America, Incorporated We Stand

Well, the midterm elections are FINALLY over and all we have left to get through is the hot air from the bloviators over the next couple of weeks before it all dies back into SOSO—same old, same old.

Back in 2008 when cable news and its hot air experts were getting hyper about Barack Obama and the return of the once-thought-dead Democrats, I read this interesting column (by Steven Perlstein, I think) in which he pointed out that no matter what party controls Congress, the outcome is pre-ordained so that nothing much happens and nothing changes.

So now we have a Dem President who is better than the media would allow you to think (you do think, don't you?), a media that's busy sucking the American brain into its 24-hour news hole, a Senate that makes glaciers look speedy no matter which party is holding sway, and a House of Representatives that will do its utmost to represent the interests of its corporate clients.

Repeat after me: Same old, same old.

You know, Jon Stewart had an interesting "closing statement" at his rally last Saturday in which he pointed out that outside of D.C. and cable news, we get a lot done by working with one another. His argument, which has been the one I've been making for years, crystallized the idea that we truly are a functioning country with a dysfunctional government.

I have to say that tuning out most of the media was a sanity-saving commitment on my part, one I plan to continue. My community—family, friends, colleagues, associates, clients—is the world in which I orbit and the news from there is what truly counts in my life. I guess it's my version of "Think locally, act locally."

But I will continue to vote (it's how I earn my right to complain) and pay attention to intelligent information about how we're all doing together when and where I can find it.

Now let's return to our own lives and take stock of what we know through our own experience, shall we?