keep the golden goose laying those golden eggs and the American public be damned. That is the wrong thing.

It takes a lot of winnowing and studying to find the true story and there are many who don't want you to find it. They will spend a lot of money because they have sociologists and psychologists who know what pushes your buttons.

This is not a party thing. Everyone is doing it because it works. That is a wrong thing.

My take on the right and wrong things. Do the right thing.